Pages 98-115

In this section of Night Eliezer and the rest of the Jews are marching in the harsh cold to Buchenwald. All of the Jews are suffering and dieing because of starvation and the cold, including Eliezer's father, who is now very weak. People start to throw bread and money into the crowd of Jews, and chaos erupts. At this point, all the Jews care about is food. Eventually they make it to Buchenwald, and Eliezer's father seems to be very close to death. When Eliezer's father falls asleep, Eliezer looks for him, but he begins to think that he will be better off without him. He does find him, by accident, and he gives him his food and water to hopefully help him. The other Jews take advantage of Eliezer's father and beat him and steal his food. One day an SS officer comes into the barrack and beats Eliezer's father on head because of his cries for water. When Eliezer wakes up the next morning, he finds that his father has been taken to the crematory. Instead of crying, Eliezer feels relieved.

Eliezer stays in Buchenwald a while longer. Now he only cares about food, since that is the only thing he has left. One day, the Jews are all called out of their barracks by the SS. As Eliezer and the other prisoners begin to leave, some other Jews tell them to go back and warn them that the Germans are planning to shoot them. The next day, the Germans said that the camp would be liquidated. The Jews are taken out of the camp in groups and never return. When Eliezers group is about to be taken out, an air raid occurs followed by an attack from the resistance. The Jews are liberated. Eliezer ends up in a hospital from food poisoning, and when he looks in a mirror, he only sees a corpse.

"The resistance movement decided at that point to act. Armed men appeared from everywhere. Bursts of gunshots. Grenades exploding. We, the children, remained flat on the floor of the block. The battle did not last long. Around noon, everything was calm again. The SS had fled and the resistance had taken charge of the camp."

Pages 85-97

In this section of Night the Jews are marching away from their concentration camp to another location. Everyone is exhausted, and they are forced to run the entire way, or they will be shot. Eliezer sees many people who die during the march, and the only reason that he does'nt give up is because of his father. The Jews run for over twenty kilometers before they reach an abandoned village and are allowed to stop and rest. Eliezer and his father go into an abandoned brick factory and rest while keeping eah other awake. Inside the facory, Eliezer sees Rabbi Eliahu, who is looking for his son. Eliezer says that he does not know where he is, but then he remembers that his son abandoned his father and ran ahead thinking that his father would not survive. But, he does not tell tell this to the Rabbi. Later on, they are once again forced to march, and eventually they arrive at Gleiwitz. Here, Eliezer sees Juliek, who he met before. Juliek is only concerned about his violin, and when he finds it, he starts playing it for a while. When Eliezer wakes up, Juliek is dead next to his violin. They stayed in Gleiwitz for three days until they were once again forced to march out of the camp. A selection is made for those fit enough to walk, and Eliezer's father does'nt pass. Eliezer runs to get his dad, and causes much confusion. Because of this, he and his father, along with many others, are able to sneek into the right line.

"We were no longer marching, we were running. Like automatons. The SS were running as well, weapons in hand. We looked as though we were running from them. The night was pitch-black. From time to time, a shot exploded in the darkness. They had orders to shoot anyone who could not sustain the pace. Their fingers on the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of the pleasure. If one of us stopped for a second, a quick shot eliminated the filthy dog."

I think that this section shows the climax of the cruelty that was inflicted on the Jews by the Nazi's. The Jews have been tortured so much that most of them do not care if they die, and some even invite death to come. The march to Gleiwitz seemed to be the ultimate test of the will to survive for the Jews, after all that they have been through before it.

Pages 66-84

In pages 66-84, a new year has begun and Rosh Hashanah is celebrated along with Yom Kippur a little while later. The Jews in the concentration camp come together to celebrate this in spite of their hardships. These holidays are meant to be a time of praying, and the prisoners do just that. Eliezer, however, still cannot see why everyone is praying because of what has happen. He ends up turning away from God completely. When Eliezer finds his father, he only sees despair. To top his religious rebellion, Eliezer eats on the day that is meant for fasting for the Jews.

After the Jewish New Year, Eliezer is separated from his father due to another selection and he is now working in a building unit. Eliezer finds out that his father did not pass the selection that took place, and he and his father both know that he will be executed. However, another selction takes place and his father miraculously makes it through. At this point in the story many people are beginning to lose their faith and are not surviving the selection, including Akiba Drumer. When winter arrives a while later, the prisoners begin to suffer from the cold and Eliezer needs an operation on his foot. While he is in the hospital, he learns that the Russians are getting close to them. The Germans then decide to evacuate the prisoners from the camp.

I think that it is probably understandable for Eliezer to lose his faith after all that he has been through and seen. In the midst of all that suffering, the faith of the Jews would probably be dramatically increased or decreased, depending on the person. I imagine Eliezer got new hope when his father survived the selection, and it would be those things that would help you through the suffering. When winter came and the Jews were very close to being saved but were evacuated, the faith of many Jews was most likely lost.

