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You could say that Elie Wiesel gave the ending away just by writing Night. In other words, even if you already know about the millions of people who were murdered during the Holocaust, you know that Elie Wiesel wasn’t one of them. You know because he lived to write this book. That’s why Night is a story about survival.

Video Transcription:

Elie Wiesel gave the ending away just by writing this book. What I mean is, even if you already know about the millions of people who were murdered during the Holocaust, you know that Elie Wiesel wasn’t one of them. You know because he lived to write this book. That’s why Night is a story about survival.

Night is an autobiography. It’s the true story of what happened to a teenage boy living in a small town in Europe during World War II. It’s a true account of the horrible brutality, torture, degradation, loss, and inhumanity he suffered because of just one thing: He’s Jewish.

Now, as I said at the beginning, Elie Wiesel lived to write this book. So you can go into this story knowing that the main character survives.

But Night isn’t just about how Elie survives. It’s also about what parts of him survive.

When you first meet Elie (or, Eliezer, as he’s called in the book), he’s incredibly religious. He believes in a good and all-powerful God.

But then Eliezer’s mother and sisters are taken away. Then he learns about the crematorium. He sees mass graves and watches as the Nazis kill with abandon. And he begins to wonder where God is in all of this.

Eliezer survives physically. He stays alive. But does he survive emotionally? And what about his faith—does that survive? Keep watching to find out.