Loss of innocence

 Loss of Innocence
Cameron Egan

Night by Elie Wiesel

    From an enjoyable life to complete terror; the life of a young teenage Jew Elie Wiesel during World War II. Elie had been living a relatively normal life in Sighet, Transylvania with his mother, father, and sister up until the war. Things began to change as the discrimination of Jews began with the expulsion of all foreign Jews in Sighet. A man named Moshe the Beadle was one of these Jews that were taken away by the German Gestapo, but he was able to escape and to come back to Sighet to warn all other Jews of the extermination of his foreign Jewish comrades and that all those in Sighet could be next. Elie tried to believe the warnings, but his belief was changed at the hands of the Jewish adults that claimed Moshe was crazy and couldn't be believed. Moshe warned them of what was coming, and little did they all know Moshe the Beadle was speaking of the truth; in 1944 German military cars containing soldiers and officers arrived in the Jewish neighborhoods of Sighet and changed everyone's lives for the worst.

        Elie was forced to leave his normalcy in Sighet, and had to do what ever it took to beat the odds and make in through the German concentration camp of Auschwitz. He could not just keep pushing through for himself, he had to do it for his mother, sister, and father because with out them he was nothing. His father would set this example for him as they struggled through the custody of the concentration camp.

     Overall this book contains a great story. Night contains themes of resilience and portrays Elie's loss on innocence as he had to react to the tragic situation around him. As someone who is very interested in WWII, I find it very intriguing to read about a different part of the war in the perspective of a victim of the holocaust.

     The day Elie and his fellow Jewish people of Sighet were forced into train cars by the Gestapo was the day that all freedom was lost by these Jewish individuals. "...The cars were sealed...If anyone escaped, he would be shot."(20). After arriving at Auschwitz and already having seen so much, Elie though to himself "Never shall iforget that night... the little faces of the children... those flames which consumed my faith forever."(32).  Elie was no longer a young teenage boy in sighet living happily with his family. Elie's innocence was gone in a blink of an eye because of Adolf Hitler's hatred for jews. Elie could no longer enjoy his young life because he  and his family became prisoners of the Nazi Regime. Elie and his father could only continue to survive by the thoughts that Elie's mother and sister were still alive as well in another part of Auschwitz. "Your mother is still a young woman... She must be in a labor camp. And Tzipora's a big girl now, isn't she? She must be in a camp too."(43). These thoughts of Elie's mother and sister continued to motivate him and his father through the toughest of times, even if they didn't really believe whether or not those thoughts were really true.

     What makes this story so compelling is the way Elie is so resilient even after his quick loss of innocence. Even though he had his entire life ripped away from him, he still continues to work and survive without too much complaint. Hope keeps Elie and his father moving. Although this is not a war novel involving the front line battle aspects of World War II, it does bring a whole different point of view of the war. I would recommend this book to fans of the movie Defiance and other fans interested in reading about WWII or the Holocaust in the perspective of a victim. This book is more of a quick read, so if you are looking for a more developed and detailed story, then this book may not be for you.