In Wiesel, we find a great deal more will power and individuality. Yet, we find that the historical circumstances for the subject and his family are yet that much more irresistible. A victim of the German-perpetrated Holocaust, Wiesel describes the experience of being moved by history as one which came about quite unexpectedly. Their subterfuge, Wiesel shows in his text, would be a valuable tactic for the Nazis as they gradually entrenched themselves, in preparation for the eventual deportation and wholesale murder of the Jews. As Wiesel explains it, "the Germans were already in town, the Fascists were already in power, the verdict had already been pronounced, yet the Jews of Sighet continued to smile." (Wiesel, 7-8) His family and his neighbors were ultimately vulnerable to the mass herding and encampment of the Jews because they, like millions of others, doubted that the power afforded to the Nazi government could possibly become engorged to the extent and to...
A great feat of illusion often perpetrated on the behalf of totalitarian governments, allowing proud families like the Wiesels to become victims of history.
Though as Wiesel writes it, so too do contemporaries such as Anne Frank, the latter of which was only survived by her diary of events. Interestingly, Anne Frank's diary underscores a third dimension of history and literature's overlap. While the
character of Ono is moved by history because of his weaknesses, and Wiesel is moved by history because of the evil visited upon him, Frank is moved by history because she reports it without bias as it occurs around her. In many ways, this dimension makes her work as accurate a document to the events of
World War II as any photograph or non-fiction text.
Works Cited:
Wiesel, Elie. (1982). Night. Bantam Reissue Edition
Ishiguro, K. (1986). An Artist in the Floating World. Faber and Faber.
