The autobiographical novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, describes his horrifying experiences and his physical and mental misery throughout the true event of the Holocaust. The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word "misery" as prolonged or extreme suffering. This word fits this horrible tale of murder and inhumanity to man perfectly.
             Elie suffers physical misery by starvation and certain types of tortures. Prior to his placement into the concentration camps, Elie always had food to eat everyday. Talking about his hunger, he says "At about noon they brought us soup: a plate of thick soup for each person. Tormented though I was by hunger, I refused to touch it. I was still the spoiled child I had always been. My father swallowed my ration"(39). During the transporting of the captives to Buchenwald, German workmen throw pieces of bread into one of the prison cars for entertainment. The prisoners become barbaric, trying for the scarce amount of nourishment. One man, desperately hungry, kills his own father for a piece of bread. The prisoners seemed to transfer into a pack of savage wolves, fighting each other for survival. One example of the heinous acts of the Germans that stands out occurs at the end of the war, when Elie and the rest of the camp of Buna is being forced to transfer to Gleiwitz. This long, arduous, and tiring transfer seemed like a journey for all of those involved. The painfully cold weather and snow falling heavily did not make the trip much easier. The distance that most people today would not even dream of walking does not even compare to the extensive distance that the prisoners traveled. The Kapo officers, whom controlled the prisoners, often forced the huge mass of people to run, and if one collapses, gets injured, or just simply can no longer bear the pain, they are shot or trampled without pity. In his novel, Elie says "Beneath our feet someone let out a rattli
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