Night is incredibly personal, so much so that its language only gives the reader so much access to a time in Wiesel’s life that anyone would want to forget, but which he knew was too important to keep in his past. Wiesel spends its brief 100 pages depicting the lead up to the ghettos, trains, and camps, the loss of his family members, including his mother and sister, and then later his father as well, his suffering (and the suffering he observed) and finally his liberation. Wiesel has spoken about Night as his account of what happened in the concentration camps, one that is set back only slightly from reality through the creation of Eliezer and a few changes of events and circumstances. Unlike some novels that are written at a distance, Night is tied up with the author’s life in an intimate, unignorable way. Antagonist: The SS soldiers and broader anti-Jewish laws and sentiment.Climax: the death of Eliezer’s father, Shlomo.When/where written: 1955-1958, South America and France.
The novel is an important historical memoir published in 1960. It was not until the trial and execution of Adolf Eichman in 1961, a year after the novel was finally published, that it came fully into the public spotlight.