Night

published	2006 by Hill & Wang
first published	1958
binding	Paperback
isbn	0374500010 (isbn13: 9780374500016)
pages	120
description	In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, a scholarly, pious teenager is wracked with guilt at having survived the horror of the Holocaust ...more [close] 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.
date added	09-14-06 edit book

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | more...

discuss this book

topics	replies	last activity
night	2	02/07/2008 10:42AM

new topic

groups with this book

view all groups »

friend reviews (0)

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 20601)

Ancilla rated it:

09/27/07

How come there are people in this world who questioned that NAZI and holocaust really happened in the past?!!!!

Come on...
There are a lot of fact, stories and people who try to forget the nasty horrible moment which happened to them.
History is the past, which we never can change, can't we?

---------------------------------------------------

Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel adalah salah satu saksi hidup kekejaman NAZI dengan berbagai kamp...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

add a comment

Jennifer rated it:

(review of isbn 0553272535)

05/29/07

Read in March, 2006

Elie Wisel (won '86 Nobel Peace Prize) a Holocaust survivor tells of the unending hell he and his father (and family) endured at the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Only Elie makes it out alive, and surpisingly, his father lasts throughout the year, or so, of sheer torment.

The book's theme quietly hints at one of the main objections to Christianity, and probably, Judaism: how could a loving God let such tragedies occur? Elie struggles iwht this throughout. In fact, he names...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

Lorena rated it:

05/14/08

Read in May, 2008

If there is one book genre I dislike is biographies, in general I find biographies too suspicious, after all how do I know the writer kept a neutral view of his subject? And I find auto-biographies self serving, how many times you find page after page of the whining of people who paint a picture of their lives as horrific only to overcome it all to become … a mediocre writer, and we are supposed to feel amazed, sorry, I know exactly how I sound. So you have, in my opinion the victims who want...more If there is one book genre I dislike is biographies, in general I find biographies too suspicious, after all how do I know the writer kept a neutral view of his subject? And I find auto-biographies self serving, how many times you find page after page of the whining of people who paint a picture of their lives as horrific only to overcome it all to become … a mediocre writer, and we are supposed to feel amazed, sorry, I know exactly how I sound. So you have, in my opinion the victims who want recognition, the superheroes who want attention, and the finger pointers who don’t want to take responsibility, only to find a few weeks later that the writer was a little flex on his facts or a little too creative on his accounts.
This book is not the case. Here the writer doesn’t want recognition, he’s not the hero of his story, and as I read I felt I was reading more of an investigative piece than a biography. His account is so moving and it touched strings I forgot I had in my heart. I have read many pieces about the Holocaust and I always find them heartbreaking, but here Mr. Wiesel not only presents the separation and anxiety of his circumstances, but also the disbelief that these horrific events could take place in our modern era.
I found myself wondering page after page how could this have happened? I found Mr. Wiesel’s voice in my head just saying why is no one doing anything? And slowly instead of sadness I became really angry, because I couldn’t understand how the guards were following these directions without question, how the soldiers did these things without blinking, how the Kopa cooperated, I became angry at their neighbors who look upon them being taken, at his parents for not running away. I then became angry at myself because I let things like this happen too, today, now … they are happening, they are there for us to see and we know, and yet we do nothing. Not much has changed, human rights are being violated everyday in Darfur, racial killings happen in Azerbaijan daily, systematic starvation is common place in South Africa as a means of extermination by the guerrillas who control the region, drug lords torture and kill thousands to get their way in Colombia, EVERY DAY ... and we do nothing. I wonder if History will look at our generation with the same disgust I look upon the generation that let the Jewish people suffer this way. I wonder if this is just human nature and we are condemned to let the worst of us do these things, while the rest lives their happy lives untouched.
...less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Tracy rated it:

03/24/08

bookshelves: auto-and-biography

This book is brutal. I expected it to be emotionally draining, but it was even more so than what I had imagined. It is so vividly written and so unflinchingly honest. Reading these words, the mind reels, the stomach churns and the heart breaks.

When I finished it, I sat thinking about certain parts and wishing I could un-read them. But then it occurred to me that sharing Mr. Wiesel's horrifying experience at this safe remove is the least I can do and perhaps the right thing to do.

