Ratings595
Average rating4.3
If you should happen to be studying the Holocaust or are looking for some memoirs this would be the book I recommend for you. Truly haunting and powerful accounts of what happened inside a Nazi camp that will stay with you forever.
This was the first thing we read as a class in my Honor's 10th grade Lit class this semester. I gotta say I probably (probably being defined as 100% certain) wouldn't have read this simply by seeing it here or on a shelf somewhere. I had to be forced to do it. But after we read the first chapter together, I got pulled into it and ended up finishin it a week before I was supposed to. It has a great message that needs to be preserved and passed on.
This book was alright, it was kinda boring. In the beginning he was just kinda sitting at home, but near the end there was more action. Even though it was boring, it was good because it gave us a first hand account of the holocaust and educated us about what happened. From this we can be educated to prevent this from happening again.
I'm deducting a star simply because of my own opinion - I was quite depressed/upset at the time of reading and found the book increasing my sadness.
Looking back, Night is such a heartbreaking novel that really tugs on those heartstrings to the point of snapping. It's a testament to the bravery and courage that exists in the souls of the survivors of the Holocaust.
Reading this book will really make you understand the depth of suffering the 8 million+ Jews endured. This book is as powerful as The Diary of Anne Frank or Between Shades of Gray.
I'd expected a more factual account, but this is an exceptional piece of literature regardless and fulfills its purpose. The author illustrates his experiences so vividly that, although it was emotionally taxing, I could not stop reading.
I have an interesting story behind this book before my review starts. When I first learnt about the Holocaust when I was about fourteen by looking around on Wikipedia, and I went to my mom asking if she knew what it was, she pivoted, and looked like "It's time for the talk." After a brief lesson on what the Holocaust was, she told me, "You're skipping school tomorrow and coming to the mall with me."
She bought me Night and just simply told me to read it that day. I started in the ride home, and never stopped this memoir. As you're reading it, and you're reading it as if you're experiencing it for the first time, I see why my mom bought it for me the very next day I asked about the Holocaust and what happened.
In my opinion, I think this is one of the most vital books about the Holocaust that's ever been written, and it's one everyone needs to read at least once in their entire lives.
Summary: This is the heartbreaking and autobiographical story of Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy who was forced into a concentration camp during World War II. The book reveals the horrors of the Holocaust and the emotional toll that it took on the Nazis’ victims.
It's strange to rate this, considering. I don't have words for it- just numbness.
This book was so hard to read. How can anyone that hasn't been in a concentration camp fathom what the people had to endure. We can read about it and try to understand, but we will never fully understand what they've been through. The extreme terror they must've felt, the pain, the neverending hunger, the Germans screaming and beating them up, being a NUMBER instead of an actual person with a NAME.
This book is so important and if you only read one book about World War II, read this one. It's raw, it's heartbreaking, it's suffocating.
Powerful account of the Holocaust. It doesn't describe the trauma he went through in heavy/great detail, but Night hit me with the day-to-day horrors that Elie endured and his thoughts about them while in the camps, as well as each short moment when something else was taken from him and his life was changed again.
“Night” by Elie Wiesel is a moving and impactful account of the author's experiences during the Holocaust. The book takes the reader through the brutal reality of the Holocaust and the effect it had on his life. Wiesel's writing style is straightforward and effective, making the reader feel the gravity of the events described. The book is a personal testament to the atrocities committed during that time and will linger in the mind of the reader long after finishing it.
One of the most striking aspects of the book is how Wiesel manages to convey the immense suffering and trauma of the Holocaust in a raw and personal way. He does not shy away from describing the concentration camps in detail, but also delves into the emotional and psychological impact it had on him and those around him.
The day before I started reading this, a video went viral showing a sinkhole open up in a hotel pool in Israel. One person was sucked inside and died while others barely escaped. If you looked at the tweets about the video, most of them celebrated that a Jewish person had been killed or were disappointed that only one person died. It was a good reminder that, though it's not as obvious right now, hating Jewish people and wanting them dead never really went out of style.
And that's why Elie Wiesel's memoir is so important. The book chronicles his experience as a teenager during the Holocaust, where he and all the Jews in Transylvania were sent to ghettos, then shipped in cattle cars to concentration camps. Most of the book details he and his father's attempts to stay alive, trying to avoid “selection” that would send them to the crematorium.
The book details unimaginable horrors, but perhaps the scariest thing of all is that as time goes by, Wiesel gets desensitized to it. After seeing so much horror and misery, he becomes numb, as does the reader of his story.
It's easy to become numb to the brokenness, hatred, and evil in our world. When the concentration camps were liberated, people started using the slogan “never again” as a rallying cry and an admonition to the rest of the world. But such a promise means remembering and recognizing the horrors of the Holocaust. “Night” is one important document to help with that task.
“From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.”
Rating this book out of 5 stars is just wrong.
Elie Wiesel narrates his father and his experiences at Auschwitz with gruesome detail, full of anguish.
Somehow, I keep coming back to Holocaust survivor stories. They give me the strength to power through my own difficulties and make my problems seem insignificant.
Maybe that is a little selfish on my part.
But it always leads me to appreciate the little things in life more than before.
The book reminded me of another good book on the Holocaust : Man's search for meaning.
A must read for every human.
There's not much that I feel qualified to say, and that doesn't usually stop me from saying a lot anyway but in this case it does. All that I can think of is that at certain parts of the book the question came to my mind: “Is this actually real or are these bits embellishments?” By the time I got to the end I realized it didn't matter. This is not a textbook. It is a memoir about trying to tell the world about humans subjected to dehumanization. It succeeds.
Read for school-
Analyzing this book for school was very insightful, and was a great pace. Not my favorite but gets 5 stars because of how well it was written
the writing style kinda ruined it for me but its translated so of course it might be a bit weird.
I love Holocaust stories (especially true stories) bc I'm a history lover but I didn't enjoy this book as much. :(
Please, read this book.
I read this book in 8th grade for school. I'm thankful for the exposure then, to the raw and tragic realities of the holocaust. Now, close to 15 years later, those realities break me in new ways. Elies story and words are important marks of history, history that we cannot repeat but I fear we will. His story is one that may challenge others to help stop us from ever forgetting the victims and survivors of Hitler's regime, or repeating the mistakes of those who stood idle and watch culture shift towards hatred and bigotry.