Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Night



By Elie Wiesel

I read the book Night for the first time about 6 years ago. I recently decided to read it again upon hearing that it had been re-released in a new translation. This new edition was translated by Wiesel's wife and therefore is meant to be closer to original message the author was trying to communicate.

If you have never heard of the book or don't know what it is about, it the author's account of his own experiences in the Nazi concentration camps. He was teenager at the time and went through the camps with his father. For some reason, I have always been fascinated about this period in history and especially in regards to stories of the Holocaust. I feel that Night is one of the best. Everyone and anyone should read this book. It is not a very long book, only 100 pages, but the impact that the story leaves is staggering!

For me, one of the fascinating parts of this book is that it is so short, but Wiesel gets across a tremendous amount of emotion and meaning. He does this with simple phrases and sentences. He uses simple language so that everyone can understand.

Wiesel won a Nobel Prize for his work regarding educating people of the Halocaust. He wrote several other books besides Night. I have not yet read any of the other, but would like to! I once read in an interview with the author that his goal was to educate people of the Holocaust so that something like this does not happen again. It amazes me when I read these stories that, in the modern world, the Holocaust was allowed to happen in the first place! I hope that by reading these stories we learn from them!

You should definately read this book! It is not a long book and could be read in an afternoon! Then sit back and reflect on how lucky we are to lead the lives we lead!