In Elie Wiesel’s memoir *Night*, Elie ends up needing an operation because his right foot becomes severely infected from exposure to the brutal winter cold at the Buna concentration camp. By mid-January 1945, after weeks of forced labor in freezing conditions, his foot swells so badly that he can no longer put it on the ground. The sole of his foot fills with pus, and a Jewish doctor at the camp infirmary tells him the foot must be operated on immediately or he risks losing his toes, or even his entire leg, to amputation.
What Caused the Infection
The prisoners at Buna were forced to work outdoors through one of the coldest stretches of winter, with inadequate clothing and shoes. Elie’s right foot bore the worst of this exposure. The cold damaged the tissue, and infection set in. His foot began swelling around the middle of January, and the condition worsened quickly to the point where walking became impossible. This kind of cold injury, left untreated in the unsanitary conditions of a concentration camp, could easily turn life-threatening.
The Operation Itself
The doctor who examines Elie is a Jewish prisoner himself, and he treats Elie with genuine kindness, a rarity in the camps. He determines that the sole of the foot is full of pus and needs to be opened and drained. The surgery is presented as urgent: without it, the infection would spread, making amputation inevitable. When Elie wakes up after the procedure, the doctor explains what he found and what he had to do. Elie is then confined to the infirmary to recover.
The Evacuation Decision
The operation takes on even greater significance because of what happens next. While Elie is still recovering in the infirmary, word spreads that the entire camp is about to be evacuated. The Germans are retreating as the Soviet army advances, and they plan to march the prisoners to another concentration camp. Those in the infirmary are told they will stay behind because they are too weak to make the journey.
This puts Elie in an agonizing position. Rumors circulate that the SS guards plan to either blow up the camp or kill the remaining patients before leaving. Elie’s greatest fear, though, is being separated from his father. He goes to his father and asks what they should do. His father is silent at first, and Elie makes the decision for both of them: they will join the evacuation. His father looks at his wounded foot and asks if he thinks he can walk. Elie says yes. “Let’s hope we won’t regret it, Eliezer,” his father replies.
Elie later learns that the patients who stayed behind in the infirmary were actually liberated by the Soviets just days later. His decision to leave on the death march, driven by the desire to stay with his father and the fear that staying meant execution, turned out to be the more dangerous choice. It is one of the memoir’s most painful ironies: the operation that was supposed to save his foot nearly cost him his life, not because of the surgery itself, but because of the impossible choice it forced him to make while still recovering.
Why the Operation Matters in the Story
On the surface, the foot surgery is a medical event. But Wiesel uses it to reveal several things at once. The Jewish doctor’s compassion stands out against the relentless cruelty of the camp, showing that some prisoners managed to retain their humanity. The infection itself is a physical consequence of the dehumanizing conditions the Nazis imposed, a body breaking down under forced labor and neglect.
Most importantly, the operation sets up the evacuation dilemma, which becomes a turning point in the narrative. Elie’s bond with his father, the central emotional thread of *Night*, is what drives the decision to march on a freshly operated foot through freezing weather. His devotion to his father overrides his own physical safety. “I had made up my mind to accompany my father wherever he went,” Elie writes. That single line captures why the operation matters beyond its medical details: it forces a choice between self-preservation and loyalty, and Elie chooses loyalty without hesitation.