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Night is full of horrors. The brutality that Eliezer witnesses throughout his journey is unimaginable. And yet, the Nazis’ treatment of the Jewish people isn’t the most disturbing part of Eliezer’s experience. What he struggles with even more than the violence turns out to be Night's second theme: Silence.

Video Transcription:

Of all the horrors that Eliezer witnesses during this book, which one is the worst? Call it God’s silence on behalf of the Jewish people. And silence is this book’s second theme.

In the Hebrew scriptures, there’s a story about a man named Abraham who’s told by God to sacrifice his only son. But at the moment Abraham is about to kill Isaac, God intervenes. Abraham doesn’t have to give up his son; it was just a test of faith.

I’m telling you this story because it helps explain Eliezer’s terrible philosophical and spiritual struggle throughout this book. He’s grown up believing that God is not silent, and that in man’s hour of need, God is there to deliver us. Just like in the story of Abraham.

But in Night, unlike in the story of Abraham, God is strangely silent. Remember when the Gestapo hangs the beautiful young boy at the end of Chapter 4? A man asks, “Where is God?” yet the only response is “total silence throughout the camp.”

And Eliezer is left wondering what this means about God. God’s chosen people—as the Jews are called in the Bible—have now been chosen for what? The most inhuman, horrifying fate imaginable: Cold-hearted, systematic destruction, while God watches silently.