Fire Symbols:
1. Ch. 1 Pg.1 – “During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep
over the destruction of the Temple.” – there was faith in the Jewish people by having the temple
and then losing faith by it being burned down.
2. Ch. 1 Pg.4 –“They were made to dig huge graves… they slaughtered their prisoners… Babies
were thrown into the air and machine gunners used them as targets” – This had symbolized the
fire that was taken away by Moshe the Beatle who had no trust in the German Soldiers who
appeared to be the demons of hell.
3. Ch. 1 Pg.7 –“With their steel helmets, and their emblem, the death’s head.” – The helmet was a
symbolic meaning to have hell on top of the people as there force to be controlled by the devil.
4. Ch. 1 Pg.9 –“Every day the Germans came to fetch men to stoke coal on the military trains.” –
The Germans would put people to work on trains to take the “fire” away from them so that they
could stoke their fire.
5. Ch. 1 Pg.16 –“my sisters lit the fire… My mother began to prepare a meal.”- this symbolized that
not a part of the family was apart but together while they we being tossed around by the
“demons”/ German soldiers.
6. Ch. 2 Pg.22 –“Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh, That Fire!” – this starts getting the
Jews thinking that their own fire as of their soul is burning up because the excitement of
another fire is going to strangle them to death in this case much hope is lost. Madame
Schachter said this quote and lost most when she saw the furnace but not her son who was
hanging on to her.
7. Ch. 2 Pg.28 –“Do you see that chimney over there? See it? Do you see these flames?... that’s
your grave… Turned into ashes.” – This symbolizes the furnace that is going to take all hope and
that something that everyone holds on to away. This mostly displays Hell in a sense in
Auschwitz through the extermination and the suffering of camps that made everyone even
through the worst dead.
8. Ch. 2 Pg.30 –“But I told him that I did not believe that they could burn people in our age, that
humanity would never tolerate it…” –The Germans did everything they could possible the
destroy hope in a person to be able to even feed the furnace of what they have as their own
fire.
9. Pg. 72 –“Suddenly his eyes would become blank, nothing but two open wounds, two pits of
terror.” – This was Akiba Drumer who had given up hope in god to save him from selection
which he at the time was taken away because of that last thing that took him.
10. Pg. 109 –“From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me.” – this was Elie and himself
being now all has been lost after his father died as being the last straw and now him not having
anything left in him that gives him that spark to keep himself alive.
11. Pg. 52 –“‘If you don’t give me your crown, you’ll pay for it even more.’” – This is when Elie had
one of his very few little things taken away from him before his father. This was one of his very
few sparks to even keep him alive.
12. Page 105: “I’m burning….. Why are you being so unkind to me my son?”
13. Page 106: “They must have carried him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory.- In
postbiblical literature, flame also is a force of divine retribution. In Gehenna—the Jewish version
of Hell—the wicked are punished by fire. But in Night, it is the wicked who wield the power of
fire, using it to punish the innocent. Such a reversal demonstrates how the experience of the
Holocaust has upset Eliezer’s entire concept of the universe, especially his belief in a
benevolent, or even just, God.
14. “We filled our lungs with the fire-and-smoke-laden air, and our eyes shone with hope.” (pg. 58)
At this point the fire and smoke doesn’t seem to symbolize complete mayhem and suffering.
Seems to symbolize hope at this point.
15. “You have betrayed whom You have allowed to be tortured, butchered, gassed, burned, what
do they do? They pray before You! They praise Your name!” (pg. 64) This isn’t really directly
symbolizing fire, but I think it’s important that it’s mentioned when people are starting to lose
their faith. It could symbolize both what was happening to them physically and also that their
faith was also burning away.
16. “A few more yards and that shall be the end. I shall fall. A spurt of red flame. A shot.” (pg. 82)
Again, fire is mentioned when all hope is lost and Elie just wants to collapse and have it all end.
17. “Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because he had thousands of
children burned in His pits?” (pg. 64) This is very symbolic because it’s like the turning point for
the loss of faith – God is now at fault for burning the Jews just as much as Hitler.
18. “My head was spinning: you’re too thin, you’re good for the furnace…” (pg. 68) This is really just
Elie worrying about being burned to death.
19. “We promised him. In three days’ time, when we saw the smoke rising from the chimney, we
would think of him.” (pg. 73) This might be the fire/smoke being used to symbolize
remembrance and respect for those who didn’t make it.
20. “ My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me…”(pg.82)- Elie’ s father was the only
one left to keep the fire going on the inside of him and when in the end his father dies and all
has lost inside of Elie in his mind.
21. “‘Everyone lives and dies for himself alone…There is nothing you can do for him. And your killing
yourself.’” (pg. 105) – This symbolizes how fire cannot keep long in a person’s body by holding
onto that one thing and the doctor was part of the evil who convinced Elie to give up his father
for later on his own self metaphorically.
22. “For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me.” (pg. 31) – This is when Elie was walking up to the
furnace and thought of god as his connection to things and the revolt was his soul that led to
god for him.
23. “Never shall I Forget those moments which murdered my god and my soul and turned my
dreams into dust.” (pg. 32) - This is also based off of Elie losing god during “the walk of
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26.
27.
28.
terror/hell” towards the furnace. Also look at #22 again. The furnace or the devil took that away
from him.
“The instincts of self – preservation, of self-defense, of pride, had all deserted us.” (pg.34) – Elie
describes how everyone had something lost in each person’s soul to that point and no one can
save mankind anymore.
“‘You are at Auschwitz. And Auschwitz is not a convalescent home. It’s a concentration camp.
Here, you have got to work. If not, you will go straight to the furnace.” (pg. 36) - This pretty
much says that you are living in the burning hell and if you don’t follow the rules you might as
well die in hell. The Angle of death spoke this quote.
“‘I’m Wiesel of Sighet…I’m a relative of yours. Stein. Have you forgotten me already?’” (pg. 40) –
He was a sign that the fire in both Elie’s father and Elie had something to look forward to for a
brief moment as the lit up in their souls but when Wiesel was taken away they went back to
being normal.
“The snow began to form a thick layer over our blankets.” (pg. 92) – The snow always puts out
the fire in the real world and so symbolically the snow was also part of the evil being put upon
the Prisoners shoulders to represent that they are under the brink of their lives waiting for that
train to come.
“‘Throw out all the dead! All the corpses outside!” (pg. 94) – This represented the physical
aspect of the fire as being wood and being tossed for the furnace to consume for the fire in the
Germans being the devil of themselves.