Night
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.”
Night
Night is a first person narrative of Elie Wiesel’s time in the concentration camps during World War II. He was a devout Jewish boy of 15 when he entered. He left as a man whose faith had been decimated.
Wiesel reports the things he saw and experienced in a chilling, matter-of-fact way. He tells of the most horrendous sights, beatings he experienced, his father’s death in stark, straight-forward prose, almost as if he was just getting it down. There is a horrific beauty to his words.
This edition has a new translation by his wife, Marion Wiesel, and in the preface the author says he believes it to be a more accurate translation than the previous one. As a kind of epilogue, Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech is included. I’m very glad that this was added to the book, because it gave me hope that Wiesel once again believed in a good God.
Night is not an easy book to read, but it will be waiting on my shelf for my children to read as teens. His story should not be forgotten.
This is a powerful little book, isn’t it? There are a number of survivor stories on the market, some better than others although all quite powerful in their own way. I read Night last year and although I haven’t read his later book, I plan to someday. I’m trying to remember if the copy I read had the acceptance speech at the end . . . I think it did, but it’s been too long, I’m afraid. Great review, by the way.
July 7th, 2007 at 5:14 amI have this book on my shelf waiting to be read. Thanks to your review I may get to it a little sooner.
July 8th, 2007 at 11:58 am[...] Night by Elie Wiesel – 5 stars – related post [...]
March 1st, 2009 at 4:47 pm