I finished Elie Wiesel’s Night.

Dark is a poignant memoir of the personal trials and tribulations of Elie Wiesel, his family and other Jews of Hungary in late World War II.

It is a personal journey and at the same time a shared experience of many others who suffered at the hands of the Nazi’s.

Wiesel describes the period when the Jews of Hungary are placed into ghettos and later the trips through many different concentration camps where his sister and mother are separated from him and his father.

It describes the journey where both his faith in god and empathy towards others including his father ebbs as each day is a struggle to survive and keep his self from being selected for death.

A dark book that we need to read so that we are reminded of our inner strength and never forget the evil of the Nazi’s.

There are 5 star books and then there is this, which is important for us all to read. Never forget. ( )

(I'm only reviewing Night)
Night by Elie Wiesel is about Elie and his life before and during after the Holocaust. It starts off as him studying the Torah with his teacher Moishe. However, when Moishe is deported, he can no longer continue. When he returns, he tells everybody of the horrible things that the Gestapo did. Everyone thought he was crazy and didn't believe him. After a few months, Elie, along with the other Jews in his town, are forced to move into ghettos. Shortly after, they are loaded into cattle cars and are sent to Birkenau. He is separated from his mother sister and left with his father. They endure being shaved, disinfected and tattooed along with going through many selections. After being in camp for a while, Elie begins to lose his faith in God. At one point, he needs to have surgery on his foot, but the Russians were advancing and they needed the prisoners to march to Gleiwitz. During the march, Elie helped his father as much as possible. Unfortunately, his father later dies of dysentery.

I really enjoyed this book. It was detailed and personal, which I liked. This book presented the whole thing very nicely. Elie showed both the physical and mental problems that went on. I also liked that he showed his life a bit before the Holocaust. Once I started reading, I read straight through Night. It made my heart hurt to know that this was happening to people. I recommend for people interesting in the Holocaust. ( )

I first read Elie Wiesel's "Night" in high school and planned to give it a reread after he passed away. I was surprised to learn there was a trilogy so I picked up this book, which has fictional works "Dawn" and "Day" too. While the latter two are certainly heavy with the absolute turmoil that surviving the Holocaust caused, I didn't love the pairing of both fiction and nonfiction in one big work.

"Night," of course," tells the story of some of Wiesel's acutal experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. It was probably the first book about the Holocaust I ever read -- and even upon rereading, it's heart-wrenching, painful and moving to hear about the horrors from those who lived them.

"Dawn" takes a look at what might have happened had a survivor who had Wiesel's Holocaust experiences, moved to Palestine and become involved in the push to get Great Britain out of the country. What does it take to turn someone who was victimized into a killer himself? What role does God play the life of someone who witnessed what Wiesel witnessed? It's an interesting meditation, though I felt it wasn't as strong as the other stories.

"Day" was another fictional piece, (though it had an autobiographical vibe to it,) in which a Holocaust survivor struggles with an indifference toward the concept of death and a survivors' tactic of keeping his thoughts and feelings closed off as a sort of protective measure. While this short novel started off a little slowly, it gained momentum as it unfolded and I found it made me rather thoughtful about its themes. ( )

The first book made me cry; the second book made me think; the third book had me soul-searching. Each is so different yet communicates a range of emotions, thoughts and insights that are incredibly different. (I thought) I was prepared for Night - but was caught unawares at the depth of the human pain; I was drawn into the inner turmoil of Dawn and the deep religious and moral implications; The Accident was less compelling to me at first, but the final - so unexpected to me - scene helped completely reframe the story.

These are truly classics. Wiesel is a talented writer, but this is definitely his most raw and intense work. ( )