Chapters 8–9 Summary

The journey to Buchenwald has severely weakened Shlomo. He is fatigued and refuses to move from the snow. His will to live has finally given away. Eliezer is infuriated at his father for giving up after surviving so long. When the siren goes off, he is forced to abandon his father and retreat indoors. The next morning, Eliezer remembers he has to search for his father and a part of him is reluctant, considering him a burden. But then he is ashamed too of this thought. He finds Shlomo still alive. He seems feverish and requests for soup or coffee. Eliezer gives him food, but guilt racks him simultaneously as he realizes that he could have used the food for himself. Shlomo further deteriorates and suffers dysentery. He begs for water, which is dangerous for a man afflicted with dysentery. Eliezer tries to seek medical help, but the doctor would not help the dying man. Shlomo’s food is stolen, and he is beaten by the other inmates. Unable to resist his father’s pain, Eliezer finally gives him water, knowing that he is approaching his death. The next time the SS guards patrol the barracks, Eliezer’s father again begs for water, and he is thrashed by the guards. On January 29, 1945, Eliezer wakes up to find that his father has been taken to the crematory. He is ashamed that he cannot cry. In fact, he registers a sense of relief.

After his father’s death, Eliezer is transferred to the children’s bloc. He remains in Buchenwald, thinking only of food, and no more about his family. There is not much left to say of these months as he is now indifferent. On April 5, with the American army approaching, the Nazis decide to annihilate all the Jews left in the camp. Thousands of Jews are murdered for the next few days. On April 10, only 20,000 people are left in the camp. The Nazis decide to evacuate and kill everybody in the camp. Evacuation is initiated, but then a sudden air raid sends everybody indoors. When it seems that the situation is back to normal and the evacuation will proceed as planned, the resistance movement strikes, driving the SS from the camp. By noon, the SS has fled and by six o’clock the American army arrives at Buchenwald.

The inmates are finally free. After being liberated, their first thought is of feeding themselves. Nobody thinks of retaliation. Eliezer suffers from food poisoning and spends weeks in the hospital, fighting for his life. When he finally survives, he sees his reflection in the mirror, something he hasn’t done since entering the ghetto. He sees himself looking at a corpse, the look in the eyes such that the memory of it would never leave him.

Chapters 8–9 Analysis

The father-son relationship is inverted as Shlomo falls severely ill. He has given up on the responsibility of his life and has assigned himself to the inevitable. In an earlier section, the reader sees how Rabbi Eliahou’s son had been unfaithful to him, which foreshadowed Eliezer’s emotions about his father in his last days. Eliezer cannot stop himself from thinking about his father as a burden though he hates himself for that. But at this stage, the Nazi brutality is so effective that kinship ties have been completely destroyed. While initially Eliezer and his father used to reassure themselves that perhaps Tzipora and Mrs Wiesel were alive, at this stage, Eliezer can now only think of himself. The reason for tracing this transformation in Eliezer is not to show him as an ungrateful son but how extreme conditions can make a man crawl up inside and look out only for himself, no more being capable of sharing love and affection beyond himself.

However, after his father’s death, Eliezer is left numb and emotionless. He has nothing left to say or see anything more. His father was his companion in this struggle to live, but now that he is dead, the fight goes out of him. The final chapter is short on details as details are now irrelevant to him. For example, he fails to explain what the camp resistance organization is. Neither does he mention up until the last how close to defeat the Germans are. He doesn’t care anymore about his future and is concerned only with feeding himself.

The final lines of Night where Eliezer sees his reflection and calls it a corpse is a powerful statement. He has survived the Holocaust through a random stroke of luck. He has witnessed the death of men and the death of God. What lies ahead now is a body without a soul—a corpse. Critics have argued that Night ends without offering a glimpse of hope. While we know that Elie Wiesel went on to lead a productive life post-Holocaust, Night doesn’t provide any clue to that. The story ends with Eliezer, who after having seen and suffered the unimaginable, after being stripped of all hope and faith, might have been dead for all purposes.

The memory of the reflection doesn’t leave Eliezer ever. This memory is both his burden and his testimony to all who had lost their lives. This memory will ensure that this evil is never repeated. While Night raises the question of faith and hope and the supposed omnipotence of God, it doesn’t answer these, thus leaving the moral responsibility for remembering the Holocaust and answering these theological questions with the reader.