Night

How he viewed his father and his view on religion

1 BCE

My father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely
displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more
involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin.

Eliezer's was passionate for religion and god

2

I told him how unhappy I was not to be able to
find in Sighet a master to teach me the Zohar, the Kabbalistic
works, the secrets of Jewish mysticism.

Lost belief in Moishe

3

"You cannot understand. I was saved miraculously. I succeeded in coming back. Where did I get my strength? I wanted to return to Sighet to describe to you my death so that you might ready yourselves while there is still time. Life? I no longer care to live. I am alone. But I wanted to come back to warn you. Only no one is listening to me..."

Growing worry alongside the Germans invasion

4

In those days it was still possible to buy emigration certificates to Palestine. I had asked my father to sell everything, to liquidate
everything, and to leave. and The next day brought really disquieting news: German troops
had penetrated Hungarian territory with the government's approval.

Confusion along the german takeover

5

First edict: Jews were prohibited from leaving their residences
for three days, under penalty of death. Second: a Jew was henceforth forbidden to own gold, jewelry, or any valuables. Everything had to be handed over to the
authorities, under penalty of death. My father went down to the
cellar and buried our savings. Three days later, a new decree: every Jew had to wear the yel-
low star.

Newfound hope and appreciation

6

People thought this was a good thing. We would no longer
have to look at all those hostile faces, endure those hate-filled
stares. No more fear. No more anguish. We would live among
Jews, among brothers...

A pound of reality after father being summoned to a special meeting

7

"The news is terrible," he said at last. And then one word:
"Transports."
The ghetto was to be liquidated entirely. Departures were to
take place street by street, starting the next day.

Lots of worry and agitation and a drain of hope

8

One by one, the houses emptied and the streets filled with peo-
ple carrying bundles. By ten o'clock, everyone was outside. The
police were taking roll calls, once, twice, twenty times. The heat
was oppressive. Sweat streamed from people's faces and bodies.
Children were crying for water. Water! There was water close by

Watching his father cry and realizing that this could be an end

9

"My father was crying. It was the first time I saw him cry. I had never thought it was possible."

First feel of hatred towards the Germans

10

"Faster! Faster! Move, you lazy good-for-nothings!" the Hun-
garian police were screaming. That was when I began to hate them, and my hatred remains
our only link today. They were our first oppressors. They were
the first faces of hell and death.

A sense of unity as the whole family decides to stay together rather that leave with the maid

11

The ghetto was not guarded. One could enter and leave as one
pleased. Maria, our former maid, came to see us. Sobbing, she
begged us to come with her to her village where she had prepared
a safe shelter.
My father wouldn't hear of it. He told me and my big
sisters, "If you wish, go there. I shall stay here with your mother
and the little one...
Naturally, we refused to be separated.

Agitation but more helplessness as they await their final transport

12

There was nothing else to do but to go to bed, in the beds of
those who had moved on. We needed to rest, to gather our
strength.

Realization and fear of the German officer's brutality

13

"There are eighty of you in the car," the German officer
added. "If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs."

Deportees go crazy, while sane ones struggle not to

14

"Fire! I see a fire!" Her little boy was crying, clinging to her skirt, trying to hold her hand: "It's nothing, Mother! There's nothing there... Please sit down." It took us a long time to recover from this harsh awakening.
We were still trembling, and with every screech of the wheels, we
felt the abyss opening beneath us. Unable to still our anguish,
we tried to reassure each other:

They arrive at the camp, and he is forever separated from his mom and sister

15

“Men to the left! Women to the right!” Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words.Yet that was the moment when I left my mother. There was no time to think, and I already felt my father's hand press against mine: we were alone.

Immense fear of death

16

"Father," I said. "If that is true, then I don't want to wait. I'll
run into the electrified barbed wire. That would be easier than a
slow death in the flames."
He didn't answer. He was weeping. His body was shaking.
Everybody around us was weeping. Someone began to recite
Kaddish, the prayer for the dead.

A long time of turmoil and treacherous work

17

You are in Auschwitz. And Auschwitz is
not a convalescent home. It is a concentration camp. Here, you
must work. If you don't you will go straight to the chimney. To
the crematorium. Work or crematorium—the choice is yours."

Father is beaten but he is only able to watch, frozen and in terror

18

I stood petrified. What had happened to me? My father had
just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had
watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my
nails into this criminal's flesh. Had I changed that much? So fast?
Remorse began to gnaw at me. All I could think was: I shall never
forgive them for this.

Ellie is angry with god

19

"I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?”

More anger at god

20

"Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come. As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute Justice.”

Perspective of someone yearning to survive

21

“At that moment in time, all that mattered to me was my daily bowl of soup, my crust of stale bread. The bread, the soup- those were my entire life. I was nothing but a body. Perhaps even less: a famished stomach. The stomach alone was measuring time”

Even more fury with god as the situation worsens

22

“What are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe, in the face of all this cowardice, this decay, and this misery? Why do you go on troubling these poor people/s wounded minds, their ailing bodies?"

Father is defeated

23

“We came back from very far away. I looked up at my fathers face, trying to glimpse a simple or something like it on his stricken face. But there was nothing. Not the shadow of an expression. Defeat.”

Survivalist point of view upon seeing other sons give up their fathers

24

“What if he had wanted to be rid of his father? He had felt his father growing weaker and believing that the end was near, had thought by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival.

Resilience, in keeping his morality for his father and his friends, and also surviving

26

“I shall never know. All I can say is that I prevailed {against death}. I succeeded in digging a hole in that wall of dead and dying people, a small hole through which I could drink a little air.”

Father falls sick

27

SUFFERING FROM DYSENTERY, my father was prostrate on his cot,
with another five sick inmates nearby. I sat next to him, watching
him; I no longer dared to believe that he could still elude Death.
I did all I could to give him hope.

Ellie learns how everyone else survives here : Being selfish

28

“Listen to me kid. Don’t forget that you are in a concentration camp. In this place,it is every man for himself, and you cannot think of others. Not even your father. In this place, there is no such thing as father, brother, friend. Each of us lives and dies alone."

Guilt in thinking of his father as a burden

29

It was only a fraction of a second, but it left me feeling guilty.
I ran to get some soup and brought it to my father. But he did not
want it. All he wanted was water.

Father dies, and Ellie is too empty to weep

30

I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I
was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the
recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something
like: Free at last!...

Freedom

31

One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself
in the mirror on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the
ghetto.
From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating
me.
The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.