Sabrina Soffer: How do you use “Night” in the classroom? Mr. McGrath: First we read the book, we process the language in it, because it is an english class, and we read it as a piece of art and literature. But there is much more to it than that. It's a books through which we can connect with the most powerful and disturbing elements of humanity. It fits in with the study that we undertake throughout the year of moments like this in human history. We look at themes of persecution, scapegoating, oppression and resistance. Thematically, the book fits and in 8th grade, teaching a book like that is possible. It’s hard, even still, in 8th grade, to teach a book that has so much disturbing and emotionally powerful subject matters.
Sabrina Soffer: Why do you choose Wiesel’s memoir over other Holocaust Survivors stories?
Mr. McGrath: There are several survivor testaments, accounts, art, literature, poetry, fiction and nonfiction related to the Holocaust. I think reading Night is not the only way to study or process the Holocaust, but there is something about Wiesel in particular is able to not just chronically list what he went through, but to process the trauma on a human scale, raising his memoir to art. Art in the true sense, which is a way of the human spirit grappling with profound darkness; or beauty, but not in this case. Many of the students are looking at the theme of dehumanization, how Wiesel portrays that process and at the same time, the intensity that arouses the humanity in the reader, so it actually gives back some of the humanity the Nazis stole.
Sabrina Soffer: What do you think Night teaches the Students and what impact does it make on them?
Mr. McGrath: It impacts different students in different ways. For some, it's a very direct connection to something that happened to their family members. For others its members of the human family, just to know. Everyone knows and accepts that Holocaust occurred except for a tiny fringe of freaks. Some students are just shocked by the sheer horror of what happened, contrasting against the life we live here in the United States, but Elie led an existence like that too, and so did many Jews all over Europe before this happened. The idea that something like this could happen, everyone should understand that that is in the possible realm of human behavior. So everyone gets that idea, but it affects different people on a more personal level. Like if you are Jewish, reading this is something that is undeniably a part of your cultural and family history. If your are of German descent, there are mixed emotions you might feel reading this, and might read this wondering what role did my own ancestors or family play in this. And if you are just an American citizen whose family were here during at the time, you might wonder why didn't the powerful United States and other allied nations act sooner to stop this? So everyone approaches it from a different reason but all can be affected equally by the injustice and Wiesel perfectly raises each reason to react. Especially the first part of the book, where he talks of the Jews in Sighet saw this happening in disbelief. Every time I read and teach the book, I like to emphasize how that can serve as a metaphor for the way humans respond to injustice, “like oh, that's something that happens to other people, we are better than that, we are civilized.” But before you know it, it’s happening.
Sabrina Soffer: What do you think Wiesel’s lesson is after reading the book?
Mr McGrath: Obviously what's also sad is that he died last year and so now we are talking about the works of someone who is no longer with us. Up until then , one had only to point to his life's work after surviving Auschwitz and the other camps, and look at how someone was able to take that level of trauma and spiritual desolation and build a life of kindness, testament to what he saw. He felt compelled I think by the loss of so many to serve the future and that's what his life should mean to people on even the most trivial level, some level of personal defeat or loss could be processed in such a way that is helps others. In Wiesel’s case, he spent his life advocating for human rights around the world and played an active role in helping to make people aware of how conditions for genocide could exist and can cause society to unravel as it did in Europe. Now that he has passed on, he takes on a mythical status and as we see in the next few years, it will be interesting to see--reading Night also means studying Elie Wiesel, but if you just read the book, it’s not as positive a message. He’s shaking the reader into understanding the true magnitude of what happened. As time fades, now we are several generations removed from the Holocaust and as survivors of that era die off, I think that shaking and stirring of reality still needs to be done. The fact that he is actually is dead now, his voice is no weaker.
Sabrina Soffer: What legacy do you think he leaves?
Mr. McGrath: He leaves a legacy of people who are more aware of how their own actions can link to the actions of others and produce positive or negative outcomes. He leaves us a little more raw and more vulnerable, but also more vigilant, that's one way to put it.