Night (The Night Trilogy)
The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion.
Page: 12, Location: 360-361
The story he had interrupted would remain unfinished.
Page: 12, Location: 367-368
The shadows around me roused themselves as if from a deep sleep and left silently in every direction.
Page: 14, Location: 388-389
By eight o’clock in the morning, weariness had settled into our veins, our limbs, our brains, like molten lead.
Page: 16, Location: 411-411
There was joy, yes, joy. People must have thought there could be no greater torment in God’s hell than that of being stranded here, on the sidewalk, among the bundles, in the middle of the street under a blazing sun.
Page: 16, Location: 422-424
They passed me by, one after the other, my teachers, my friends, the others, some of whom I had once feared, some of whom I had found ridiculous, all those whose lives I had shared for years. There
Page: 17, Location: 429-430
The street resembled fairgrounds deserted in haste. There was a little of everything: suitcases, briefcases, bags, knives, dishes, banknotes, papers, faded portraits. All the things one planned to take along and finally left behind. They had ceased to matter.
Page: 17, Location: 433-435
Monday went by like a small summer cloud, like a dream in the first hours of dawn.
Page: 18, Location: 444-444
We remained sitting in the middle of the street, like the others two days earlier. The same hellish sun. The same thirst. Only there was no one left to bring us water. I
Page: 19, Location: 452-453
That was when I began to hate them, and my hatred remains our only link today. They were our first oppressors. They were the first faces of hell and death.
Page: 19, Location: 462-463
The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us.
Page: 21, Location: 479-479
Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes.
Page: 21, Location: 479-480
Freed of normal constraints, some of the young let go of their inhibitions and, under cover of darkness, caressed one another, without any thought of others, alone in the world. The others pretended not to notice.
Page: 23, Location: 506-508
In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau.
Page: 28, Location: 577-578
THE BELOVED OBJECTS that we had carried with us from place to place were now left behind in the wagon and, with them, finally, our illusions.
Page: 29, Location: 578-579
True. We didn’t know. Nobody had told us. He couldn’t believe his ears. His tone became even harsher:
Page: 30, Location: 600-601
How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?
Page: 32, Location: 627-628
For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose
Page: 33, Location: 640-641
For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?
Page: 33, Location: 640-641
The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded—and devoured—by a black flame.
Page: 37, Location: 689-691
I thanked God, in an improvised prayer, for having created mud in His infinite and wondrous universe.
Page: 38, Location: 705-706
A tall man, in his thirties, crime written all over his forehead and his gaze. He looked at us as one would a pack of leprous dogs clinging to life.
Page: 38, Location: 709-710
What irony. Was there here a single place where one was not in danger of death?
Page: 40, Location: 731-732
“A transport just arrived from Antwerp. I shall go to see them tomorrow. Surely they will have news …” He left. We never saw him again. He had been given the news. The real news.
Page: 45, Location: 795-797
I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.
Page: 45, Location: 800-800
He liked my shoes; I would not let him have them. Later, they were taken from me anyway. In exchange for nothing, that time.
Page: 48, Location: 834-836
I remember that on that evening, the soup tasted better than ever …
Page: 63, Location: 1036-1037
“Where He is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows …” That night, the soup tasted of corpses.
Page: 65, Location: 1066-1067
But now, I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long. In the midst of these men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger.
Page: 68, Location: 1094-1097
That was a piece of advice we would have loved to be able to follow.
Page: 71, Location: 1135-1136
Then he left, in the direction of the hospital. His step was almost steady and he never looked back. An ambulance was waiting to take him to Birkenau. There followed terrible days. We received more blows than food. The work was crushing. And three days after he left, we forgot to say Kaddish. WINTER HAD ARRIVED. The days became short and the nights almost unbearable. From the first hours of dawn, a glacial wind lashed us like a whip. We were handed winter clothing: striped shirts that were a bit heavier. The veterans grabbed the opportunity for further sniggering: “Now you’ll really get a taste of camp!” We went off to work as usual, our bodies frozen. The stones were so cold that touching them, we felt that our hands would remain stuck. But we got used to that too.
Page: 77, Location: 1218-1225
“I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.”
Page: 81, Location: 1265-1266
My faceless neighbor spoke up: “Don’t be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve.” I exploded: “What do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet?” His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily: “I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.”
Page: 80, Location: 1262-1266
was cold. We got into our bunks. The last night in Buna. Once more, the last night. The last night at home, the last night in the ghetto, the last night in the cattle car, and, now, the last night in Buna. How much longer would our lives
Page: 83, Location: 1293-1295
It was cold. We got into our bunks. The last night in Buna. Once more, the last night. The last night at home, the last night in the ghetto, the last night in the cattle car, and, now, the last night in Buna. How much longer would our lives be lived from one “last night” to the next?
Page: 83, Location: 1293-1296
We were the masters of nature, the masters of the world. We had transcended everything—death, fatigue, our natural needs. We were stronger than cold and hunger, stronger than the guns and the desire to die, doomed and rootless, nothing but numbers, we were the only men on earth.
Page: 87, Location: 1350-1352
And so he left, as he had come: a shadow swept away by the wind.
Page: 91, Location: 1405-1405
A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father? He had felt his father growing weaker and, believing that the end was near, had thought by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival. It was good that I had forgotten all that. And I was glad that Rabbi Eliahu continued to search for his beloved son.
Page: 91, Location: 1408-1411
don’t know how long he played. I was overcome by sleep. When I awoke at daybreak, I saw Juliek facing me, hunched over, dead. Next to him lay his violin, trampled, an eerily poignant little corpse.
Page: 95, Location: 1462-1464
Twenty corpses were thrown from our wagon. Then the train resumed its journey, leaving in its wake, in a snowy field in Poland, hundreds of naked orphans without a tomb.
Page: 99, Location: 1504-1505
They jumped him. Others joined in. When they withdrew, there were two dead bodies next to me, the father and the son. I was sixteen.
Page: 102, Location: 1529-1531
This discussion continued for some time. I knew that I was no longer arguing with him but with Death itself, with Death that he had already chosen.
Page: 105, Location: 1579-1580
I shall never forget the gratitude that shone in his eyes when he swallowed this beverage. The gratitude of a wounded animal. With these few mouthfuls of hot water, I had probably given him more satisfaction than during my entire childhood
Page: 106, Location: 1593-1594
I gave him what was left of my soup. But my heart was heavy. I was aware that I was doing it grudgingly. Just like Rabbi Eliahu’s son, I had not passed the test.
Page: 107, Location: 1600-1602
Then I had to go to sleep. I climbed into my bunk, above my father, who was still alive. The date was January 28, 1945.
Page: 112, Location: 1663-1664
I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!…
Page: 112, Location: 1667-1669
One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself in the mirror on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.
Page: 116, Location: 1700-1702
And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.
Page: 118, Location: 1723-1727
Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.
Page: 120, Location: 1752-1753