Night

Summer is coming to an end and the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, arrives while Eliezer is at Buna. 10,000 Jewish prisoners gather to attend the solemn service, surrounded by electrified barbed wire. As they recite prayers, Eliezer defiantly rebels at the thought of praising God. Eliezer thinks that man has shown himself to be greater than God by enduring such affliction and yet still finding the strength of faith to honor His name. Reflecting on his former devotion, Eliezer is unable to lament or plead for mercy from a God whom he now accuses of betraying and abandoning his people. He watches the praying congregation, “observing it like a stranger” (74).

After the service, Eliezer finds his father, bent in sorrow, and kisses his hand. A tear falls onto it. They do not speak, but Eliezer feels that they have never understood each other so clearly. Eliezer refuses to fast during Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, eating his soup as a gesture of rebellion against God, whose silence he no longer accepts.

Eliezer is transferred to a different work unit from his father’s, where he has to drag heavy blocks of stone. One evening, the foreman announces that no one will be allowed to go out after evening soup.