Night (Oprah's Book Club)

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.

Amazon.com Review
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.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Incredibly moving, 2008-12-27
This astonishing and very moving book is based on Elie Wiesel's youth in concentration camps during WW2. It begins with his childhood in Hungary, then his family's incarceration in a Jewish ghetto, then to Auschwitz (where he last sees his mother and sister) and later to Buchenwald. "Night" is made all the more haunting and powerful by the way that it is written so simply, in a matter of fact tone. Wiesel displays absolutely no self-pity as he describes the way that the Nazis wore them down and stripped them of their humanity, so that they were merely existing in a state of indifference to their fellow prisoners. The only thing that sustained him was being able (through both luck and determination) to remain with his father.

Last year I read the novel "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" and while that is moving, it is Disney-lite in comparison to this.

I have always wondered about some aspects of the Holocaust: why did more Jews not leave their countries when they had the opportunity do do so? Why didn't they heed warnings about what was happening elsewhere? Why did more not resist their oppressors? Wiesel explains this beautifully (within the parameters of his own experience).

When we think of concentration camps so often it is the gas chambers that is foremost, but Wiesel captures so many other horrors: men so starved that they will kill one another for a few crumbs of bread, being force-marched many miles through the snow, the terror of making the wrong decision on the rare instances when they were given a choice in some aspect of their fate.

This is a hauntingly sad, wonderful book.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Night by Elie Wiesel, 2008-12-17


Night by Elie Wiesel


Did you ever stop to think about what happened in World War II? Why so many people lost their lives? Why families were separated? Why these camps were put up to demolish races? Elie Wiesel wrote Night for us to remember that this tragedy shouldn't happen again. He explains his life and the disasters of World War II.the horror of Nazi /fascist death camps and memories of evil are summarized in Night.
Elie Wiesel writes about himself as a little boy in World War II. There was a group of men, from the village, that were removed by the Nazis. A rather smart, quiet man who was called Moshe the Beadle returned to the village with a bullet in his leg and a scar on his soul. He was one of the men taken from the village, but faked his death. He begged the village to believe him but they laughed and said he was crazy. No one wanted to believe Moshe even though the town was going through the steps of disengagement and disaster. Elie experienced Jewish ghetto and death camps. Nazis would search the corners constantly. He couldn't play or talk with the other kids. He and his family are taken to a concentration camp and he witnesses his family's death. He starts to disbelieve in God and starts questioning himself. He constantly repeats it in his mind that this may never happen again. That singling out people because of their religion, color, or disabilities is not right and shouldn't happen again.
I have read many books about World War II but none of them gave me as much as information as Night. I've read The Upstairs Room, Coming Evil, and the Devils Arithmetic's, but I haven't got into as much as depth as in this book. These books are very similar because they are all about kids in World War II that are trying to capture freedom. The biggest strength of Night is description of the time and the place of the event. For example he says, "There was joy- yes joy. Perhaps they thought that God could have devised no torment in hell worse than that of sitting there among the bundles, in the middle of the road, beneath a blazing sun; that anything would be preferable to that." He also describes the characters very well. How they walk and how they talk is like a picture in your head. I think Elie should be more specific on telling the reader how much time has past because sometimes I got lost at some points because Elie misinforms me of the time during some parts of Night. I think he did a very good job on titling the book but you will find out why when you read it.
In conclusion, this book has something for all readers. I believe it is a complete book because it has good description, very nice wording, and is factual. I would read this book again and again. This book is noted in Oprah's favorite books read; this gives you more reason to read it.



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

That none should ever forget, 2008-12-14
Profound, haunting, and quite simply one of the best-written, most heart-wrenching books I have ever had the honor of reading. This book should be added to every high-school curriculum so that no child goes forward in life not understanding the profoundness of evil of which human beings are capable. Wiesel delves into your soul with this dark, engaging, necessary autobiography.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

A book that every generation should read, 2008-12-10
One of the main circumstances that made the Holocaust possible and still fuels the doubters that question whether it happened is that it is so unbelievable. The idea that a modern nation would develop the policy to simply exterminate an entire race of people was inconceivable before it happened. When the Jews of Wiesel's hometown of Sighet were told that the Nazis were killing all Jews, they reacted with disbelief. This was not just simply denial; there were many logical reasons to believe that it was just a vicious rumor. They could think of no reason why the Germans would kill off a valuable human asset, one that could aid them in their battle with their enemies.
Unfortunately, as any intelligent person now understands, it was a brutal reality. Wiesel was a teenager when he and his Jewish neighbors were rounded up and taken to Auschwitz. Their lives immediately changed from one of neighborly assistance to one of every person for themselves, where the most precious item was food. Like so many other people, Wiesel was willing to barter everything he had, including the golden crown on his tooth, for more food. Children beat their own parents in the struggle for food and the most common thought when someone died was concerning whether they could get their food ration. Death was with them constantly; people lived for one day at a time.
As a student of history, I know that the Holocaust took place, yet there are times when I find it difficult to fathom. The idea that people, including children, could be tossed into fires like old newspapers and that assembly line tactics would be invented to kill people is a difficult one to accept. My daughter read this book in her high school language arts class and she recommended that I read it. After doing so, I am happy that it is part of the reading curriculum, as it is a story that must never be forgotten. While this will not guarantee that it will never happen again, it will reduce the chances.



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Night, 2008-11-24
This was an amazing book. Anyone wanting to study WW2 and or just the Holocaust, this is the book to read. I rate it right up there with the Diary of Anne Frank. It is an amazing story that pulls you so you can't put it down!

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