Plot+Summary


 * Plot Summary of "Night"**

Elie Wiesel's book, "Night", takes place during the second world war and starts out in the Jewish community of Sighet, Transylvania. Eliezer, the protagonist, is the narrator of the story. He resides in the town of Sighet with his parents and three sisters. In the beginning, the Jews in Elie's community do not believe that the German army's greatest goal is to exterminate them. However, when the Nazis show up in their all Jewish town and create ghettos, the idea that they are in grave danger becomes apparent to the Jews. After several weeks of waiting and wondering what might happen next, they are eventually deported by train, to Auschwitz concentration camp. On the journey, the Jews are treated no better than animals. The Jewish people finally arrive at Birkenau in Poland. The air smells of burning flesh and there is terror in the air. Everywhere there is havoc; dead babies are thrown into pits and humans are being burnt. The Jews are divided into well organized lines. Elie is separated from his mother and sisters and he realizes now how important it is to stick with his father. Elie and his father along with many other Jewish men are stripped of their clothes, shaved, showered and marched to Auschwitz concentration camp. For the next few years, Elie and his father work in Auschwitz. Their time spent here is a mere and pitiful existence, where they are dehumanized. However, through everything they always stick together and have faith in their god. Hitler’s advisors make it their duty to evoke pain and fear among all Jews with their brutal, harsh ways. If any person of the Jewish race poses a threat to the strict Nazis system they are punished without forgiveness. Elie witnesses many beatings and some hangings. He is even punished himself. All in all, the Jewish people are undernourished, exhausted and haunted. Elie and his father manage to pass the selection process, where the unfit are condemned to the crematory. Elie suffers from a foot injury that places him in a hospital. After the surgery, the Nazis decide to relocate the prisoners because of the advancement of the Russian army. The prisoners begin a long, brutal trek in the cold. Many die along the way. Elie and his father support each other through the grueling march. By the end of the winter trek to Buchenwald, out of a hundred prisoners, only a dozen survive, including Elie and his father. Although Elie's father survives the trip, he becomes sick. Elie witnesses the deterioration of his father and his eventual death. At Buchenweld, the Germans try in desperation to exterminate all the remaining Jews. Before the Germans can carry out Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jewish race, there is a successful uprising in the camp by the American army. Finally the Jews and freed and the Nazis are defeated. As Elie recuperates in a hospital, he looks into a mirror and sees a corpse gaze back at him.