Night

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Summary: one night in night
Review: The book Night is a text which comments on the brutal incidents of the Holocaust.It takes you emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and visually through the trials and tribulations of Jews and other unfortunate captives during this period.
In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, you get to live out the nightmare of the holocaust through the eyes of a 13 yr old Jew boy. This book really helps the reader visualize events by giving descriptive details of every element.It takes you through the happier times and the burdens of the father and son relationship.Throughout the book you will definetly notice the disrespectful oversight the SS officers, Gestapo, and ultimetly even the Jews have for a human life. From the emancipated lives to ones of bondage in the ghetto, from children being incenerated to the lenching of a single child, to the concentration camp and finally refuge, this book unquestionably takes you through everything.
Night was very enlightening. I cant say I liked the book because it was disturbing, nor that I disliked it because it was informative. I would reccommend this book to everyone, because I feel everyone should know the genocide that occured.


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Summary: Learning to conceive of minds different from one's own.
Review: God bless Elie Weisel, the author of "Night," for sharing with others a sense of what it was like to try to exist behind barbed wire in a Nazi concentration camp. Such unconscionable inhumanity should, in of itself, confirm the notion that "Evil" does exist in the world, and can rear its head if given the opportunity to do so & not resisted. How many times must this lesson be learned? Cambodia, Rwanda---to lesser extents in Iraq (mass graves of 100s of thousands of Saddams victims), Bosnia, and now in Sudan. It's not the possibility of "evil" that is our problem though. It is our unwillingness to recognize it swiftly enough so that we may be able to do something about it in time. With Sudan look how the world continues to give that government the benefit of the doubt as thousands are exterminated---with only Colin Powell & President Bush calling it what it is: genocide. Yet the world....papered over reports of Lenin & Stalin's butchery until such dirty deeds were completed by said dictators; looked the other way in Cambodia; ignored Rwandans; and stood up for Saddam Hussein even after 17 United Nations' Resolutions declaring him in breech of international law. Mass murder by brutal regimes may be impossible to prevent in all cases, but we sure can try our best therein & books such as Mr. Weisel's---showing the face of evil, so we can better recognize it for what it is---are must reading, consequently. I'm heartened that many teenage students are exposed to this book in schools across the USA annually; for only through education can people become men & women "of the world", intellectually speaking; and only by becoming such can come "to conceive of minds of men markedly different from themselves"---ie., ones instilled by evil. The words are Soviet historian Robert Conquest's, one of the few lonely voices who sought to enlighten the world vis-a-vis Stalin's murderous behavior, when liberal and leftist's excused such away with the notion that "one has to break a few eggs to make an omelette"---the idea that building socialist ends outweighed treating humans as living/feeling beings. That's why Elie Weisel so often speaks publicly that to forget what happened in Nazi Germany is not going to help us prevent incarnations of such behavior from occurring in the future. We are not lving up to his admonitions, of course, but---thankfully, we are beginning to make some headway of late (Mr. Weisel himself supporting President Bush's confrontation with Saddam Hussein.) Having just read "Saddam: King of Terror" by Con Coughlin---how Iraqis (by the tens/hundreds of thosands) were tortured by being lowered into boiling water and/or acid, amongst other unspeakable methods short of a bullet to the head for saying "Boo", Mr. Weisel's book/experience/words remain ever relevent still. P.S. I listened to the audio version of "Night" and hearing such words that make up this book were perhaps more moving than had I re-read them (having first read the book some years back). Hence, I offer up the suggestion of considering the audio edition of this book as an alternitive to the bound version. Cheers!

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Summary: My opinion
Review: Night is a book focused on the holocaust that took place in the 1940's and 1950's. It is written from one of the survivors, Elie Wiesel. Night is narrated by Eliezer, a Jewish adolescent who lives in his hometown of Sighet, in Hungarian Transylvania. Elie explains his treacherous past with his experiences with the Nazis. His horrifying story has certainly made a positive impact on different readers as well as myself.
I like how Elie explained how the other Nazis tortured the other Jews. It gave the reader a sense of what was going on, and let the reader use their imagination. Elie's viewpoint is restricted to his own experience, and the tone of Night is therefore extremely personal, subjective, and cherished. Night is not meant to be an all-encompassing discussion on the experience of the Holocaust instead; it depicts the very personal and painful experiences of this single victim. Elie tries to keep his father with him throughout the story but also had to face the struggle to maintain faith in a compassionate God.
The whole book was depressing, especially at the end when Elie's father past away. It was a relief to hear when the U.S army came. It gave hope to hear that after all the killings, the U.S army finally liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Jews had a chance to revenge their friends and family. By writing this book, Elie Weasel has exposed the evil that the Nazis have given to the Jews and has given me a whole different perspective on the Nazis.

Rating:
Summary: Tragic, Gripping, Moving
Review: This concise and moving autobiographical novel by (1986 Nobel Prize winner) Ellie Wiesel makes a powerful statement. Wiesel was a Jewish teenager living with his family in the village of Sighet, Rumania in 1944 when the Germans came for them. As it was, Wiesel describes surviving Nazi concentration camps while his family and neighbors were either killed outright or wasted away from hunger and disease. We share the author's fears and survival instincts, and comprehend the callousness that he and his fellow inmates developed to maintain both their lives and their sanity. Few statements about the Nazi holocaust against the Jews, Gypsies, and other "enemies of the state" are as poignant as this sorrow-filled account. If anything, this readably moving account is too short.