Pages 47-65

In section four of Night, Eliezer and his father are chosen by a Kapo to work in a warehouse counting electrical fittings after they completed their medical exams. This is an easy job compared to other jobs. Soon after they start working, Eliezer has to have his gold tooth removed, but he is able to keep it after he delays and the dentist is sent away to be hanged. The Kapo in charge of Eliezer's work crew is Idek, who will randomly become very violent. One day, he beats up Eliezer for no reason. Then, a French woman next to Eliezer gives him comfort and kindness, and he later sees her in Paris after the war. Then, soon after Eliezer is beaten, his father is also beaten from Idek, but Eliezer becomes angry at his father instead of Idek. Later on, Franek, the prison foreman, demands to have Eliezer's gold tooth and beats Eliezer's father until he gives it to him. Eliezer also gets beaten by Idek once again when he sees Idek with a girl. Later in the section, an air raid on Buna occurs. During this, a man is shot when he tries to drink some soup out of two couldrons that were filled with it. A week later, the Nazi's install a gallows in the camp, and all of the inmates are forced to watch their friends being hanged. During the hanging of a young boy, someone says "For God's sake, where is God?" and Eliezer thinks "Where He is? This is where- hanging here from this gallows..."

In pages 47-65, Eliezer and his father really find out what people think of them and what the concentration camps have turned themsleves and the Jews into. They are constantly beaten, and they have to watch others being tortured and killed. Eliezer now thinks that bread and soup are the most important things in his life, he no longer looks at his father the same, and he continues to think unfondly of God.

I think that this section of the story shows how the Jews no longer help or care about one another, and all they care about is bread and soup. They seem to be brainwashed from their horrible conditions, even to a point where they don't care about life or death. This shows how the Jews really lived their lives during the worst times in the concentration camps, and I think that this truly explains how horrible the Jews lives had become.

Pages 29-46

In pages 29-46 of Night, Eliezer and his father go into the concentration camp where they soon come close to being burned alive. Eliezer's mother and sister have already been separarted from them when they had to go to a different line in the selections. Before Eliezer and his father get into their selection line, an inmate tells them what age they should tell the guards they are. The line takes them closer and closer to the ovens, where they see many people being burned. But, they are soon separated and they travel to many different concentration camps living in the barracks.

This section of the story really shows what it was like to live in a concentration camp. It gives many details on how the Jews lived in the concentration camps and the hardships they faced. This section also shows how the circumstances for the inmates were constantly changing, as well as their luck and their chances of survival.

Eliezer and his father seemed to be trying to take their lives at the concentration camps one step at a time. Eliezer's main goal was to stay with his father no matter what happened, even when it looked like they were about to go into the ovens. Eliezer also changes dramatically when he is in the concentration camps. His whole state of mind is changed, and he does not think of God very fondly. "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."

Pages 23-28

In section two of the story, Eliezer along with his family and the rest of the Jews in his group that have been deported are now on a train that is heading for a labor camp. They are in terrible conditions on the train- there is a lack of room, fresh air, water, food, and an unbearable heat. A lady named Madame Schachter soon goes crazy aboard the train and keeps saying, "Look at the fire! Look at the flames! Over there!" But there are no flames, and the people soon think that she is crazy just like Moshe the Beadle. However, when they arrive at their labor camp, they see flames in the distance, and they smell burning flesh.

When the group of Jews first see and smell the burning bodies, they change their minds about what Moshe the Beadle and Madame Schachter were saying. The minds of the jews must now be filled with horror. They now know how much of a threat the Nazi's are to them, and they are probably more scared than ever before. "In front of us, thise flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau."

These last lines from this section are very powerful lines that alone give me a sense of how terrified the Jews must have been feeling. Elie Wiesel expertly uses horrific lines like these to show what the situation of the Jews was like, how terrible the Nazi's were, and how terrified the Jews were. They also give me an idea of how horrified people must feel today that have to put up with this secret torture that could be happening to people in their countries.

Pages 3-22

In the beginning of the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, life is normal for the people in Sighet, Transylvania. Eliezer, the narrator and main character, continues his studies with his Orthodox Jewish family. He has three sisters, and his mother and father are shopkeepers, his father being highly respected in the Jewish community. The town has high spirits for the war because of information that said how there was going to be more allied offensives in the near future. Everyone knew that the end of the war would be over very soon, and they would be safe. However, they were wrong. The Hungarians expel all of the foreign Jews in the town, including Moshe the Beadle, Eliezer's teacher. But, he escapes his attempted murder by the Gestapo and comes back to the town to warn everybody. Nobody believes him, and in 1944 the Nazi's invaded the town and began to increasingly oppress the Jews. Eventually, the Nazi's begin to deport the Jews in groups.

From the very beginning of this book, it is very easy to tell that something is going to go wrong for the town of Sighet. From their relaxed nature about their danger and the war, they put theirselves at a serious risk which eventually becomes a reality. But even when the Germans do come into the town, the Jews become accustomed to their presence and do not mind it. That is, until the Nazi's begin to deport the Jews. Their attitude changes from comfort to fear of the situation that they are put in, and their once somewhat distant thoughts of danger have becaome a reality.

'"The time has come...you must leave all this..." The Hungarian police used their rifle butts, their clubs to indiscriminately strike old men and women, children and cripples. One by one, the houses emptied and the streets filled with people 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.'

In this first section of Night, the surprise and horror that were brought to the Jews from the Germans is very evident. They went from living their normal lives with optimistic thoughts about the war to being taken by the Nazi's. It truly became a struggle to survive for the Jewish citizens. They had to fight for everything that was important to them, including food, water, freedom, religion, and most importantly, their lives. Just like life, they had no idea what was going to happen until something actually did happen.