'Night' by Elie Wiesel is a chilling memoir detailing the author's personal experiences in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Through the eyes of a young Jewish boy, readers witness the horrors of the Holocaust, the loss of family, innocence, and faith. The narrative is raw, honest, and impactful, shedding light on the inhumane treatment endured by prisoners and the struggle to find hope and humanity amidst unimaginable darkness.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings for Night include scenes of violence, death, abuse, starvation, and the depiction of human suffering in concentration camps.
From The Publisher:
It is 1944. The Jews of Sighet, Hungary are rounded up and driven into Nazi concentration camps. For the next terrible year, young Elie Wiesel experiences the loss of everything he loves - home, friends, family - in an agonizing journey through Birkenau, Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald. The greatest tragedy of our time, told through the eyes of a 15-year old boy.
Night is a terrifying account of the Nazi death-camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family, his innocence, and his god. Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary of Anne Frank, Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.
Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.
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8 comment(s)
The first time I read this book, I only did it to pass a test for my history class.However it wasn't until a year later that I picked it up and really read it.After I finished this book, I not only felt as though I had experienced the events myself but also, I could sympathize with the history of the Jewish people.
I used to read in history books about slavery and the Holocaust and I couldn't understand how someone could enslave and kill a whole race of people.Within the course of this book, no only does the author tell of life before and after the camps, but he goes deeper in his descriptions of the treatment at these camps.These scenes are some of the most powerful images I have read to date.
This is a book which will stir up various emotions in the reader.Not only will you feel anger at the fact that this event actually happened, but also, you will feel the pain which the author feels when torn away from his mother and his sister.Finally, you will feel a kind of emptiness because although the books ends, you still leave with the realization that millions of people were subjected to this.
This book... man, oh man. I had to read this for a class back in middle school and I still remember the turmoil of emotions I felt while reading it. I remember literally sobbing during one of the parts in the book that said the Nazis used babies as target practice with their guns. Yeah. Go ahead and cry now, sorry...
There's a reason it won the Nobel Prize. That said, it isn't my favorite Holocaust narrative.
Wiesel's Night is a profoundly moving account of his experience as a Jewish teenager in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. I don't know why it took me so long to read this book, it is life changing.
Powerful memoir, everyone should read this unflinching account of a Holocaust survivor
Updated review, April 24, 2024:
I wanted to read
Night again as I’ve been thinking about Hannah Arendt’s work lately and as I watched
M for the first time.
This time around, reading
Night felt like a different experience because of my newfound interest in absurdism and existentialism. I can now understand why Wiesel lost his faith; How can someone who has seen such horrors believe in God? How can one ascribe such horrors to God’s favor or to God’s displeasure? How can one say that such horrors were simply “meant to be”, especially when one sees the faces of one’s oppressors, day after day, night after night? With Wiesel, I can conclude that it’s not possible.
Night invites the readers to grapple with apathy and detachment and to resist the temptation to explain and justify things away.
(Note: Although I respect Wiesel and his writings, I don’t agree with his stance on Israel, thanks.)
Original review, March 20, 2023:
Anything I write seems flippant in response to
Night.
Briefly, I would like to list some observations:
- In
The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, Ai Weiwei urges his fellow political prisoners to record their experiences in prison so that a record exists of the state’s injustice and cruelty. Ai wants people to know the truth. Wiesel’s
Night is so impactful simply because it serves a similar purpose: it is a record of fascist violence and oppression. It is Wiesel’s personal testament that the Holocaust is real.
- Large-scale, horrific events don’t happen out of nowhere. Wiesel relates how persecution and segregation can eventually lead to deportation and genocide.
- When people treat other people as subhuman, the people who are treated as subhuman tend to conform to such dehumanizing expectations
in order to survive.
HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION**
How can someone give a rating less than 5 stars? I wanted to rate this book 10 pages in. The horrors Elie Weisel faced as a teenager are indescribable. Every time you thought the brutality of the nazi officers and even some of the prisoners couldn't get worse, it did tenfold. This indispensable account of life under Hitler's rein is important for every human on earth to understand and fear. The fear of the evil that is possible should help us stand together and treat each other with kindness compassion and respect. This is definitely a book that will stay with me for life. RIP Elie Weisel and thank you for sharing your story.
It was a book about the World War II. It was a sad book in my opinion but the story-telling of the book was very nice. It is also a true story. Nothing more I've got to say. If you like history based books this one is a great one to read!
What can you read after
Night?
About the Author:
Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) is the author of more than fifty books, including Night, his harrowing account of his experiences in Nazi concentration camps. The book, first published in 1955, was selected for Oprah's Book Club in 2006, and continues to be an important reminder of man's capacity for inhumanity. Wiesel was Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, and lived with his family in New York City. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
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