Night by Elie Wiesel (2006, Paperback, Revised)

I BELIEVE THAT YOU CANNOT CRITIQUE THIS BOOK, IT SIMPLY SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. ELIE WIESEL HAS WROTE A 109 PAGE BOOK ON HIS EXPERIENCES IN THE HOLOCAUST AND I THINK WE SHOULD BE GRATEFUL THAT HE SHARED HIS STORY WITH US. THE BOOK DETAILS THE LIFE OF ELIE WIESEL, A YOUNG JEWISH BOY GROWING UP IN HUNGARY. WHEN HE IS 15 YEARS OLD, HE AND HIS FAMILY ARE SPLIT UP AND DEPORTED TO VARIOUS CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN EUROPE. WIESEL TALKS ABOUT HIS BRUSH WITH DEATH, BECOMING VERY SICK AND PHYSICALLY STARVING TO DEATH. HE STRUGGLES TO STAY ALIVE EVERYDAY WHILE HE IS BEING TORTURED BY THE NAZIS. A MEMOIR THAT SHOULD BE A MUST READ FOR ALL AGES SO THAT WE MAY NEVER FORGET AND REPEAT THIS HORRIBLE HISTORY.

This is the story of a boy's Holocaust experience, his survival, and his struggle with notions of God in the midst of this suffering. His town is abandoned and brought to concentration camps by the Nazis. He is separated from his mother and remains with his father. He suffers and sees the extreme suffering of others and his soul falls into despair even though he is determined to survive. It is a short book, but long enough to have a great impact. The writing is superb, poetic, and haunting. Why did it take me so long to finally take this off my bookshelf. It is essential reading.

I chose to buy this book for my thirteen year old daughter because she was interested in the Holocaust. I looked online at many different books for her, but I chose this one beause it was narrated in the first person. My daughter does not like to read books in past tense because she feels she can not connect to the author. She read the entire book in one day and I read it the very next day. We talked about the text, and we laughed and cried abotu things that happened to the Jews in this book. We both loved the fact that the author actually experienced and lived what he wrote about. His vivid descriptions of the trials and tortures of Jews in the concentration camps taught my daughter that life is precious and never to be taken for granted. She has also learned that the world is not perfect and if you see a wrong being done, do not sweep it under the carpet and to fight for what you believe in. A very good read for a teen!

"Never shall I forget..." begins one of the most vivid passages from this autobiographical account of the Holocaust. Elie tells his story is a way that, though disturbing in its honesty and description, will cause its readers to never forget what happened to millions of people: not only Jews but so many other groups who were persecuted and executed for merely existing. It is a powerful story that is a quick read--easily read in one night--but one that haunts the reader long after finishing. It's impossible to call it a good book due to the nature of its content, but it is one of the most informative, well written books I've ever read. If I could only read one book about the Holocaust--one book that would paint the horrible picture of that dark period of our history--Night would be it.

Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in Sighet, a border town between Hungary and Romania. Wiesel grew up in the town's shtetl, or Jewish section, where his father, Shlomo, was a shopkeeper and a well-respected leader in the Jewish community. As a young boy, Wiesel was devoted to the study of the Torah, the Talmud, and the mystical writings of the Kabbala. In the spring of 1944, when Elie was only fifteen years old, the Germans deported 15,000 Jews from Sighet to the notorious concentration camp, Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister Zipporah were exterminated at Birkenau, his two older sisters, Hilda and Bea, managed to survive. Until his father's death in Buchenwald, Wiesel and his father were together throughout their internment, the experiences of which he writes about in his autobiographical novel, Night.