"I have more faith in Hitler than [God]. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people."
— "A faithless neighbor" of Elie Weisel, Night
— "A faithless neighbor" of Elie Weisel, Night
"Work of crematorium—the choice is yours," said the German SS Officer to a freshly shaved and tattooed group inside the gates of Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel, a fifteen year old Hungarian Jew, was among them. He stood with his father. His mother and sister had already been separated with the other women. Later, he would learn that they were given no choice, killed that first day in the gas chambers. "Not far from us, prisoners were at work. Some were digging holes, others were carrying sand. None as much as glanced at us. We were withered trees in the heart of the desert."
Elie Wiesel would survive another 500 days or so in four different concentration camps, until American forces liberated Buchenwald in Weimar, Germany. Until then, "the stomach alone was measuring time," and his endless days were filled with night. To survive he would master a dangerous and dark calculus of making deals, moves, and lies to avoid attention, scrutiny, and punishment—from both Nazis and Jews—and his own determination to endure.
Elie Wiesel would survive another 500 days or so in four different concentration camps, until American forces liberated Buchenwald in Weimar, Germany. Until then, "the stomach alone was measuring time," and his endless days were filled with night. To survive he would master a dangerous and dark calculus of making deals, moves, and lies to avoid attention, scrutiny, and punishment—from both Nazis and Jews—and his own determination to endure.
Night is Wiesel's memoir of his experience in the Holocaust and the author of 56 other books. He died in 2016 at the age of 87 and survived by his wife and translator Marion Wiesel and son Shlomo Elisha Wiesel, named after his father.
Circled in red is Elie Wiesel two days after Americans liberated the Buchenwald in Weimar, Germany. Elie's father had died just four months earlier.
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