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Summary: Scary reminder of what mankind is capable of
Comment: I learned four things from this book. First; people are capable of doing the most horrific of deeds to each other. I seriously hope I would never do those types of things; but I have never been put in that type of situation. Second; other people are able to allow these things to happen without intervening. This is trickier, because it happens all of the time; we know bad things happen far away and feel others will take care of it. How would I react if it were happening in my own community? Third; we have a hard time accepting extremely bad news. The Jewish community had first hand accounts of the atrocities being committed, but didn't believe them. I've always wanted to believe the best and am not sure I would have acted any differently than the majority of the Jews from his little town. Fourth; some people are capable of surviving the most horrific and trying things. I'm not sure I would have been one of the survivors; it would have been easy to just give up and die. I'm so very glad that there were survivors to tell the story.
It is very interesting to see different reactions to horrible suffering as seen in the Holocaust. Wiesel documents his loss of faith in God; which would be easy to understand. As a contrast; I would recommend Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning; which documents another survivor and how he dealt with the horrors around him.
This short book is a must read. It got me thinking.
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Summary: heart wrenching
Comment: In this true account of a man who has lived trough one of history's biggest atrocity, you'll find a boy facing a cold world. Forced to grow up much too fast, he becomes a man, who has to ask the important questions and has to live with the answers no matter how vague and how inconclusive. I don't know how he still believes in God.
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Summary: The banal becomes terrifying, the terrifying becomes everyday "normal"
Comment: The beauty of this book lies in Elie Wiesel's ability to turn everything we know inside-out. He succeeds in taking something so extraordinary large as the Holocaust, and transforming it into something intimate and extremely personal through his restrained voice.
Through his eyes, in equal turns subjective and dispassionate, the banal becomes terrifying, the terrifying becomes everyday"normal". In a heartbeat, hope gives way to despair, but despair just as quickly can give way to hope. Wiesel's world inside the concentration camps is a world gone mad, that he manages to contain in a strange sanity that helps us, the reader, grasp and understand a small bit of what he and others experienced in Nazi Germany.
Best of all, Wiesel's restrained voice makes this book suitable for a mature, young adult reader. The story is terrifying, but it is not told with the intent to terrify the reader. The ultimate message of the work is one of hope, survival and humanity.
I listened to Night unabridged on audio CD, performed by Jeffery Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt succeeds in the ultimate task of a performer for a work like this - not going over the top, staying true to the author's voice, and letting the words and story speak for themselves.
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Summary: Human Words Cannot Convey the Story
Comment: If you come across someone who wonders whether or not human beings are totally depraved, hand them a copy of this book. Night is a short book describing Wiesel's year in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
The book begins with Wiesel's family living peacefully in Transylvania during the later years of World War II. Trouble seems distant though rumors abound. The Jewish community in Sighet continues to live and love just as before. Wiesel tells about a devout Jewish man who had witnessed the horrors of a concentration camp and escaped. Upon arrival in the village, he began to warn everyone of the impending danger. But the villagers scoffed at his warnings. They did not believe that humans were capable of such evil. Even after the Jews were moved to the ghetto, Wiesel describes his family as still hoping and trusting that nothing worse would take place.
Then, the concentration camp. Wiesel describes in horrific detail the "chimney," - the place where Jews (even babies) were thrown alive into a blazing fire. Wiesel rebels against God. He refuses to fast on Jewish holy days. He questions the existence of God. The human evil of Auschwitz is too overwhelming to comprehend. Wiesel claims that human words cannot express the suffering he experienced.
Throughout the narrative, Wiesel expresses shock and dismay at the evil of his persecutors. But intermingled into his account is his surprise at his own depravity manifested in his basest instincts. His recollections are littered with regret, with anger, and remorse.
Wiesel's account forces the reader wrestle with questions about human depravity, God's sovereignty, the reason for suffering. The most disturbing scene in the book takes place when an innocent boy only 12 years old is forced to die, though he did not commit the crime for which he is punished. He and three others are placed on the gallows and hanged. The rest of the prisoners are forced to walk by and look squarely into the faces of the executed. But "the third rope was still moving. The child, too light, was still breathing... And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writing before our eyes..."
"Behind me, I heard the same man asking, `For God's sake, where is God?'" And from within me, I heard a voice answer: `Where He is? This is where - hanging here from this gallows...'"
This account is a turning point for Wiesel. In his thoughts at that time, God is dead. Yet, as a Christian, I sense something deeper in this story. In the midst of human suffering and evil, I too look to an Innocent One dying an excruciating death. And when considering the depth of human evil and the love of a good God, I too ask, "Where is God?" and then see the form of a cross. "He is here, hanging on this tree..."
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Summary: Elie, a brave boy and a survivor
Comment: Night is a book that truly makes you think and feel. What happened to the Jewish people is devastatingly awful.My mom homeschools my siblings and they chose to listen to Night on audio tape. Everyone was enraptured in Elie's story wanting to know what happened to him. I think everyone should read Elie's story or hear it at some point in your life, because it makes you grateful for your own life and because everyone should know what the Germans did to the Jews. That time in history should never be forgotten.
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