Can a story break you, petrify you, give you hope, and inspire you all at the same time? That is exactly what Elie Wiesel’s ‘Night’ promises. A story so intense that it is painful to even read. A story of such horrors that it was at one point even banned in some schools. But a story that gives you a glimpse into a painful past, and make you ask questions about the present. Written by a man of seemingly endless hope and optimism, despite experiencing what could possibly be the worst mankind has to offer.
Writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel spent time at both, Auschwitz and Buchenwald between March 1944 and April 1945. A period when the Holocaust was at its peak. At just 15 years of age, Wiesel witnessed and experienced atrocities against humanity that we will all agree nobody ever should. Acts that make you wonder, as did Wiesel, “What motivated so many brilliant and committed public servants to invent such horrors?”
Night is his story in his own words of these long and painful 13 months.
What motivated so many brilliant and committed public servants to invent such horrors?
Elie Wiesel
Night
A narration that brings a painful past to life
What grips about Night is not just the story. But Elie Wiesel’s narration. It’s true that we may never fully understand or even claim to understand what Wiesel and countless others like him endured. But this book can certainly make you cringe in pain because of the brilliant job it does of taking you through Wiesel’s personal experience of facing oppression and some of the most cruel acts witnessed in history.
Born and raised in Sighet, Transylvania, like many others in this town, Elie Wiesel came from an orthodox family. And like many others, this family broken as he was taken prisoner at Auschwitz as a 15-year old. Separated by his mother and sister – who faced the worst – on his first day at the camps, Wiesel along with his father was chosen to perform labour as long as they remained ‘fit to work’ before being deported to Buchenwald.
The labour. The constant fear of sadistic doctors. The realisation that his mother and sister were sent to the gas chambers. Helplessly watching his father being beaten by the Kapos to within an inch of his life. Watching his father breath his last. And worse, experiencing a guilty relief at his own father’s death. These were just some of the days of the 13 months Wiesel talks about in ‘Night’. But the objective of ‘Night’ is not a lesson of our past. But a lesson for the future. A lesson that the world needs as desperately today as it need a hundred years ago.
Will the world ever learn?
The fact that Elie Wiesel survived long enough to live as a free man after the concentration camps to be liberated can be attested to his own will power, or some luck, or perhaps a bit of both. But many others were not that lucky. Forced to suffer simply because of who they were, their belief, their faith.
For the first time in recorded history, to be became a crime. Their birth became their death sentence.
Elie Wiesel
Night
It is scary to imagine how a few prejudiced minds were able to convince millions of others of their unquestionable logic. What’s scarier though, is that we still haven’t come too far ahead from where we were 70 years ago. The bias based on a person’s faith, the attacks based on an individual’s origin, all proof that we still haven’t learnt Wiesel and many others like him have tried to tell us for years. While these biased attacks fortunately don’t lead to gas chambers today, but they do manifest as insults, and with the power of social media, show up from behind a wall of anonymity.
Case in point: The vile abuses directed at three young English footballers – Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka – after England lost the final of the Euro 2020. Young players who take great pride in representing their country. Not criticized for a mistake. But abused for who they are. By individuals who are supposed to be their own. And while it was heartening to see an entire community and a country stand up next to the three players, it does bring to the fore, the important question Elie Wiesel asks.
Will the world ever learn?
Night: A story of mankind’s past with lessons for its future
So what can we learn from Elie Wiesel’s story of pain and hope?
- Don’t judge yourself in hard times
Hardships and times of distress can play cruel tricks on your mind, forcing you to make snap judgments about yourself based on where you are. And I guess that’s normal. What we must try to avoid is to make a permanent judgment based on a temporary difficult time. - Difficult times give you a better sense of who you are
Difficulties are something we have all witnessed in our own lives. Certainly, and thankfully not to the extent Wiesel did. And while each of these situations may raise certain questions about ourselves, they also help give you a better sense of yourself. - While you can’t choose your circumstances, you can choose how you react to them
It’s fair to say that Elie Wiesel was the victim of one the worst atrocities mankind has witnessed. As a survivor, it would be very easy for someone in his shoes to live a life of hatred and vengeance. But he instead, chose to live a life committed to making a difference for the better. A life committed to convincing the world to avoid repeating the mistake from the past. Showing that whatever battles you face, the final choice of who you are and how you act, is entirely on you. - There’s no room for neutrality
One of the biggest lessons from Night. Almost a plea from Wiesel. Always take sides. Whether it is an argument in your office, or at a social circle. Take a side. The side that you believe is right. Not because everyone around you says it, but because you believe it. As a victim of the holocaust, Wiesel suffered, among many things, because certain individuals with the voice and power chose to remain neutral.
Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes, we must interfere.
Elie Wiesel
Night
Pick up ‘Night’ today.
Theodore Roosevelt once said, “The more you know about the past. The better you are prepared for the future.” And very few books can exemplify this saying as well as ‘Night’. A story of pain and joy. Of despair and hope. But it’s so much more. It is a book that doesn’t just tell you a story from the past. But rather stresses on what you can do for the future. That tells you how you can react to adversity. Even though it can’t change the past, Night is a book that has the power to change the future. And that makes this one of the books I would label as an absolute must read.
While Night makes us question things about ourselves and about society as a whole., perhaps the most important question is the one Wiesel himself asks to conclude this brilliant book. A question that we will answer in the years to come.
