With the conclusion of hostilities in the taut, tense conclusion to Night, the arrival of Allied forces effectively halts the Nazi enslavement of the Jews in this camp. However, the battle to reclaim ravaged spirits, to rehabilitate frail, diseased bodies, and to reunite families looms as large as the war to quell genocide. In terms of body, Elie is free, yet there is no freedom, no emotional reprieve for the sensitive, spiritual boy who once mourned Jewish martyrs of old and wept at his prayers in Sighet. Clearly bereft of will and lacking the strength to join the resistance, he hovers in a spiritual malaise and awaits whatever comes through the gate.
The final scene departs from earlier glimpses of camp life in the depersonalization of Buchenwald and in Elie's catatonic withdrawal from interest in life and self. The nameless, faceless evacuees from the camp matter little to Elie, who no longer clutches at friends or tends his father; even less do his thoughts center on vengeance. Turned inward by starvation, food poisoning, and a primitive form of emotional battery, he continues to fight for life in its most elemental state. The concluding action shows Elie marshalling enough energy to peer into a mirror to witness what torture and forced labor have done to his physical features and expression. The lifelessness of the eyes haunts him with palpable evidence of his nearness to the brink of death.
