Night by Elie Wiesel - Book Report/Review Example

? Night by Elie Wiesel ‘Night’ refers to a book by Elie Wiesel. The book documents the survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. The author, using the book, provides a memoir of his terrifying experience at the hands of the Nazi. The author is a holocaust survivor, author, and scholar. Wiesel got born in Sighet, Transylvania, in the year 1928 (Marion & Wiesel, 2012). The author was 15years of age when he together with his family got deported to Auschwitz and separated. After World War II, the author undertook his studies in Paris and worked for a French newspaper as a journalist. Prior to writing ‘night’, the author published a book recounting his experience in the Nazi concentration camps titled ‘And the world remained silent’ published in 1956. This book got compressed into ‘night’, two years later and translated to English in 1960 (Marion & Wiesel, 2012). The author has published other books; ‘dawn’ and ‘day’ as a trilogy sequel of his experience at the concentration camps. The book ‘night’ gets narrated by Eliezer who is a Jewish teenager living in Sighet at the beginning. It documents how the German secret police- Getsapo came and abducted the author with his family and led them to Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration death camp (Bodden, 2007). The book details on how the author got separated with his family upon arrival at the camp. He got separated from his mother and sister, only to be left with his father. At the camp, the author tells of the gruesome conditions he undergoes and observes at the hands of the Nazi. He tells of how he loses his faith in humanity and God as he witnesses the cruel treatment him and his fellow Jews encounter at the camp (Marion & Wiesel, 2012). The book details on the hangings, the gas chambers, and the slave labor they offered at the workshops. The author documents how his relationship with his father deteriorates due to the need for survival. He watches his father die as a result of physical abuse and a bout of dysentery before the American army arrives to liberate the camp he got placed under. The author aims at portraying the horrors that took place in the Nazi camps for the reader. The book tells of the heartbreaking events that occurred during the holocaust in Nazi Germany. The author’s main aim is to recollect the emotional connection of the holocaust victims to ensure that this period in history will forever remain in the readers’ minds. The author uses the first person writing style throughout the book. This intends at letting the reader have a sense of how it was like in the Nazi camps (Longerich, 2010). Through the first person writing style, the author wants the reader to have an active reading participation in the terrifying experiences he documents. The author also incorporates sad and horror filled passages in the book to drive home his point. For example, the author documents a passage where he saw a lorry pull up to deliver babies to get burned. The author tells of the gigantic lames that the babies were getting toasted into. This was a sad passage through which the reader can image the graphic picture of babies getting toasted into a fire from a lorry. Relating this, and relating it to the age of the author who was fifteen at the time goes to show how inhuman the Nazis got (Marion & Wiesel, 2012). The author documents such passages to show the reader how inhuman the camps really were. The author also tells of how he lost his spirit and faith in God through the horrors he witnessed and encountered at the camps. The author tells of the flames that ate up his faith forever. The author speaks of how his dreams turned to dust, and the murder of his soul. This implies that the horrors that the author witnessed were enough to kill everything inside him unto which he had held dearly before the camps. The author also seeks to draw sympathy from the reader. He speaks of the uncertainty they faced every the names of those who were to get burned alive got read. The author tells of how he pictured throwing himself at the electric fence so that he could avoid the agony of getting burnt alive. The author describes the souls of those at the camp as being in a half-world. This implies that most of them in the camps already knew they were dead. It shows the hopelessness of the Jew people. It appeared as though they could not control their destiny but were at the mercies of the Nazis. This draws sympathy from the reader who gets to connect with the story. To document his story, simply draws on an emotional truth telling technique. The author documents his experiences at the camp by recounting the terrifying events he underwent at the camp. The author does not use other sources to document his experiences other than his personal experience. The book does not have a bibliography nor does it contain pictures and maps. The book ‘night’ is a moving piece of work that can get recommended for the general public. The book documents the horror that was in Nazi Germany through the eyes of the author. Readers get to evidence what it meant to be in a Nazi camp through the author’s compelling storytelling (Sternlicht, 2003). The book sheds light on the gruesome events that occurred in the camp and how lives got shattered mentally and physically. I would recommend this book to other readers so that they can also read on the evil that was the holocaust. This would help create awareness on the evils of the holocaust and let people relate to it. Reference Bodden, V. (2007). The Holocaust. Minneapolis: The Creative Company. Elie Wiesel, M. W. (2012). Night. New York: Penguin Books Limited. Longerich, P. (2010). Holocaust:The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. London: Oxford University Press. Sternlicht, S. V. (2003). Student Companion to Elie Wiesel. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More