Alexis Johnson

12/27/16
3rd
Essay #4 Research paper

Elie Wiesel's book Night talks about one of the most tragic

experiences in history as he tells his story of what he witnessed while being

held captive in concentration camps. Before Elie even got the chance to

experience the best part of most people's lives ( his teen years) everything

he knew about happiness fades to exist. Elie says i survived by accident, i

wouldn't say a miracle because i don't believe in that. He is not a proud

survivor but only a person that can say they survived. Elie and his family

received great suffering as they were imprisoned and sentenced to death for

the simple reason that they were Jews. Adolf Hitler accused the Jews of

being the reason behind Germanys lost of World War 1, the reason the

great depression happened. But really he just had hatred for Jews for what

reason we will never find out but all we know is that his goal was to wipe out

their entire race. He almost succeeded with this goal when he killed Elies

family and millions of others. No One can possible imagine what life in the

concentration camps where like or how the jews were treated, you had to be

there. This impacts society in a paramount way, to think that a human being

could do this cruel and unusual punishment to other humans and treat them

in such ways to make them think they were inhuman and that they

deserved it. Most people cant believe or imagine what happened to Elie and

the rest of the Jews, they wouldn't want to know in Elies perspective of
writing it was like hell. Night, a memoir describing the horrors of the

holocaust that cant even be imagined during the second World War impacts

society in a major way symbolizing its importance of what hatred and fear is

capable of doing to a whole race when driven to the extreme and know one

tries to cease it but only influences it and goes along with it because they

are persuaded that it's the best for everyone.

Around fall of 1939 Nazis choose approximately seventy thousand

germans that were institutionalised for mental illness or disabilities to be

gassed. This was called the Euthanasia program. Religious Germans felt this

was wrong because of their beliefs and demand Hitler put a stop to it. He

ended the program around August 1941 for the sake of their complaining,

but secretly continued the program. Almost three hundred thousand

handicapped from Europe were killed and to most people this was a trial run

for the holocaust. In the Springtime around 1940 Germanys army

conquered and took control of six countrys expanding Hitlers empire and

furthermore his power. They first started off by taking away all jewish owned

property by torching it then they took clients from jewish doctors dentist

and lawyers. Then they branded all the Jews with stars and this made them

open targets because now they aren't able to hide and everyone knows that

they are jews including the people that want to harm them and they have

no security to help. After this Hitler started taking Jews out of ghettos and

taking them to concentration camps to put them to work and when they

couldn't work to death.

 I believe this book is targeted for grown men and women aged around

twenty to fifty years old. For people who have hatred for people of certain

race or gender or anything that makes a human unique. Mostly anyone who

is old enough to grasp the concept of Adolfs hatred of Jews and learn from

his mistakes so that a huge impact like this on the world doesn't happen

again. In his interview Elie says to be free is important, but to help others

be free is more important. When he says this to me hes implying to help

someone be free of hatred. You dont want to leave people alone to deal

with it him or herself and let it build up in them . They need to be shown

love and they need to be taught the difference of fearing someone for being

different and that its okay to be different. We are all humans at the end of

the day and no race or person or group of people should come together to

devise a way to clear out anyone.

When Night was first published most people either didn't know what

the holocaust was or they didn't believe it was true. Almost about 1 in 3

adults and half of high school schools knew nothing about the holocaust.

When asked at random pick most said holocaust (long pause), what is that

or i don't know what that is. This was the sad reality of back then because

nobody expected for this horrific moment in history to ever happen. No one

had information that they could access online or through online blogs or

texting each other on their cells. They had to read it in the newspaper and

lets be honest most teenagers don't read unless they're forced to.
 Responses to the holocaust overtime increased as more and more

people wanted to be educated about the horrors that happened to the Jews.

And also more survivors were inspired to come out with their stories after

Elie wrote his. And overtime more information was being shown to the

media and the media was being brung up and a lot of people were able to

access information over the information.

Nowadays mostly newer generations know a lot about the holocaust

because of the access over the internet. And because they teach the history

of the holocaust in a lot of school districts. They even put books that have to

deal with the holocaust like Night as a reference to a book you can read to

write essay about on the AP test. Personal responses for this terrifying

moment in history will generally stay the same throughout generations

because it was a dreadful experience for the Jews that no one would ever

wish to happen again. All we can do is become more educated about what

happen and educate others and help others who fear people for being

different so that their hatred isn't driving as Adolfs was.

However, having survived, I needed to give some meaning to my

survival . a moral obligation to try to prevent the enemy from enjoying

one last victory by allowing his crimes to be erased from human memory

(Wiesel 8). Wiesel felt that it was his civic duty to inform people of these

crimes commited to not only him but millions of other Jews. Not just by

simply stating what happened but telling in depth gruesome detail how the

Nazis wanted the Jews to not further exist. This affected Jews drastically
because after seeing little children being thrown into fire , thousands of

dead corpse laying on the ground or next to you while u sleep , would you

be okay? Elie tells Oprah on his interview that something died inside all of

them, that when somebody else died they didn't die alone. (Oprah

interviews Elie Wiesel about his memoir NIGHT). After witnessing the horrors

of the holocaust Elie will never be the same and after reading about what

happened to him, the brutal torture him and the others went through you

shouldn't be the same either. You should feel his pain, his suffering you

should want to know more information, we need to educate ourselves the

more we know the more we can be aware and the more we are able to

prevent from happening again.

This book relates to other literature because it influence other

survivors to write their story on the holocaust. It not only informs but brings

out the emotion in every person who reads it whether that be anger of

injustice or tears of sorrow. It even makes us respond to how we are as a

person, maybe even question some human nature. Elie teaches us to

forgive but not to forget for the simple fact that if he was able to then we

should to. We never want a repeat of the holocaust to happen.

We need to be able to love each other and that is really the main goal

of this book to teach us to love and forgiveness because if we don't we are

only making the hatred grow. Jews witnessed inhumane cruelty from the

nazis because of hatred, yet they still forgave and love. One more stab to

the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live ( Wiesel 101).
Night takes the worse holocaust experiences and puts them into words as

this is a difficult task to attain. As humans knowledge expands more and

more each day most still don't grasp the fact that the main goal of

happiness is peace for all.WE don't put this as our main priorities on

improving humanity. This is the one goal for the entire world that in so

many years that have passed and so many trial and errors and atrocious

experiences with more than one race we have not overcome and most

doubt we ever will. In every tragic story the message is all the same

everyone needs.

Night has an gargantuan effect on the youth for many reasons. Kids

around Elies age can not relate to what he witness but it can make them

proud for what they have. Make them feel grateful for what they don't have

to go through. They can compare the Nazis to bullies now a days and learn

from when Elie said that we have to have love for people who hate us.

Elie went from being a scared little boy held by his will in

concentration camps to being a grown man free and loving and have a

normal life again. He was able to start a family and to go from seeing

death of children to seeing smiling children playing out in the street. He

wasn't driven mad or made miserable for the rest of his life, of course there

are some things he can't replace or things he misses terrible that he can

never get back. But overall he still enjoyed the moments toward the end of

his life. He saw death of Jews in the concentration camps and that killed

something inside him but on the other hand when he was able to the
happiness in others that brought happiness to him and made him enjoy

life( gave him a reason to). This story may have been taken place in the day

but it was definitely a story about darkness in the night that know one who

experienced it or read about Elies experience will be able to forget.