~Cedric Lin, Class of 2024
Traumatic situations can often transform the dynamics of a family. The memoir, Night, takes place in 1941 and tells the story of 15 year old Elie Wiesel who grows up in the small village of Sighet in Hungary. As his story progresses, he conveys how quickly the Nazis “dehumanized” the Jewish people. He retells his story of his life in Auschwitz, the largest of the concentration camps the Nazis used in an attempt to kill all of Europe’s Jews. Throughout his memoir, Wiesel describes how his own family dynamics changed as a result of their trauma in the Concentration Camp, as well as that of other families. Elie shines a light on how when placed in traumatic situations, families are sometimes torn apart, and family roles are reversed.
While in Auschwitz, the dynamics of families transformed when families were separated. When they first arrived in Auschwitz, prisoners were sorted into groups by how well they could work. They were also separated by gender, with the words, “Men to the left, Women to the right!”(29). As a result, Elie and father were separated from his mother and sisters. Elie goes on to say that, “This was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever”(29). They were physically separated, and were no longer able to depend on each other anymore. Unfortunately, Elie’s story of being separated from his family was not uncommon among other families in the concentration camps. While marching to a new camp, inmates often lost hope, and sometimes forgot about their families in order to save themselves. Elie and his father made sure to support each other, but Elie noticed that, “Sons abandoned the remains of their fathers without a tear”(92). Not only does this represent how families were torn apart from each other, but it shows how inmates had to resort to the primitive instincts to look out for themselves and their own health. The fact that sons willingly abandoned their fathers also shows how the concentration camps had forced prisoners to lose their identity and what was important to them. The concentration camps transformed the dynamics of families by tearing families apart and forcing inmates to resort to their primitive instincts, but another effect of the traumatic situations were role reversals within families.
Role reversals were a common response to traumatic situations in families experiences in the camps, and Elie’s family experienced a role reversal. After the Nazis began to be pushed back on the eastern front, they transferred prisoners from Auschwitz to a new camp. The conditions were atrocious, and Elie describes the “icy wind” that was “blowing violently”. Fellow inmates collapsed in the snow, falling one by one. Yet, Elie still tried to muster up his courage, and thought, “I had no right to let myself die. What would [my father] do without me? I was his sole support” (87). The fact that Elie was thinking this demonstrates how he was slowly assuming the role of a parental figure to his father, who was becoming his “child”. Normally, the parent is the one who protects their child, but in this case, the roles were switched. Elie had to assume the role of a parent while marching to the new camp, but Elie had also demonstrated signs of becoming the parental figure while in Auschwitz. At one point, Elie and his father discussed whether or not Elie should evacuate from the infirmary with his father, even though Elie’s leg was still injured. However, staying in the infirmary would yield a very high chance of death. Elie eventually decided to evacuate with his father, with Elie saying, “I made up my mind to accompany my father wherever he went”(82). Elie assumed the role of the “protector” or “guardian” of his father. Instead of his father accompanying him, he was accompanying and watching out for his father. Even with his injured leg, he still prioritized the safety of his father. It is possible that Elie became the parental figure for his father because as a 15 year old, he was stronger and tougher, and was able to handle the conditions of Auschwitz and the march more easily. All in all, as their time in Auschwitz progressed, the roles in Elie and his father’s family were reversed.
Traumatic situations can often change the dynamics of a family by tearing families apart and reversing family members’ roles. The concentration camps separated inmates into groups by gender, stripping mothers and daughters from fathers and sons. In addition, the conditions of the camps caused many to lose sight of their value for their family because they needed to protect themselves from death. Family roles switched, and in Elie’s story, he became the father figure to his father. His goal was to protect and care for his father. Elie Wiesel’s experience in Auschwitz illustrates how horrific experiences can dismantle families and how they operate within themselves.
