Resumo de Night - Elie Wiesel

Our story starts in
1941 in the village of Sighet, Hungary, formerly Romania. The central
character is a twelve-year-old boy, Elie Wiesel, who spends much of his time
immersed in books seeking more knowledge about the Jewish faith. His
father, Shlomo Wiesel is a well-respected grocer in the village. Elie is intelligent for
his age and with the help of his instructor Moshe the Beadle, is studying more
complex areas of Judaism. Moshe is captured by Nazis, and along with the
other captors is shot. However, Moshe miraculously escapes and when he
returns to his community no-one believes his horrific story. The Jewish
community is aware that their brethren are being systematically rounded-up and
sent to labor camps in order to help the German war machine. The rumors
that abound concerning death camps are dismissed.

As the war approaches an end in 1944, and the Russian armies
approach Hungary it appears that the Jewish community in Sighet will escape the
round-up. However, the deportation of the Jews does take place and Elie?s
family are on the last convoy to leave the area.

They travel in a cattle car where there is little room to move and
hardly any food and water. They arrive at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex
for processing. When they arrive the air is full of the stench of burning flesh
and the guards herd the Jews using clubs. The men are segregated from the women
and children and then subdivided into workers and non-workers.

Elie?s mother and three sisters are taken to the Birkenau death
camp, whilst Elie and Shlomo, who lied about their ages, join the other hardy
men to work in Auschwitz concentration camp. Elie and Shlomo scratch out
a living and try to remain healthy, as failure to do so would bring instant
death as they would no longer be useful to the S.S.

After three weeks, Elie and his father obtain work in an
electronics warehouse in Buna.

Elie witnesses many atrocities, one involving the guards hanging a
thirteen-year-old child who dies a slow lingering death.

The work in the electronics warehouse is not so physically
demanding and Elie and his father are able to carry out their duties. Elie even
has to undergo some surgery on his foot, but he is still retained for work.

The Russian army is close to liberating the camp, and those
prisoners in the factory are forced to march 42 miles to Gleiwitz. This
march aggravates Elie?s foot operation, and he has to bind it with strips of
blanket. Those inmates who are unable to keep up during the march are
shot where they stand. They receive no food and are forced to live on
mouthfuls of snow. After the march they are taken in cattle cars on a ten-day
journey to Buchenwald in Germany. Out of the hundreds that left Auschwitz only
around ten remain. Elie?s father is close to death, being weakened by dysentery
and malnutrition. He finally succumbs after receiving a vicious beating
from a guard.

Elie, in the depths of despair, becomes delirious. The camp is
liberated by American forces and Elie stares at himself in a mirror and sees a
corpse looking back at him.

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