Night by Elie Wiesel
Review by Ella; dreamer, ski racer, writer, and rock climber. Ella lives in SV, Idaho with her mom, dad, cat, dog, gecko, and fish.
Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir of Elie’s life between 1944 and 1945. It is about his experience being a Jew during World War II.
At the beginning of the book Elie lives in the town of Sighet, Hungary. When the Nazis occupy Hungary the Jews in Elie’s town are forced into small ghettos. Soon the Jews are herded into cattle cars and their journey is full of horrors. Then they arrive at Birkenau, a sister camp to Auschwitz. When they arrive Elie and his father are separated from the rest of their family and unbeknownst to them, see them for the last time. They pass the evaluation and on their way to the prisoner’s barracks see the furnaces where Nazis are burning babies. Eventually they arrive in Buna and are put to work in an electrical warehouse. During this time they are barely being fed and are on the borderline of starvation. The Russians start to get close and the camp is evacuated. The prisoners are forced to run over 50 miles to a concentration camp called Gleiwitz, and many die from exhaustion and exposure to the cold. After a deadly journey on cattle cars, they arrive in Buchenwald and Elie’s father dies of dysentery. On April 11, 1945 the camp is liberated.
I would definitely recommend this book for those who don’t mind serious subjects. It is heartbreaking and eye opening. Some of the main themes of this book were father-son relationships, loss of faith, and man’s inhumanity to man. I will remember this book for the rest of my life.
