Summery of the Novel

“Night” is a memoir narrated by the witness of holocaust, Elie Wiesel. At the beginning of the book, he is just a Jewish teenager who lives peacefully in Sighet, Transylvania, with his parents and three sisters. At the beginning of 1942, German troops enter Sighet, and force the Jews to live in ghettoes. In 1943, Eliezer and his family are sent to Auschwitz, where he is separated from his mother and sisters, whom he will never see again. Along with his father, Eliezer experiences all the cruelties of a concentration camp, and starts questioning the faith in God. He is disgusted by the selfishness which involves the rapture of the familial bonds, which he also confronts with soon after. However, his relationship towards his father demonstrates that his love and solidarity are stronger forces of survival than his instinct for self-preservation. In 1945, Eliezer’s father dies of dysentery. Eliezer survives, and is liberated by the American troops on April 11. In this memoir, Wiesel emphasizes the major theme of his work- the importance of preserving the memory of the past.