"N...more

Like this review? yes (12 people liked it)

20 comments

Emanuel rated it:

09/04/07

bookshelves: nonfiction

I might too stingy in giving stars for this book. A friend of mind recommended the book to me. My rating for this book doesn't mean that I discredited the book or dislike it. The book is good, and i love memoirs, especially those slice of life true story with past experiences, no matter if it's good or bad or worse experiences.

Weeks after i finished "Night", I got a dvd of movie called "Fateless", the movie is really good, but, the story very similar to Wiesel's "Nig...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

2 comments

Rick rated it:

01/11/08

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in March, 2007

Slender, grimly understated memoir of a teenager’s experience at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Night tells its tale of horror without flinching or any sensationalism either. It begins on the eve of the Nazi takeover of Hungary, in 1944, and concludes with the liberation of Buchenwald in April, 1945. In between, Elie finds himself torn from his bookish studies of Jewish mysticism in his quiet town of Sighet and marched, with all the town’s other Jews, regardless of class or station, to Auschwitz ...more Slender, grimly understated memoir of a teenager’s experience at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Night tells its tale of horror without flinching or any sensationalism either. It begins on the eve of the Nazi takeover of Hungary, in 1944, and concludes with the liberation of Buchenwald in April, 1945. In between, Elie finds himself torn from his bookish studies of Jewish mysticism in his quiet town of Sighet and marched, with all the town’s other Jews, regardless of class or station, to Auschwitz and a string of days, weeks, months, and years that could be truly described as hell on earth. The brutality, the recurring human roulette of selection (work or crematory), the deliberate starvation wreck havoc with the humanity of the victims, pitting them against each other, made to do everything in massed herds, beaten, demeaned, killed for any sign of resistance, they lose all. Fathers won’t defend sons, sons who steal from fathers. The only hope is to survive the Nazis, who prior to their takeover of Hungary were known to be losing the war—the Russians are advancing in the East, the Americans in the West. But thousands are killed or die daily so the rumors of the coming Nazi defeat are their own kind of torture. Examples of goodness are rare. A German Jew passing as a non-Jewish foreigner but, risking her cover, she aides Elie when he is badly beaten by his work Kapo. A Polish barracks head treats his charges with gentleness (and is removed from his duty as a result) and advises them to stick together as the only way to rise above the horror and to survive. Elie’s sisters and mother disappear early, as the men and women are sorted on arrival at Auschwitz, and he never sees them again. His father and he struggle together to survive but the father doesn’t make it, his health falters under the brutal conditions and he is taken from his sick bed to the crematory shortly before the camps are liberated. Wiesel shares his experience with brutal honesty. He doesn’t do much editorializing either, letting the account cast all the indictments. A necessary and deeply disturbing and moving account of the Nazi attempted genocide....less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Robert rated it:

01/25/08

bookshelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

Read in September, 2001

Elie Wiesel, Night (Bantam, 1960)

The first novel in Wiesel's well-known holocaust trilogy (Night, Dawn, and The Accident) was originally passed off by Wiesel as autobiography. While it's as incorrect to call Night complete fiction as it would be to hang that tag on, say, Bukowski's novel Hollywood, there's still an air of duplicity about it. Exaggerating and playing up the details of the production of a Hollywood film can be seen as amusing; exaggerating and playing...more Elie Wiesel, Night (Bantam, 1960)

The first novel in Wiesel's well-known holocaust trilogy (Night, Dawn, and The Accident) was originally passed off by Wiesel as autobiography. While it's as incorrect to call Night complete fiction as it would be to hang that tag on, say, Bukowski's novel Hollywood, there's still an air of duplicity about it. Exaggerating and playing up the details of the production of a Hollywood film can be seen as amusing; exaggerating and playing up the details of Auschwitz is probably best left to Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wiesel himself admitted the book contains fictional content decades ago, yet it's still marketed-- and, more depressingly, assigned to high school readers-- as straight autobiography. We're raising a generation who still believe the holocaust is called the holocaust because the Nazis lined up Jews in front of flaming trenches and pushed them in alive.

