"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 the 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."

Everyone should read this book.

Lest we forget. ( )

A near constant kick in the gut. Wiesel's plain and clear descriptions lay what happened to him - and millions of others - bare and gives no place for the reader to hide. After the first few minutes of the book and going on straight through to the last word, my throat was tight with emotion.

A book every American should have to read. ( )

I don't really know how to review this. It should be read. That's all. ( )

An account of the author being taken from his village by the Nazi's and how he and his father fared in the concentration camps. Brutally honest so hard to read or listen to at times, but a well written account that makes the author's experiences come to life in your mind. An extremely important memoir of a time that must not be forgetten. ( )

Description from back of book

Night - a terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family...the death of his innocence...and the death of his God. Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary of Anne Frank, Night awakens 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.

My Comments

I'll say it right out. I don't like Holocaust books. Now it isn't that I don't think they're important, or anything like that. They just make me sick. They make me sick to my stomach and they make me ashamed to be human. I realize it is important to read and understand the horrors in our past, but this isn't something I like to do for fun. Once in a while, though, I think it's important to read one, so that's what I did. I also don't like reading books in translation. I always feel I'm missing the cadence of the original language, missing the beauty and poignancy that the original words brought to the text. But unfortunately it becomes a necessity since I don't speak anything other than English (fluently, anyway). These two reasons are why it gets four stars instead of five.

This book was powerful. It was sad, heartbreaking, and emotional despite (because of?) its Hemmingway-esque simplicity. The sadness, the bleakness, the utterly hopelessness conveyed in this book are utterly devastating, culminating in a young boy's complete loss of faith not only in humanity but in his God. A remarkable work, although very, very, very dark and depressing. But I guess that makes sense, as it's describing first hand one of the very very darkest points in human history. ( )