Night by Elie Wiesel

I read the version of this book translated by Marion Wiesel, who was the author’s wife.

Night by Elie Wiesel was first published in 1956. This is the author’s account of how in 1944, when he was 15 years old, he and his family were shipped off to Auschwitz. This is a short book. In it, Wiesel tells of nearly unspeakable brutality directed against him, his family and his fellow inmates. This is a harrowing book. It is not an easy book to read, it pears into some of the darkest aspects in humanity.

Wiesel recounts how his entire family was murdered. Only he survived. He tells of beatings, torture and starvation. There are accounts unimaginable brutality and cruelty by The Nazis that I will not describe them or quote. This book should only be read by those whop are prepared to read of such things.

There is almost nothing positive within the actual text of this work. Even Wiesel’s own thoughts exude the darkest negativity and despair.  The author starts out very religious. In fact, recounts how he began studying The Kabbalah at an early age. However, as he experiences horror after horror after horror he begins to question God in an extremely bitter way,

“Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in the furnaces? Praised be Thy Holy Name, for having chosen us to be slaughtered on Thine altar? “

My version of this book was only 120 pages long. I get the impression that it is short and concise in order to show the horrors of Wiesel’s experience in a basic and stripped down way. That said, I did hunger for more details.

My edition of this book included supplementary material.  A forward by Wiesel, written years later, as well as his 1986 acceptance speech for The Nobel Peace Prize were included. These materials show a man who has found meaning in life. Wiesel became committed to anti – violence and combatting oppression and bigotry throughout the world. He also seems to acknowledge God. However, there is no indication of this in the text of the book itself. It is simply a chronicle of darkness. I am left feeling that I need to read more of the author’s works to understand what came next and how he became the humanitarian that he became. Wiesel passed away in 2016 but left numerous writings behind.  A glance at his bibliography indicates that many answers might be found in these writings. 

I have read a few other first hand accounts of the Nazi concentration camps and have heard a lot about others. Many similar accounts often incorporate parts about survivors finding some sort of meaning to life. This work, at least the original text, does not provide such optimism. I believe this book, the way it is, has it place. Sometimes the horror of the world just has to be shown as is.  With that, knowing that Wiesel did find meaning, and seems to have chronicled it in his later writings makes this book just a little easier to take. Ultimately this is a vitally important work. It is a look into the worst aspects of existence. Sometimes books need to do this.

After Midnight by Irmgard Keun

This post is part of German Literature Month hosted by Caroline at Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy over at Lizzy's Literary Life.

After Midnight by Irmgard Keun (1905 – 1982) is set Nazi Germany in 1936. It is told in the first person by 19 year-old Susanne Moder, also known as Sanna. The novel’s protagonist spends her time interacting and socializing with a host of family members, friends and acquaintances, and falling in love with her fiancé, Franz.

 This post is not a comprehensive review of the novel, nor is it an analysis of most of the complex, well drawn out and interesting characters. These characters range from seemingly frivolous party boys and girls, intellectual writers and anti–Nazis, as well as Nazi members of the SS and Brownshirts themselves. Instead I will focus upon Sanna and Keun’s motivation for creating her.

Sanna is a most remarkable persona. She is clever, extremely perceptive and sharp witted. However, she is anything but an intellectual. Unlike many characters that I am drawn to, she does not articulate composite viewpoints, opinions or judgments in her head. For the most part, she lives in the moment. Left to her own devices, she is primary concerned with her social life, romantic interactions and small squabbles with family and friends.

Yet, Sanna is very disturbed by what the Nazis do. When she witnesses or becomes aware of it, she objects to the political and ethnic persecutions and the ceaseless propaganda. At the same time, she is amused by Nazi theatricality and the savvy way that they use the media of the time. She does not put it all together into a coherent worldview, however. On the other hand, several of her friends and associates spend much time with theorizing and pontification their belief systems, which range from anti Nazi to pro-Nazi.

Oddly, I would compare Sanna to Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Like Twain’s creation, she is seemingly naive and she has no consistent political, social or philosophical views. She is mostly interested in her family and social life. On the other hand, also like Finn, Sanna is a fountain of satiric and cynical insights about the world that are based on an underlying morality. For instance, her take on the reading habits, or lack thereof, of many people is insightful and amusing. At one point, she comments about Kurt Pielmann, a member of the SS who is in love with her best friend, Gerti.

“The likes of Kurt Pielmann will be sure to send her the constructive literature, if only because then he can believe he’s read it himself. I know about this sort of thing through my father, and Aunt Adelheid, and a good many other people too. They find reading far too much of a strain, far too boring. You can bet your sweet life they haven’t read Mein Kampf from beginning to end yet. Not that I have either. But they’ve bought it, and glanced at it now and again, and in the end they believe they’ve read the whole thing. “

Another example involves a sarcastic view of Hitler and his supposed abilities and sacrifices,

“Take the Führer: he devotes almost his entire life to being photographed for his people. Just imagine, what an achievement! Having your picture taken the whole time with children and pet dogs, indoors and out of doors—never any rest. And constantly going about in aeroplanes, or sitting through long Wagner operas, because that’s German art, and he sacrifices himself for German art as well. “

These witty observations are as far as Sanna goes, however. She never moves on to strong and definitive opinions organized around the big picture.

Based upon Keun’s biography, the author seems to have been something of a deep thinker. She held strong and sophisticated views on an entire range of subjects and likely associated with similar folks. In Sanna, she was creating a very different person than herself. Sanna seems to be a representation of natural human reaction and understanding of many of the world’s ills, including outright evil. She does not over rationalize or analyze, but unlike many who are around her, she recognizes wrong, hypocrisy and propaganda, as well as plain old dumb behavior.

According to several sources that I have read, Keun’s biography is in many ways more interesting than fiction.  A successful writer of novels that explored the role of women in the modern world, she became a vehement anti-Nazi even before Hitler came to power. She maintained this position before, during and after World War II.  Initially remaining in Germany with the intention of resisting Hitler, she was eventually forced to flee the Reich before the war. It was during this period in exile that After Midnight was written. Her exposure to Nazi oppression was not over, however. She subsequently was trapped in the Netherlands after the German invasion.  After planting a fake story purporting her own suicide, she successfully hid out in Germany for the duration of the war. In the postwar period, though plagued by bouts of mental illness, she lived to see resurgence in the popularity of her works in the 1970s.

This book is a fantastic character study. As I alluded to above, in addition to Sanna, there are several rich and compelling characters that have all sorts of interesting things going on. I read the Anthea Bell translation of this work. At least in this version, the writing is lively and engaging.  Where this novel falls short is its brevity. I feel that these other characters had the potential for much more development. At less then 200 pages this book could have been twice as long. Nevertheless the virtues of this work are strong and I highly recommend it.