Night
Written in spare, chilling language, Night is Elie Wiesel's memoir of imprisonment at the Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Buchenwald, during the last two years of World War II. He details his family's forced removal from their home, the unexpected separation from his mother and sisters, and the deprivation and abuse he and his father suffered in the camps.
Though difficult to read at times, Night acts as important testimony to the depths of human evil — and the strength of the human will to survive.
Quote:
“For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
Author:
Elie Wiesel (1928 - 2016) was a writer, professor, and activist. Born in what is now Romania, he was imprisoned in several concentration camps during World War II. After the war, he lived in France and then moved to the United States in 1955.
Published: 1958
Length: 115 pages
Main settings: Poland (Auschwitz) and Germany (Buchenwald)
Secondary setting: Sighetu Marmației, Romania
Translated by: Marion Wiesel