McDowell 1

Alexis McDowell

Ms. Crowell and Ms. Vitello

Adv. Composition

11 December 2017

Learning the Hardships of Life

The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel showcases from a Jewish teenagers perspective about

his experiences as a prisoner during the Holocaust. In the summer of 1944, the Nazis take Elie

and his family to the concentration camps and his experiences begin here. Students in history

class most likely learn about the Holocaust, but probably never fully understand the suffering

Jewish families faced. Although many parents believe that Night might be a little too detailed for

teenagers in high school, allowing the story to be read in schools can expand the students

horizon on what hardships the Jewish people went through during the Holocaust.

Some believe Night is too violent for their children or students to read. In The Diary of

Anne Frank, which also takes place during World War II, Anne Frank and her family along with

several others go into hiding. The Frank family stayed in hiding for two years and one month. On

Saturday, June 20, 1942, she wrote in her diary, Our freedom was severely restricted by a series

of anti-Jewish decrees: Jew were required to wear a yellow star Jews were forbidden to be out

on the streets between eight p.m. and six a.m. (4). On Tuesday, August 1, 1944, Anne Frank

wrote in her diary for the very last time. This marks the day she and her family were discovered

in the attic by the Nazis. In the book Night, Elie and his family had the opportunity to escape

and leave the country, yet they chose not to. In addition, in contrast to The Diary of Anne Frank,

Elies family also chose not to go into hiding; hence, leading to their capture, and forcefully
 McDowell 2

taken to the ghettos. In Elies memoir, he wrote, The ghettos was ruled by neither German nor

Jew; it was ruled by delusion (12). After the last night spent by Elie and his family in the

ghettos, the Nazis brought them to the concentration camps, which happened to be Auschwitz.

Clearly, Elie does not hold back anything when writing his story because he wants other

people to understand the pain he goes through with his father and childhood friends. Nobody can

understand the pain and suffering Elie and his father go through because the reader will likely

never have to experience the pain first-hand. He describes what the Nazis do as burning babies

and adults, beating people multiple times, and the Nazis having no mercy about whats

happening to these innocent Jews. When Elie won his Nobel Peace Prize, he had to give an

acceptance speech. He states in the speech, Who would allow such crimes to be committed?

How could the world remain so silent? (118). He talks about this with his father and wonders

how people can remain so silent while they hear about what the Nazis cause the Jewish

population. He also asked the audience during his speech, Do I have the right to accept this

great honor on their behalf (118). He asked if he had the right to accept this amazing honor on

their behalf, he does not say his behalf. Thinking about this statement, he does not think he

should accept it on his behalf because he survived this horrible event and thinking about all the

people who did not, including his father, becomes eye opening.

Wiesel wrote a memoir or a piece, not a fiction writing. Some parents believe that they

can hide what goes on in the real world from their children forever. The book Night is

depressing, but life will be full of pain and suffering. Hoping that this event, the Holocaust, never

happens again we should prepare our children and grandchildren for the kind of hardships that

will become present in their lives. In his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, he talks about

human rights and suffering. Elie states, Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women
 McDowell 3

everywhere (119). When stating this, he begins picking out that the world full of humans and

we should help each other. This memoir taught people in some ways that it does not matter

whether they are a year old or a hundred years old that every need to help one other and be

grateful that they have lived another day. Towards the beginning of the book, Elie talks about he

will never forget about his first night in the concentration camps. He says, Never shall I forget

that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.

Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget those

moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes: (34). Elies plan of

how he will never forget, just heart breaking, especially when he starts stating about how his God

had been murdered. A Nobel Peace Prize Winner named Laureate Francois Mauraic finally

broke Elies silence and told him to write about his time during his time in the concentration

camps.

Three days after liberation of Buchenwald, Elie becomes ill off some poisoning and had

to be admitted to a hospital and he spends two weeks between life and death (115). He sees

himself for the first time in one year and he states about himself From the depths of the mirror,

a corpse was contemplating me (115). The way he chooses to phrase the last couple lines of the

book, becomes the most traumatic event after his liberation or even in his life. He says that the

body staring back at him but specifically a corpse that he does not recognize. While looking at

himself in the mirror, he says The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left (115). This

becomes the last line in the book, which particularly very upsetting because the ways he looks at

himself after not seeing himself for a year will become something that Elie will never forget for

as long as he lived.
 McDowell 4

The Holocaust, an actual event, that took place in history and needs to be a lesson for

every person to learn and does not need to be overlook. Night is a very emotional and depressing

story that schools need to show that Jews had it rough during the Holocaust. Night becomes a

brutal but real story that everybody needs to read or at least be mention about in schools.

Reading this story could increase students maturity in many ways and have better studies

towards the world issues. As Elie Wiesel states in his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech,

Thank you, people of Norway, for declaring on this singular occasion that our survival has

meaning for mankind (120).

 McDowell 5

Works Citied

Wiesel, Elie. Night. Translated by Marion Wiesel, Hill and Wang, 2006.

Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Translated by B.M. Mooyaart-Doubleday,

Bantam Books, 1967.