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This memoir is a horrifying portrait of the Holocaust, says Phil Mongredien

Phil Mongredien
The Observer, Saturday 19 December 2009

Elie Wiesel was 15 when the Nazis came for the 15,000 Jews of his hometown of Sighet, Transylvania, in May 1944. Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, his mother and sister were murdered within hours, while he was put to work as a slave labourer. Eight months later, the Germans evacuated the camp and forced the survivors on a death march that ended at Buchenwald. Wiesel was one of the few still alive when the Americans arrived in April 1945.

One of the most horrifying memoirs ever written, Night was first published in English in 1960. To mark Wiesel's 80th birthday, the Nobel laureate's wife, Marion, has produced a new translation. In stark, simple language, he describes what happened to him and to his family. It is hard to imagine anything more hellish than the picture he paints of his arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau: "Huge flames were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children."

Throughout, Wiesel conveys a collective sense of disbelief that "disciplined, educated men" could commit such crimes...

...Wiesel explains why he felt compelled to write Night, saying his "duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living"....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/dec...ght-elie-wiesel

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Another reminder to count our blessings.

I read this a couple of years ago. I do recommend it.

I met Wiesel and heard him speak at a synagogue in Haverford, Pa. about 20 years ago. It was heartbreaking. I couldn't and wouldn't read the book.

Hearing him tell of the horrors in person probably had more impact than just reading the book ever could. It wasn't an easy read but it was a necessary read.