Night by Elie Wiesel

OMG! I had wanted to read this for a long time and finally did today. I'm and and all at the same time. It's his story on surviving the Holocaust. He was only 16 ... and the things he went through ... my God ... I look at the 16 year olds in America, and even myself and people my age .. I don't think we could keep our sanity through it.

He was put in the Jewish Ghetto then the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He writes about the death of his faith in God. His shame in - at the end - not going to his fathers side as he died calling his name in the camps. His disgust at many the humans around him.

Besides the hard hitting historical truth in this book, what got me was his fighting with God. Before the Holocaust he was a very devout Jew, interested in the Kabbalah. And a short while later - when he saw how humans had been abandoned in the Holocaust - he gave up on God.

Amazing book. Elie Wiesel is a REAL Nobel Peace Prize winner. Unlike some of these other political winners (Arafat, Obama, etc) He deserves it. Ya'll HAVE to read the book.

reply to post by FlyersFan

....... - he gave up on God.

maybe he found the real God ??

it happens that i need a birthday present today. so, special thanks for your great book tip and comments, it sound interesting.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Take a look at Legends in our Time as well. Good book, with additional stories about his life after surviving the Holocaust.

reply to post by FlyersFan

Many make the mistake of thinking the presence of evil is proof there is no god, in reality it only proves the existence of evil.
I suggest you read The Theory and Practice of Hell by Eugen Kogon, what it lacks in style it more than makes up for in substance.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Sounds a little like "The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kosinski. It's been a long time since I read it but if you decide to be ready for some nastiness. It's supposed to be semi-autobiographic. Wasn't too big a deal to me when I was a teenager and I thought a lot of it made up but I'm not sure anymore. -Even if it didn't personally happen to Jerzy.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Besides the hard hitting historical truth in this book.....

Did you know that there are serious questions as to the historicity of that book? Wiesel has given contradicting accounts of when and where it was written; some scholars have stated that some descriptions of historic places, events and people do not fit the known facts.

wikipedia discussion concerning history and "night"

reply to post by FlyersFan


I remember reading that book in the 5th or 6th grade. Not many books have left their imprint in my memory like that one. That story REALLY fascinated me. I just couldn't put it down. "Go Ask Alice" was another that kind of shook my reality.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.