Elie Wiesel's Night

On the Saturday before Pentecost (Shavuot), in the spring sunshine, people strolled, carefree and unheeding, through the swarming streets.

A little Jewish republic...We appointed a Jewish Council, a Jewish police, an office for social assistance, a labor committee, a hygiene department-a whole government machinery.

Everything was
in order, according to the prearranged plan.

I had forgotten about my bad foot
[Note: Wiesel had recently had an infection on the sole of his foot drained].

Elie Wiesel



from Night



Two ghettos were set up in Sighet.

Hundreds of armed SS men rose up out of the darkness,
accompanied by sheepdogs.

Elie Wiesel



from Night



Two ghettos were set up in Sighet.

“And sent to
the crematory in a final batch.�

The death knell.

At four o’clock in the afternoon of the same day, as usual the bell summoned all
the heads of the blocks to go and report.

The day was disappearing in
a monochrome of gray.

“This afternoon I noticed some new faces in the ghetto-two German officers, from the Gestapo, I believe.

He was a good story teller.

They could only just open their lips enough to say the
word: evacuation.

A few people had paid a flying visit to their homes to see that everything was all right.

“All of the invalids will be summarily killed,� said the faceless one.

They will not be evacuated.�

They were quite simply liberated by the Russians two days after the evacuation.

How avid we were at that moment for one word of confidence, one sentence to say that there were no grounds for fear, that the meeting could not have been more commonplace, more routine, that it had only been a question of social welfare, of sanitary arrangements!

The back yard became like the hall outside an operating room.

On the Saturday before Pentecost (Shavuot), in the spring sunshine, people strolled, carefree and unheeding, through the swarming streets.

My father was telling them anecdotes and expounding his own views of the situation.

On the Saturday before Pentecost (Shavuot), in the spring sunshine, people strolled, carefree and unheeding, through the swarming streets.

With some of my schoolmates, I sat in the Ezra Malik gardens, studying a treatise on the Talmud.

On the Saturday before Pentecost (Shavuot), in the spring sunshine, people strolled, carefree and unheeding, through the swarming streets.

Patients will stay in the infirmary.

With some of my schoolmates, I sat in the Ezra Malik gardens, studying a treatise on the Talmud.

We had to wait for the departure of
the fifty-six blocks who came before us.

“Deportation.�

How avid we were at that moment for one word of confidence, one sentence to say that there were no grounds for fear, that the meeting could not have been more commonplace, more routine, that it had only been a question of social welfare, of sanitary arrangements!

We even thought ourselves rather well off; we were entirely self-contained.

“I’ve got a premonition of evil,� said my mother.

“The camp is certain to be mined,� said another.

The death knell.

With some of my schoolmates, I sat in the Ezra Malik gardens, studying a treatise on the Talmud.

But as it was at the corner, the windows facing the outside street had to be blocked up.

The barbed wire which fenced us in did not cause us any real fear.

A large one, in the center of the town, occupied four streets, and another smaller one extended over several small side streets in the outlying district.

A little Jewish republic...We appointed a Jewish Council, a Jewish police, an office for social assistance, a labor committee, a hygiene department-a whole government machinery.

“All of the invalids will be summarily killed,� said the faceless one.

The news had stunned everyone, yet we wanted to drain the bitter draft to the dregs.

The news had stunned everyone, yet we wanted to drain the bitter draft to the dregs.

Were the SS going to leave hundreds of prisoners to
strut about in the hospital blocks, waiting for their liberators?

The searchlights came on.

It snowed relentlessly.

With some of my schoolmates, I sat in the Ezra Malik gardens, studying a treatise on the Talmud.

The barbed wire which fenced us in did not cause us any real fear.

We were only waiting for the door to open - to see the opening of the firmament itself.

With some of my schoolmates, I sat in the Ezra Malik gardens, studying a treatise on the Talmud.

My father was telling them anecdotes and expounding his own views of the situation.

The children played games on the pavements.

“There are rumors going around,� said my father in a broken voice, “that we’re going somewhere in Hungary, to work in the brick factories.