Night (1958)

A really superb account of a young boy's experiences going from Sighet in Transylvania to Auschwitz. This book was a really emotional read and the sort of thing that should be taught in schools in my opinion. Bravely, Weisel also covers some of the more controversial aspects of his experiences when he effectively had to put his life before someone else's. Doing that must have been hard but admitting it and putting it into words afterwards for others to see must have been even harder. ( )

I still think this book is pretty fabulous. From a teaching perspective I would still give it 5 stars. From a "I Like to Read Books on My Own" perspective it would probably be like a 4. I don't typically like to read books where someone meaningful dies right at the end... but that does have to happen at times doesn't it? Especially during the Holocaust when the likelihood of a family member surviving was extremely slim in the first place. With that said, I believe that I will continue to teach this book for several years to come. ( )

This book was the first Holocaust memoir that I read in full, but for all that it’s a slim volume it has always stayed with me as a powerful experience, remembrance, and testimony. Coming back to it years later, this time without the lens of academia insisting on a thought-provoking analysis to get a good grade, I’m still left wanting to write. What I want to write, I’m not sure, though, as the book opens up so many emotions that I’m left with a feeling of emptiness and regret. Not regret for having read the book, of course, but regret that humanity sat idle and did nothing while those around them suffered; regret that those in power turned away refugees who would have elsewise been saved; regret that even with its shining moments humanity has at its core a darkness that must be acknowledged. Even with the hindsight of 75 years it often seems that we have yet to learn from the mistakes of the past, as we continue to allow those who warp power for their own gain to lead and to allow cruelty to overrule compassion. And yet, we have persevered throughout, so while the book may not leave readers with a happy feeling in their gut (or much more than a cliffhanger, not knowing what truly happens to the narrator until the subsequent books) we know that there are still next steps to be taken by those who are able and can make them. ( )

I'd never read this -- amazing? Or maybe I'm just that old. I'm kind of glad I waited because this is a new translation from the original Yiddish, done by Elie Wiesel's wife Marion, "who knows my voice and how to transmit it better than anyone else."

"The witness has forced himself to testify." And this person has at long last witnessed his testimony. It seemed necessary. Metta.

I read the first edition of this translation, a slim paperback with tanned pages, which I found at Goodwill.

Around the year in 52 books challenge notes:
#22. A book with the major theme of survival ( )

Harrowing and necessary, perhaps the more so in the current political climate in the U.S. At the beginning of the timeline, the people really had no idea of the enormity of was coming even in the face of mounting fear, and sometimes I worry that the same is true of current U.S. citizens, that in 2 years, or 4, or ten, we'll find ourselves in a place we would never today have conceived possible. ( )