Eliezer
The narrator of Night and the stand-in for the memoir's author, Elie Wiesel. Night traces Eliezer's psychological journey, as the Holocaust robs him of his faith in God and exposes him to the deepest inhumanity of which man is capable. Despite many tests of his humanity, however, Eliezer maintains his devotion to his father. It is important to note that we learn Eliezer's last name only in passing, and that it is never repeated. His story—which parallels Wiesel's own biography—is intensely personal, but it is also representative of the experiences of hundreds of thousands of Jewish teenagers.
Shlomo
Even though he is the only character other than Eliezer who is present throughout the memoir, Eliezer's father is named only once, at the end of Night. Shlomo is respected by the entire Jewish community of Sighet, and by his son as well. He and Eliezer desperately try to remain together throughout their concentration camp ordeal.
Moishe the Beadle
Eliezer's teacher of Jewish mysticism, Moishe is a poor Jew who lives in Sighet. He is deported before the rest of the Sighet Jews but escapes and returns to tell the town what the Nazis are doing to the Jews. Tragically, the community takes Moishe for a lunatic
Akiba Drumer
A Jewish Holocaust victim who gradually loses his faith in God as a result of his experiences in the concentration camp.
Madame Schächter
A Jewish woman from Sighet who is deported in the same cattle car as Eliezer. Madame Schächter is taken for a madwoman when, every night, she screams that she sees furnaces in the distance. She proves to be a prophetess, however, as the trains soon arrive at the crematoria of Auschwitz.
Juliek
A young musician whom Eliezer meets in Auschwitz. Juliek reappears late in the memoir, when Eliezer hears him playing the violin after the death march to Gleiwitz.
Tibi and Yosi
Two brothers with whom Eliezer becomes friendly in Buna. Tibi and Yosi are Zionists. Along with Eliezer, they make a plan to move to Palestine after the war.
Dr. Josef Mengele
When he arrives at Auschwitz, Eliezer encounters the historically infamous Dr. Mengele. Mengele was the cruel doctor who presided over the selection of arrivals at Auschwitz/Birkenau. Known as the "Angel of Death," Mengele's words sentenced countless prisoners to death in the gas chambers. He also directed horrific experiments on human subjects at the camp.
Idek
Eliezer's Kapo (a prisoner conscripted by the Nazis to police other prisoners) at the electrical equipment warehouse in Buna. Despite the fact that they also faced the cruelty of the Nazis, many Kapos were as cruel to the prisoners as the Germans. During moments of insane rage, Idek beats Eliezer.
Franek
Eliezer's foreman at Buna. Franek notices Eliezer's gold tooth and gets a dentist in the camp to pry it out with a rusty spoon.
Rabbi Eliahou
A devout Jewish prisoner whose son abandons him in one of many instances in Night of a son behaving cruelly toward his father. Eliezer prays that he will never behave as Rabbi Eliahou's son behaves.
Zalman
One of Eliezer's fellow prisoners. Zalman is trampled to death during the run to Gleiwitz.
Meir Katz
Eliezer's father's friend from Buna. In the cattle car to Buchenwald, Katz saves Eliezer's life from an unidentified assailant.
Stein
Eliezer's relative from Antwerp, Belgium, whom he and his father encounter in Auschwitz. Trying to bolster his spirit, Eliezer lies to Stein and tells him that his family is still alive and healthy.
Hilda
Eliezer's oldest sister
Béa
Eliezer's middle sister.
Tzipora
Elie's younger sister, who does not survive the concentration camp. She gives an impression of both innocence and stoicism.
The Man (The Father)
A survivor of the apocalyptic event and the protagonist of the story. The man is gentle and caring with his son, but prone to outbursts of anger or frustration. He is a survivalist, whose instincts have kept him and the boy alive on the road. The man certainly thinks about God and religion, though he is not evidently a religious person. The man lives now only for the life of his son.
The Boy (The Son)
A child born shortly after the apocalyptic event. The boy depends on his father for survival but shows a strong tendency toward mercy throughout the story. The boy advocates for helping almost every person the father and son meet on the road. The boy's fixation with a little boy he claims to see in a burned-out city may be a reflection of himself. The boy expresses a strong desire to take care of the boy, hinting that he desires to be taken care of as well.
The Pale Bride (The Woman)
A survivor of the apocalyptic event who gives birth to the boy. The woman expresses an anti-survivalist perspective before ultimately killing herself. She scoffs when the man says they are "survivors" of the catastrophe. Instead, she believes that they should be dead already, to avoid the inevitable horrors of rape, slavery, and murder as human society breaks down.
The Little Boy
The apparition of a small child seen by the boy. The boy fixates on the little boy and worries about him, while the father disbelieves that the little boy actually exists. A strong example of the growing divide between father and son, the boy worries over the little boy while the man discourages his son from desiring to help others.
The Old Man (Ely)
An old man with poor vision traveling on the road, and a reference to the prophet Eli from the Book of Samuel. In the story, Ely serves to reflect the boy's kindness and reveal the growing separation between father and son. Ely is ambivalent to the help the boy offers him and speaks strangely with the man on the nature of death.
The Thief
A man who steals everything from the father and son. The father takes everything back from the thief at gunpoint and then takes the thief's clothes and shoes as well. The boy later accuses the man of killing the thief by taking everything from him
The Scarred Man
A man who rescues the boy after the father has died. Described as a "veteran of old skirmishes," the scarred man carries a shotgun and interrogates the boy about his dead father and what the boy will do next. The boy asks the scarred man whether or not he eats people, and whether or not he is "one of the good guys." It turns out the man is kind-hearted and takes the boy home to meet a motherly woman who embraces him
The Woman
A mother who embraces the boy at the end of the story. She talks to the boy about God, but the boy is reticent, saying he only talks to his father, now dead. The woman is conciliatory on this point, drawing a connection between God and men.