Night: Memorial Edition

By Elie Wiesel and Marion Wiesel

Book Overview

A memorial edition of Elie Wiesel's seminal memoir of surviving the Nazi death camps, with tributes by President Obama and Samantha Power

When Elie Wiesel died in July 2016, the White House issued a memorial statement in which President Barack Obama called him "the conscience of the world." The whole of the president's eloquent tribute serves as a foreword to this memorial edition of Night. "Like millions of admirers, I first came to know Elie through his account of the horror he endured during the Holocaust simply because he was Jewish," wrote the president.

In 1986, when Wiesel received the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wrote, "Elie Wiesel was rescued from the ashes of Auschwitz after storm and fire had ravaged his life. In time he realized that his life could have purpose: that he was to be a witness, the one who would pass on the account of what had happened so that the dead would not have died in vain and so the living could learn." Night, which has sold millions of copies around the world, is the very embodiment of that conviction. It is written in simple, understated language, yet it is emotionally devastating, never to be forgotten.

Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were deported to Auschwitz and then Buchenwald. Night is the shattering record of his memories of the death of his mother, father, and little sister, Tsipora; the death of his own innocence; and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man.

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night," writes Wiesel. "Never shall I forget . . . even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself." These words are etched into the wall of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Far more than a chronicle of the sadistic realm of the camps, Night also addresses many of the philosophical and personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of the Holocaust.

In addition to tributes from President Obama and Samantha Powers, this memorial edition of Night includes the unpublished text of a speech that Wiesel delivered before the United Nations General Assembly on the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, entitled "Will the World Ever Know." These remarks powerfully resonate with Night and with subsequent acts of genocide.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374221995
• ISBN13: 9780374221997
• Release Date: September 2017
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Read this at least once in your life

Amazing. Haunting. His struggle with God, his grief, his feelings of emptiness... so powerful. I don't know if a young adult would understand the depth of his pain but this book should definitely be required in high school.

Sad but everyone needs to hear the truth.

Not the best Holocaust book I have read but it’s worth your time to read from one more survivors details about the most inhumane experience.

Slop

Seems like fiction

Propaganda and little else.

Propaganda and little else. Wiesel admitted to lying and making many of his “eye witness” stories up. Fabricated nonsense to elicit sympathy. This book should never be introduced to children in schools. In fact, it should be banned.

Heartbreaking and relevant in current times

People wonder how atrocities happen, how it sneeks up on you. This book tells the 1st hand account of how it happened before and should be taken as a warning for how it can happen again.

An Important Story

Every single person should read this book at least once. Deeply moving and eye opening. Please do yourself, your friends, your family, your neighbors, etc. a favor and pass this book along.

A must read

This is a must read of the first hand account of a young boys concentration camp survival. May we NEVER forget.

Must read

It blows my mind how in 120 pages this book is so impactful . A must read .

Elie Wiesel is a fraud.

Book of make believe and lies and in Mr Wiesels own words "it was real to me"

Well written and historical

Agree- a must read for all those non believers of the holocaust. Although I feel it fell short of being a great book, it is a GOOD read. As a history buff on WWII I guess I expected more factual documentation as well as the personal point of view from the survivor. This book should be required reading by those in America today-especially those who do not know the history this book represents.

A unbelievably sad and heart wrenching story about one boys experience..

Great book.

Hard read

I had to read this book for school. It was a VERY hard read because it's obviously a true story, but I believe having it be mandatory in school (atleast it was when I was there) is a good idea because it makes the holocaust real and not just something abstract (if that makes any sense). Recommended but have tissues.

Topical, Simple yet Affective.

Much shorter read than I anticipated, it’s blunt and unflinching. It’s so sad to see him reference the rise of Holocaust Denial in the preface given what it’s boiled up to today. Put this book in the hands of every high schooler.

A remarkably written piece of gut wrenching history.

As someone who does not usually read historical novels (due to their usual dryness) this story kept you on the edge of your seat albeit terrified. I felt the fear, sadness and hunger as if it was my own. These feelings were so tightly woven into the fabric of the story that only a true survivor could express them this way.

Necessary

Difficult subject matter that is an absolute must read for every human on this planet lest we forget the atrocities possible when left to the human fear response.

Must read

This was the first book I read about Auschwitz’s and it was such a great book. Very easy page turner. When I was reading it I felt like I was there. Definitely suggest.

Remembering the Holocaust is essential

Night is the perfect title for the author's interpretation of his experience from a hopeful youth in the bright early hours of his life, to the incomprehensible darkness he was plunged into. It was very emotional and deep. It changes the perspective of the reader throughout the entire story as you follow Elie on his journey and experience of the concentration camps. You will read the first word with one perspective and read the last word with a totally different one.

Inspiring

A truly exceptional recount of such a tragic time. His graphic account of what he witnessed should serve as a reminder to all that complacency is NEVER acceptable...or wise.

I have read it several times and always love it.

This book is just so good. It sucks me in and makes me cry and feel so deeply but it also causes me to ask religious questions.

