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Amazon.com Review
In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, a scholarly, pious teenager is wracked with guilt at having survived the horror of the Holocaust and the genocidal campaign that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur? There are no easy answers in this harrowing book, which probes life's essential riddles with the lucid anguish only great literature achieves. It marks the crucial first step in Wiesel's lifelong project to bear witness for those who died.

Review
"A slim volume of terrifying power" -- The New York Times

"I gain courage from his courage" -- Oprah Winfrey

"No one has left behind him so moving a record." -- Alfred Kazin

From the Inside Flap
Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again. This edition also contains a new preface by the author.

Customer Reviews

Mandatory reading for each and every Jew
The author. Eliezer Wiesel relates his ordeal from the time he was evicted from his home by the nazi Army, loaded in a freight train and sent to a concentration camp, until the time the camp where he is confined gets liberated by the Allied Forces during the Second World War
This is a mandatory reading for all Jews so as not to forget how their ancestors awfully suffered at the time of the Holocaust, the worst atrocity committed during the whole history of mankind, ever. Particularly, the holocaust ought not to be forgotten in present times when voices are raised negating the truthfulness of this terrible event and attacking the existence of the State of Israel. Very suitable education material for Jewish teenagers.

Incredibly moving
This astonishing and very moving book is based on Elie Wiesel's youth in concentration camps during WW2. It begins with his childhood in Hungary, then his family's incarceration in a Jewish ghetto, then to Auschwitz (where he last sees his mother and sister) and later to Buchenwald. "Night" is made all the more haunting and powerful by the way that it is written so simply, in a matter of fact tone. Wiesel displays absolutely no self-pity as he describes the way that the Nazis wore them down and stripped them of their humanity, so that they were merely existing in a state of indifference to their fellow prisoners. The only thing that sustained him was being able (through both luck and determination) to remain with his father.

Last year I read the novel "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" and while that is moving, it is Disney-lite in comparison to this.

I have always wondered about some aspects of the Holocaust: why did more Jews not leave their countries when they had the opportunity do do so? Why didn't they heed warnings about what was happening elsewhere? Why did more not resist their oppressors? Wiesel explains this beautifully (within the parameters of his own experience).

When we think of concentration camps so often it is the gas chambers that is foremost, but Wiesel captures so many other horrors: men so starved that they will kill one another for a few crumbs of bread, being force-marched many miles through the snow, the terror of making the wrong decision on the rare instances when they were given a choice in some aspect of their fate.

This is a hauntingly sad, wonderful book.

Night by Elie Wiesel


Night by Elie Wiesel


Did you ever stop to think about what happened in World War II? Why so many people lost their lives? Why families were separated? Why these camps were put up to demolish races? Elie Wiesel wrote Night for us to remember that this tragedy shouldn't happen again. He explains his life and the disasters of World War II.the horror of Nazi /fascist death camps and memories of evil are summarized in Night.
Elie Wiesel writes about himself as a little boy in World War II. There was a group of men, from the village, that were removed by the Nazis. A rather smart, quiet man who was called Moshe the Beadle returned to the village with a bullet in his leg and a scar on his soul. He was one of the men taken from the village, but faked his death. He begged the village to believe him but they laughed and said he was crazy. No one wanted to believe Moshe even though the town was going through the steps of disengagement and disaster. Elie experienced Jewish ghetto and death camps. Nazis would search the corners constantly. He couldn't play or talk with the other kids. He and his family are taken to a concentration camp and he witnesses his family's death. He starts to disbelieve in God and starts questioning himself. He constantly repeats it in his mind that this may never happen again. That singling out people because of their religion, color, or disabilities is not right and shouldn't happen again.
I have read many books about World War II but none of them gave me as much as information as Night. I've read The Upstairs Room, Coming Evil, and the Devils Arithmetic's, but I haven't got into as much as depth as in this book. These books are very similar because they are all about kids in World War II that are trying to capture freedom. The biggest strength of Night is description of the time and the place of the event. For example he says, "There was joy- yes joy. Perhaps they thought that God could have devised no torment in hell worse than that of sitting there among the bundles, in the middle of the road, beneath a blazing sun; that anything would be preferable to that." He also describes the characters very well. How they walk and how they talk is like a picture in your head. I think Elie should be more specific on telling the reader how much time has past because sometimes I got lost at some points because Elie misinforms me of the time during some parts of Night. I think he did a very good job on titling the book but you will find out why when you read it.
In conclusion, this book has something for all readers. I believe it is a complete book because it has good description, very nice wording, and is factual. I would read this book again and again. This book is noted in Oprah's favorite books read; this gives you more reason to read it.