Night - Movie Trailer

Meet Moshe the Beetle

Moshe the Beetle

Moshe the Beetle was a poor man in Seghet. The people of Sighet were not particularly fond of the poor, but this poor man was well like to by the town's people. He was a "master at the art of making himself invisible" (pg. 3). He became Elizer's guide in the ways of the Cabbala. The day came when foreign Jews were "expelled" from Without warning, foreign jews were "expelled" from Sighet, by way of train. 

Moshe was the only survivor who was able to return and share they horrifying reality of brutality and death. Unfortunately, Elizer's former religious mentor was now seen as a lunatic and no one was willing to listen to the craziness of his demented stories that just cound not be true.

Meet Shlomo Wiesel

Schlomo Wiesel

Schlomo Wiesel is Elizer's father. An unsentimental man, he gave little time and emotion to his family. He was, however, a respected leader in the community of Sighet.

Town folk came to seek council from him for both business and personal matters. During times of uncertainty and fear, he was a source of security for others. He offer his council when they moved into the ghetto and became a leader to the Jews.

This honor turned to a terrible burden as the Hungarian Police took advantage of his role of influence and burdened him with information of the Jew's destiny which he could not share on pain of death. He knew their fate, yet he gave them hope.

While at the camps, Eliser and his father became more and more distant as the struggle for life increased. His emotional disengagement became more severe and Elizer's concern for his father became that of a stranger, in essence, dismissive.

A parallel can be drawn between Elizer's relationship with his father and Elizer's loss of faith in God, one of the themes of the story Night.

Meet Mrs. Schater

Mrs. Schater

Mrs. Schacter was a friend of the Wiesel family. Elizer remembers having her for dinner. Her husband and sone were accidentally taken away by the trains before her. This left her broken. She was alone, afraid, and some would say crazy.

While on the train with Elizer, he recounts her screams of death, and her vision of horror. No one believed her. She was after all crazy. This once productive woman of Sighet peers out the train to see smoke stacks. is a rage to tell others of the truth, their fate of death and Elizer wishes her dead.