What does “selection” mean, and why is it ironic for Eliezer to call it a “present” (pages 69-70)
In the context of World War II and the Holocaust, particularly in Elie Wiesel's memoir "Night," the term "selection" refers to the process carried out by Nazi officers at concentration camps to determine which prisoners were fit to work and which were to be sent to the gas chambers or killed due to being sick, weak, or otherwise deemed unable to work. The process often involved prisoners being inspected and either directed to continue with the labor force or to be executed.
When Eliezer, Wiesel's character in the book, refers to the selection as a "present," this is deeply ironic because there is nothing genuinely positive or gift-like about such a process. In fact, the use of the word "present" is bitterly sarcastic, as it contrasts dramatically with the true nature of the selection – a dehumanizing and lethal event that could result in one's death.
The irony emphasizes the absurdity and horror of the situation where survival and death are arbitrarily decided by Nazi officers under the guise of evaluating work capabilities. This choice of words may also reflect on how the prisoners might have been trying to cope with their reality – by using dark or absurd humor to make sense of or mentally survive within the nightmare that had become their daily lives.