There are at least three good examples of civil disobedience in Elie Wiesel's memoir Night. In section one, just before the Jews of Sighet are loaded on the trains to Auschwitz, Elie's family servant Martha pleads with them to come to her village where she could give them "safe refuge." This would have certainly been considered a crime by the Nazis and Martha would be taking a major risk by hiding a Jewish family....
There are at least three good examples of civil disobedience in Elie Wiesel's memoir Night. In section one, just before the Jews of Sighet are loaded on the trains to Auschwitz, Elie's family servant Martha pleads with them to come to her village where she could give them "safe refuge." This would have certainly been considered a crime by the Nazis and Martha would be taking a major risk by hiding a Jewish family. Elie's father, however, refuses her offer.
In section two just before the infamous selection of Dr. Mengele at Birkenau, an unknown man advises Elie and his father to lie about their ages. He tells Elie to say he is eighteen and his father forty (Elie was actually fifteen and his father fifty). This would have been risky behavior in the shadows of the crematoria and showed great courage on the man's part to try to save Elie and his father.
In section three, Elie describes the "Oberkapo of the fifty second cable unit" who has stored arms and is probably responsible for blowing up the electric power station at Buna. Not only is the man taking the fight back to the Nazis, but he also refuses to name any co-conspirators in the deed. Elie reports the man was tortured and eventually transferred to Auschwitz and never heard of again. Unfortunately, the Nazis also persecute the man's companion, the young pipel, who is hung in front of all the Jews and left dying on the ground while each Jew is forced to stare him in the face in his death agony.
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