That said, I finally got over my distaste for Wiesel himself and cracked the cover on this. As a novel, there's certainly much to be said for it. It could be argued that Wiesel's style here is the basis for much of what's come to be known as extreme fiction (splatterpunk, etc.)-- Wiesel wouldn't allow himself to write about the holocaust for ten years after its end, and that time allowed him to adopt a detached, almost journalist-style air. Detachment, as we all know, is a much better way of getting horror across than high emotion. The book is quick and coherent, and Wiesel writes with an easy lucidity. The book is simple and easy to follow without the feeling that the author is ever talking down to his audience, which is definitely a point on the positive side. In fact, the only negative I can come up with about the text itself isn't really a negative at all-- there's another description of the forced march that takes up the last third of Night in Miklos Nyiszli's book Auschwitz, and Nyiszli goes into a bit more detail, which allows the reader to get a more personal view of the event. However, that's not to take anything away from Wiesel's account.

Certainly worth reading, but remember-- it IS a novel. ** 1/2 ...less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Adam rated it:

08/23/07

"Night" was sprawled across my lap as I waited for my flight at SLC airport. I was returning from an outdoor survival school when my girlfriend called. Through tearful gasps she told me of her grandmother's passing. From the juxtaposition of my survival and her grandmother’s dying questions arose. Elie Wiesel addresses similar questions in this lyrical testament to his experience in the camps. Who lives and who dies? Does one survive because of a miracle or by odd chance? ...more "Night" was sprawled across my lap as I waited for my flight at SLC airport. I was returning from an outdoor survival school when my girlfriend called. Through tearful gasps she told me of her grandmother's passing. From the juxtaposition of my survival and her grandmother’s dying questions arose. Elie Wiesel addresses similar questions in this lyrical testament to his experience in the camps. Who lives and who dies? Does one survive because of a miracle or by odd chance? The answer is not an answer. Instead it is the questions which are of consequence.

Early in the book Mr. Wiesel relates powerful experiences from his childhood. One of these is the advice he received from a Talmudic scholar. It is with rich profundity that a young Elie learns: “Every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer…” Therefore, this book is not filled with answers or, even, an attempt to find them. Rather it is a lyrical illustration of what Mr. Wiesel refers to as his “responsibility;” a responsibility to share his experience in the horrid Nazi Death Camps (what he called, during his Noble Peace Prize acceptance speech, “The Kingdom of the Night”).

Mr. Wiesel bears this burden of responsibility by recounting poignant moments from the constant terror of his early history. The tragic countenance of an angelic boy slowly dying at the end of a hangman’s noose. The heart wrenching sound of a friend’s violin playing its final song to an audience of the dead and dying. And, the last utterances from his dying father lying in the bunk beneath Elie.
With questions so dire, Mr. Wiesel realizes a simple answer would be irresponsible. Instead his response is to command his memories of death to be etched into the minds’ of future generations; thereby raising life from the dead. This is the responsibility of the living to the deceased. As it is now the responsibility of my girlfriend and her family to remember “Mama’s” love of art, her appreciation of dance, and, of course, the way her face would light up anytime the words “Hershey’s chocolate bar” were mentioned.
...less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Zaneta rated it:

03/21/08

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: everyone (:

Night Banton Books, 1987, 120 pgs., $9.00
Eli Wisel ISBN # 0553272535

Have you ever wondered what World War II would be like in the shoes of a Jew? As you may know, horrible and terrifying, was just a few of the emotions you would feel about World War II. Life was not life. Happiness was having a good meal to eat, or not getting killed right on the spot. But now try to think about all of this in the shoes of someone who went through ever...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

8 comments

Daniel M. rated it:

07/22/07

Read in January, 2003

I had put off reading this story for a variety of reasons, main among them that I knew what I would be facing, and was eager to find an excuse not to. After having been to the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany, the images of the now-dead ovens still linger somewhere in the recesses of my mind, and to back to it, to read from someone who went through it, was not something I readily wanted to do. But I did; I gathered myself up and read through in a couple of days, the end of the book taking me...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Rachel T. rated it:

04/07/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: anyone

The book that I read was "Night" by Elie Wiesel. This book is by a true survivior of the Holocaust. I thought this was a very good book and it gives you insight to what the Holocaust could've been like. It's is a very moving book and throughout the book it is unbeliveable to read about how the Nazis treated people. The book takes place during the Holocaust along with Elie's sister, mother. But main characters are Elie and his dad. Throughout the story it shows how unexpectedly the ...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Sammy rated it:

06/13/07

bookshelves: the-best

Read in March, 2006

I honestly cannot review this book in the manner I often try to review most my books. In a critique. I also felt it wrong to give this book any sort of grade. With this book the style doesn't matter, the writing doesn't matter, the structure doesn't matter! The only thing you should focus on when reading this book is the humanity (or sometimes lack thereof) of it.

