Night by Elie Wiesel is a powerful book about a jewish child and his family caught up in a concentration camp. It is an autobiography. We are reading it for class, and I thought it would be a great book to talk about. Here is a few links:

The book's site
Wikipedia on Night
Elie Wiesel's Bio

I believe he choose not to talk about the expierence for twelve years, and if you've read the book, you can understand why. I couldn't believe it was all true.

//edit.

sorry, it was ten years.
Anyway, comments?

I'm surprised there's not already a topic on Wiesel. I've read this book so many times. I could probably recite it. I've read some of his other writings, too. The third time that I read it, I read it out loud to my mom and I cried when his dad died. Did you happen to see the episode of Oprah he was on? (When he went back to Auschwitz?

Damn that was him? I didn't make the connection. That was so horrible when he showed the gas chambers. In the book does he even mention them?

Hella cried when I read this book. It's really short, so you can read it one reading. I remember the first time I had read it - I was just in bed, thinking I'd read for half an hour or so then go to sleep, and I ended up reading the whole thing, bawling, then waking up in the morning all puffy-eyed. Luckily, I wasn't alone. Turns out it made a few other people at least tear up, too.

In fact, I can't believe I don't think of this book whenever anyone asks me if I've ever cried because of a book.

I remember reading this freshman year. It was a really touching. Most stories involving the Holocaust is touching.

Yeah, he really knows how to pull an emotional cord in people.

I don't think he went into detail about them. He explained how they seperated the women and children from the men and the woman and children would walk right into the gas chambers. There was a man there who told him and his father how to lie about their ages to avoid the gas. I've seen quite a few photos, and a couple years ago I came across a website that had pictures of "Canada" from Auschwitz. "Canada" was basically the place where they would pile in the belongings of the prisoners... they were are a rate of 20,000 a day and they would sort them out... the Germans tried to distory the camp but tagged belongings from "Canada" still serviced in antique shops throughout Germany until the 80's. I think that would've been so bittersweet to work at one of the places that recieved those tagged item so many years after the war.

Long post. Eep.

Today we had a girl that visted a concentration camp, maybe Auschwitz. She had some pictures showing how the Nazis had deserted the camp when the American force was coming. It was hilarious and stupid in a way because they borded up the gas chambers with tile, but used a different color tile.


dumbasses

Wow, my AP English class just finished reading that novel. It was so good, so disturbing. The ending was crazy...

I read this book last year, it's really good. Though having to read it in a given amount of time made it less fun.

Night was the first book I cried over while I was in school.



Kind of haunting, isn't it?

The Honors English classes at my school all have to read it, which means I'll have to next semester. It seems really interesting, and some of the people said they were shocked by just the first five pages and had to put it down for a while. Insane.

love this book. the sequels arent as good. i have the trilogy =]

Sequels?

I had to read it twice and it shocked me the first time since he was so graphic with the details. Oprah held an essay contest around the time I read it the second time and my teacher made us participate.

night was a bomb book

Dawn & The Accident

^ They're all autobiographical... so the subsequent books aren't really "sequels".

I remembered I cried so much from reading the book. It was really heart wrenching. It was beautifully written and nothing was sugarcoated. Going from Number the Stars and the Diary of Anne Frank to Night was a huge leap but Night was a much better firsthand account.

Did you know it was on Oprah's book list?

I didn't

wow, out of all three i think i prefered night the least. not that it wasnt good, i dont know..i guess i wasnt in the right genre phase when reading the book.

i read this book. it was super sad, and i was also surprised they lived so long

Because that's important to note.

I read it freshman year of high school. Was good. It's been long enough that I don't have much better input besides that.

It really depends on what type of account you're going for. All of the really do showcase the atrocity of the Holocaust but in varying degrees.

Night is the frankiest, truest, and most undeniable version of how truly horrific the Holocaust was. It is for a much older audience.

Wiesel was asked for decades to talk about his experience during the Holocaust. He was unable to speak until much later in his life. He told people that when he first started penning the book, he would cry and shake uncontrollably. Even after all those years.

oh god i got this book assigned for global like two weeks ago becasue we were learning about the holocaust but i never read it. lol. it's not really my type of book. i had to use sparknotes for questions. haha.