eliewiesel-nightfulltext_3_26_2014_3_23_04_pm

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Dozens of inmates were there to receive us, sticks in hand, striking anywhere, anyone, without reason. The orders came: "Strip! Hurry up! Raus! Hold on only to your belt and your shoes…" Our clothes were to be thrown on the floor at the back of the barrack. There was a pile there already. New suits, old ones, torn overcoats, rags. For us it meant true equality: nakedness. We trembled in the cold. A few SS officers wandered through the room, looking for strong men. If vigor was that appreciated, perhaps one should try to appear sturdy? My father thought the opposite. Better not to draw attention. (We later found out that he had been right. Those who were selected that day were incorporated into the Sonder- Kommando, the Kommando working in the crematoria. Béla Katz, the son of an important merchant of my town, had arrived in Birkenau with the first transport, one week ahead of us. When he found out that we were there, he succeeded in slipping us a note. He told us that having been chosen because of his strength, he had been forced to place his own father's body into the furnace.) The blows continued to rain on us: "To the barber!" Belt and shoes in hand, I let myself be dragged along to the barbers. Their clippers tore out our hair, shaved every hair on our bodies. My head was buzzing; the same thought surfacing over and over: not to be separated from my father. Freed from the barbers' clutches, we began to wander about the crowd, finding friends, acquaintances. Every encounter filled us with joy—yes, joy: Thank God! You are still alive! Some were crying. They used whatever strength they had left to cry. Why had they let themselves be brought here? Why didn't they die in their beds? Their words were interspersed with sobs. 35
Suddenly someone threw his arms around me in a hug: Yehiel, the Sigheter rebbe's brother. He was weeping bitterly. I thought he was crying with joy at still being alive. "Don't cry, Yehiel," I said. "Don't waste your t e a r s … " "Not cry? We're on the threshold of death. Soon, we shall be inside…Do you understand? Inside. How could I not cry?" I watched darkness fade through the bluish skylights in the roof. I no longer was afraid. I was overcome by fatigue. The absent no longer entered our thoughts. One spoke of them—who knows what happened to them?—but their fate was not on our minds. We were incapable of thinking. Our senses were numbed, everything was fading into a fog. We no longer clung to anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of selfdefense, of pride, had all deserted us. In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until the end of time, seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either. AROUND FIVE O'CLOCK in the morning, we were expelled from the barrack. The Kapos were beating us again, but I no longer felt the pain. A glacial wind was enveloping us. We were naked, holding our shoes and belts. An order: "Run!" And we ran. After a few minutes of running, a new barrack. A barrel of foul-smelling liquid stood by the door. Disinfection. Everybody soaked in it. Then came a hot shower. All very fast. As we left the showers, we were chased outside. And ordered to run some more. Another barrack: the storeroom. Very long tables. Mountains of prison garb. As we ran, they threw the clothes at us: pants, jackets, shirts… 36
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Also by Elie Wiesel DAWN DAY (previ
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ELIE W I E S E L TRANSLATED FROM TH
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In memory of my parents and of my l
Page 11 and 12: why not for others more deserving t
Page 13 and 14: the wisdom of their elders understa
Page 15 and 16: "Well?" The SS had flown into a rag
Page 17 and 18: were alive when they were thrown in
Page 20 and 21: Foreword by François Mauriac FOREI
Page 22 and 23: man—this set of circumstances wou
Page 24: Almighty to whom my life had been b
Page 27 and 28: 2
Page 29 and 30: One day I asked my father to find m
Page 31 and 32: AND THEN, one day all foreign Jews
Page 33 and 34: news: the daily bombings of Germany
Page 35 and 36: made no offensive remarks, and some
Page 37 and 38: small Jewish r e p u b l i c … A
Page 39 and 40: "There are rumors," my father said,
Page 41 and 42: By eight o'clock in the morning, we
Page 43 and 44: My father had accompanied the depor
Page 45 and 46: We finally arrived at our destinati
Page 47 and 48: and the wine and swallowed the food
Page 49 and 50: German Army. Anyone who still owns
Page 51 and 52: Our nerves had reached a breaking p
Page 53 and 54: strolling down the platform, asking
Page 55 and 56: Behind me, an old man fell to the g
Page 57 and 58: Tell him that I was a student? "Far
Page 59: mained of my strength in order to b
Page 63 and 64: "And now, stop moving!" There was n
Page 65 and 66: "EVERYBODY outside!" A dozen or so
Page 67 and 68: NO SOONER HAD WE CLIMBED into our b
Page 69 and 70: I knew nothing about them…Since 1
Page 71 and 72: "Mother is still a young woman," my
Page 73 and 74: most important thing is not to be a
Page 75 and 76: gerous. Only Idek, the Kapo, occasi
Page 77 and 78: "What are you going to do, sir?" "I
Page 79 and 80: "Idek, the Kapo…the young Jewish
Page 81 and 82: This went on for two weeks. It was
Page 83 and 84: "Ten…eleven!…" His voice was ca
Page 85 and 86: and, with open mouth, thrust his he
Page 87 and 88: frightened. His manacled hands did
Page 89 and 90: The Oberkapo was arrested on the sp
Page 91 and 92: THE SUMMER was coming to an end. Th
Page 93 and 94: them from paradise. When You were d
Page 95 and 96: transferred me to another Kommando,
Page 97 and 98: Yes, we were ready. So were the SS
Page 99 and 100: "Let's have a moment of quiet. I ha
Page 101 and 102: quickly or not. I was afraid of fin
Page 103 and 104: We went off to work as usual, our b
Page 105 and 106: "Doctor?" "Yes?" "Will I be able to
Page 107 and 108: As for me, I was thinking not about
Page 109 and 110: TWO O'CLOCK in the afternoon. The s
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"Don't think, don't stop, run!" Nea
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a single bark. Houses with gaping w
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he lay down too, next to the corpse
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There was shouting outside, in the
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I thought he'd lost his mind. His v
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think that the Germans would run ou
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PRESSED TIGHTLY AGAINST one another
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WE RECEIVED no food. We lived on sn
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him. They jumped him. Others joined
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AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE CAMP, SS off
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The sirens began to wail. Alert. Th
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worldly, the face of a stranger. It
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THE FOLLOWING DAY, he complained th
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When I came down from my bunk after
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This was the end! Hitler was about
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116
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perished? Do I have the right to ac
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Holy Land. Please understand my dee
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