Everyone should read this book. Everyone needs to understand what went on behind those walls. They need to understand that this ha...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Jennem rated it:

01/17/08

bookshelves: non-fiction

In the preface to the newest translation of Night, Elie Wiesel writes, "If in my lifetime I was to write only one book, this would be the one."

I love to read. Books are like air to me. Books are my vice. All kinds of books. Classics. Biographies. Romance. Memoirs. Chick-lit. Books on politics. Mysteries. So long as the literary style is readable, I'll read it, whatever it might be.

But if, in my lifetime, I was to read only one book, Night would be that book.

T...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comments

Wibowo rated it:

05/10/08

bookshelves: general-nonfiction

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in May, 2008

Night is Elie Wiesel's accounts of what he experienced as a Jew in Nazi's concentration camps.

The book itself is slim (120 pages only), but it managed to capture the cruel deeds of the Nazis back then. Wiesel's sentences were short, simple, yet deep. The edition I own starts with a foreword by Wiesel and Francois Mauriac, the French nobel laureate who helped put Wiesel's book into publication, and ends with Wiesel's nobel peace prize acceptance speech in 1986.

The story itself was genera...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

HRH rated it:

02/12/08

Read in February, 2008

This book was short but very difficult to get through. It isn't the sort of thing one likes to read after a hard day at work. It tells the true story of Elie Wiesel, a Romanian Jew who, at age 15, survived the horrors of four Nazi concentration camps between 1944 and 1945. And it ended abruptly which made me scour the internet for more information or some time of happier ending. The book was terrifying. With every incident I had to remind myself that this was not a novel, but a memoir and that,...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Kat rated it:

01/19/08

bookshelves: eyeopening

recommends it for: anyone with a soul

I teach this book yearly, but my students seemed distant from the true reality of the story. When I use the Holocaust Museum's interactive of Lola Rein's dress, it hits them. Real people, real history. The immediacy of the tragedy that was Wiesel's then comes to life in a way that a junior or senior can grasp. I also tell the story of my friend, Ida, and her "no grandparents". That is the hardest part for me as it is so personal. She was the daughter of survivors - she had no grandpare...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

Dj M rated it:

04/07/08

Night by Elie Wiesel was a very interesting novel. Throughout the story the reader goes along with the narrator, Elie, as the Holocaust takes place. Elie and his family are Jewish and as we know many of the Jews living in European countries during Hitler’s rain in power, were sent to concentration camps. The story of Elie during the Holocaust is one that was greatly written and will forever be important. Two very key topics that Elie speaks upon in the story are father son bonds and deter...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Eric rated it:

01/14/08

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: all people

This is possibly the best book I have ever read. It is one of the best examples of historical events that i ever read. It is about a teenager named Eliezer (who is also the author) who was taken away from his home and put into the ghetto and eventually the concentration camps. It tells of all the experiences and struggles he had to go through. It shows how bad the Holocaust was and how bad the Nazis under Hitler were treating the Jews and other groups. For example, Eliezer is constantly being mo...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Adam rated it:

01/14/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: anyone, really

We had to read this book in English, and I was kind of dreading doing so. Why? Because it was right before the holidays, and I heard it was a depressing book. That's the last thing I need, being depressed during Christmas. ANYWAYS, it turned out to be really good and definaelty worth my time. It starts off kind of slow though, so if you can endure that, then the last 50-something pages will really reward you.

The book is about Elie Wiesel (author) and his father, and their experiences during ...more

Like this review? yes

1 comments

Ginnie rated it:

01/19/08

bookshelves: memoirs

Raised in an Orthodox family in Sighet, Transylvania, Wiesel was liberated from Buchenwald at age 16. In unsentimental detail, “Night” recounts daily life in the camps — the never-ending hunger, the sadistic doctors who pulled gold teeth, the Kapos who beat fellow Jews. On his first day in the camps, Wiesel was separated forever from his mother and sister. At Auschwitz, he watched his father slowly succumb to dysentery before the SS beat him to within an inch of his life. Wiesel wri...more

Like this review? yes

2 comme