Hard to read but worth the effort

Read this book in high school, had to get it again. Heart breaking story but so important to understand. Reads fast, can be read in a day but that would be emotionally taxing, I don’t recommend reading it in one setting.

beautiful and disturbing book

a very important read

Tough but insightful

A tragic read, but one that everyone should take in.

Should be required reading for all Americans!

Troubling, as was the times. A good read.

heart-breaking and real.

a true story of survival and family.

Very moving.

It puts into perspective exactly what people went through during the holocaust. This is a true story and I believe it was translated by Wiesel’s wife. It’s definitely a book worth reading.

Powerful

Wow. I started my college path to become a history teacher with a focus in the Holocaust. Sadly, things had to be put on hold due to finances. This is one of my favorite books regarding the Holocaust. It speaks to everyone who reads it, young, old, male and female. I think everyone can benefit to read it once, to be reminded of the cruelty that once (and sadly is coming back) in this world, to be reminded that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that things do get better if you keep your head up high. Highly recommend it.

Brutality of Apathy Revealed in Relentless Detail and Still Sadly Resonant Far Beyond the Holocaust

In a world that often feels like it is teetering toward relenting madness, Elie Wiesel's vividly haunting 1960 memoir still reminds us that there was a precedent for the deranged mindset that justifies acts of terrorism. In a concise, unadorned manner, he relives the spiraling insanity that surrounded the Jewish population of Sighet, Transylvania, as insulated a world as one could imagine and certainly a community who understandably could not embrace the insanity of the extermination occurring around them. Inevitably, they are taken to Auschwitz and Buchenwald, two of the most infamous concentration camps, where Wiesel provides painfully palpable detail of the day-to-day living conditions. He not only records the brutality and inhumanity of the Nazi guards toward the Jews, as other have, but more tellingly, describes the inhumanity of the camp inmates toward each other for the sake of survival. It's a stark peek into the nature of evil that is at once uncomfortable to acknowledge and invaluable to read and absorb. The propagation of evil from forces unexpected is what makes Wiesel's book resonate today. As we consider the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Dili and Liquica Church massacres in East Timor, the 1994 Rwandan genocide (dramatized in the superb film, 2004's "Hotel Rwanda"), or most pertinently, the detention camps that exist today in North Korea, it is obvious that the Third Reich did not have a monopoly on justifying such slaughter. With his two older sisters, Wiesel was able to survive the camps and share his devastating story with future generations. Compressed from a much larger memoir Wiesel wrote in Yiddish, the book represents a powerfully affecting treatment that edits the key moments of his existence to their essence. The result is elliptical and startling. Like Art Spiegelman's "Maus" series, William Styron's "Sophie's Choice", Thomas Keneally's "Schindler's List" and of course, the most heartbreaking, Anne Frank's diary, Wiesel's work lends yet another piercing look into the unanticipated breaches of the human soul during one of history's most dire times. Strongly recommended.

Incredible Journey Into the Dark Night of the Soul

Elie Wiesel's narrative of his own one-year experience spent in a concentration camp has appropriately become a classic in the field. Read it to find meaning in a seeming meaningless life. Read "Night" if you are going through your own "dark night of the soul" and want to find an answer to the perennial question, "Where is God?" Read "Night" if you think deeply about life and how it often falls on us and crushes us. Don't read "Night" only if you have a queasy stomach or the need to think that this life is a bed of roses. Wiesel discovered that, "God is there in the suffering." His explanation is anything but trite. Instead, it grapples candidly with the confusion that life can and does bring. Fortunately Wiesel's candor leads to hope--the confidence that behind the evils in this life there resides a good God working out plans in a mysterious, yet glorious, way. The inner depths and black darkness of "Night" call us not to squeamish forgetting but to stark remembering. For only in remembering will we insist, "Never again!" Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care And Spiritual Direction, and Soul Physicians.

A lean and powerful Holocaust narrative

"Night," by Elie Wiesel, has been translated from French by Stella Rodway. The copyright page notes that the book was originally published in French in 1958. The author bio at the end of the book informs us that the Hungarian-born Wiesel was deported to Auschwitz and Buchenwald and eventually received the Nobel Peace Prize."Night" is a first-person account of surviving the Nazi Holocaust. The narrative spans the years 1941-45 and recounts the atrocities committed against the European Jews by Hitler's regime. At 109 pages, the narrative is slim, but it is powerful.Wiesel vividly depicts the dehumanization of concentration camp inmates. He effectively recounts the details of life in the shadow of Hitler; the Holocaust experience is depicted as a nightmarish mix of absurdity and horror. Some key questions raised by the narrative are theological; for example, how can anyone continue to have faith in a deity in light of these horrors?Wiesel's prose, as translated by Rodway, is stark and grim--very effective for his subject matter. The well-written text leads up to a truly haunting final image. I recommend this book not only to those interested in the Holocaust, but to anyone interested in human cruelty and the human will to survive.