Night is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War. In just over 100 pages of sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father–child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver.
Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary Of Anne Frank, Nightawakens 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.
If you’ve never read Night, it’s an absolute must-read! I’m not really sure where it comes from, but I really enjoy reading books about people’s experiences during the Holocaust. Perhaps it’s the fact that people are put in such bizarre and inhumane conditions and I like to see how they react and handle themselves. It shows human nature at its truest. I also feel that it’s such a poignant time history and that these people and their stories need to be heard.
I took a Holocaust Literature class in High School and this was one of the books we read. I’ve re-read it several times since then and always recommend it to others. It’s not a long book, but very much worth your time. This one, in particular, speaks on human nature and how different people react to extreme situations.
