Night - Elie Wiesel

Good things come in small packages.

That’s how the saying goes, or at least that’s what they say to my 5-foot-tall sister. That’s also what I would say about “Night” by Elie Wiesel. Although it is a tiny book and a quick read, it contains some incredible writing from a thought-provoking perspective. We’ve all read books about the Holocaust. Even if historical fiction is not your thing, you’ve probably still read a book about the Holocaust. In some ways, it is an overused concept for a book, but not for this one. “Night” showed me a new, deeper, darker side of war, made both fascinating and horrifying by the fact that the story is true. A horror story written by the very man who lived through it. 

“Night” is Elie Wiesel’s account of his experience of being born into a Jewish Ghetto in Hungary and sent to Nazi concentration camps. As a mere child, he endured the atrocities of life at Auschwitz and Buchenwald which lost him his family and faith. His novel explores the darkest side of human nature and reveals the inner workings of the mass extermination of the Jewish people from his perspective as a survivor.

The Holocaust and Second World War is something that I have learned about extensively in History class at school. Despite my interest in the subject, I have always felt disconnected from these events, living in the modern world where the horrendousness of war crimes escapes my comprehension. Reading Elie Wiesel’s account opened my eyes to the experience of him and millions of other Jews during WW2. I felt like I entered Auschwitz with him and shared his fears, uncertainty and hopelessness. The details and anecdotes about certain inmates and events were even more impactful because I knew the writer had not made them up. This was real. These people had lived, these people had died, these people had lost everything. The strong connection Elie shared with his father was striking, even more heart wrenching was its deterioration. With simple accuracy, Elie Wiesel recalls a truck full of children being burnt alive, men shot for stepping out of time and watching his own father get beaten every day. What is so striking about “Night”, is the way Elie Wiesel can have such immense impact only by stating the truth, because the truth is so ugly that we are afraid to see it.

Beautifully written, poignant and tragic. “Night” is a novel like no other. Uncomfortable and disturbing, yet gripping and intense, I savoured every word of it and would not hesitate to read it again and again.

- Written by the Inkpot Blogger