Blog Post 15 – Wiesel’s Night

[B]ooks, just like people, have a destiny.

Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both.

—Elie Wiesel, Preface of Night, p. xiv

            For me, Night invited some joy but mostly sorrow.  Using the words horrific, atrocious, and heinous to describe what Wiesel and others endured during the Holocaust seem terribly insufficient.  Perhaps if I were a book author like Wiesel, I might be better able to express my horror.  I imagine that Wiesel—and other Holocaust writers—wrote their stories to help them cope with the atrocities.  But why must we read these stories?  The only reason I think is valid is that knowing that these events occurred will help ensure that they do not happen again.  With knowledge, we become smarter and more sensitive and empathetic to other’s problems, especially those brought on by those in power.

            An acquaintance of Wiesel’s, Moishe the Beadle, was taken away to Poland, shot, and left for dead.  After his ordeal, he was “not the same. The joy in his eyes was gone.  He no longer sang.  He no longer mentioned either God or Kabbalah.  He spoke only of what he had seen” (p. 7). 

I too have witnessed violence.  Of course, not on the scale as any Holocaust victims.  My husband committed suicide—shooting himself in the chest with a .357—in front of me and my eight-year-old son.  This event happened 24 years ago, but writing about it still brings tears to my eyes.  My son is now 32 and still suffers from watching that violence. 

Healing is vital to the human condition.  I think that writing can help heal wounds.  If my future students are at all like my former students, they too will have suffered, enduring time in jail/prison, unemployment, times of famine, and acts of violence—both self-induced and as victims.  I learned long ago that writing about terrible events dull the edges of adverse experiences.  Writing the 63 words in the previous paragraph took much effort.  But I tried to focus on the fact that my telling my reader about how suicide touched my life makes it not hurt as much.  I will therefore encourage my students to write—if they are able—about their troubles, thoughts, and feelings.