Silence In Eliezer Wiesel's Night

Six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. The Jews were persecuted, tortured and slaughtered in concentration camps. Night by Eliezer Wiesel illustrates his struggles as he is faced with silences in its most profound and tragic form. This stunning memoir provides a conceptual overview of four types of silence Eliezer experiences throughout his journey. These specific types of silence include; from the world, within Eliezer himself, the Jewish people and from God. Eliezer Wiesel’s eye-opening memoir shares his experiences during the Holocaust and provides the reader a real life picture of the hardship endured by the Jews. Wiesel’s memoir vehemently aims at never letting people forget what happened in the Holocaust and to fight

With his dignity deprived, he no longer had the will to live. One dark, formidable night he muttered “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.” (Eliezer Wiesel, 34) During that time while he struggled, his voice vanished and he eventually became dehumanized. As Ellen S. Fine remarked in her essay; The

Theme of Night “Darkness enveloped him and penetrated within; his spirit is shrouded, his God eclipsed, the blackness eternal.” In the midst of all his agony, Eliezer’s faith and communication with God no longer ceased to exist. Consequently, he no longer fasted on Yom Kipper, in stating,

“I no longer accepted Gods silence.” (Eliezer Wiesel, 69) A man who was once willing to dedicate his life to God no longer had faith. As the question remained how can God allow such horror and cruelty to occur? The concentration camps took everything from Eliezer, his will to live, his faith, his heart. He became empty, rotting from the inside out with no longer the desire to live. Only a corpse remained.

Throughout all the chaos that ensued, the one distinction that hindered the Jewish people from freedom was their inexplicable silence and dignity. In desperation to escape and