Reread for class January 2015

I just cannot provide a star rating for this book. It's truly one of the hardest and scariest books I've ever had to read. The content within its pages is so intense and disturbing that there are really no adequate words to describe it. I'm not even going to attempt to put into words the emotions and feelings it evokes. It's a book that leaves a lasting impression, one that haunts you long after you've finished reading. The themes and concepts presented are complex and thought-provoking, but at the same time, they are also deeply unsettling. I found myself constantly on edge while reading, not knowing what was going to happen next. It's a book that challenges you and forces you to confront your own fears and beliefs. I would not recommend this book to everyone, as it is not for the faint of heart. However, for those who are looking for a truly unique and unforgettable reading experience, this book might just be worth the journey.

Night. The darkness descends, and no one prays for its swift departure. The stars, mere specks of light in the vast conflagration that devours us. If this inferno were to be extinguished one day, the sky would be left barren, filled only with extinct stars and unseeing eyes.

\\n  

Night. No one was praying for the night to pass quickly. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes.

\\n

By now, it seems almost everyone has delved into this book. However, if you haven't, I urge you to start with this version, the Marion Wiesel (Elie's wife) translation. The author appears to be content with this rendition, as opposed to the other, which he thought "seemed alright." Wiesel wrote in the introduction that his wife knows how to "transmit" his voice better, and with her editing, he was able to refine crucial details. I was reminded of the significance of spouses who assume the roles of editors and translators for writers when I read Stacy Schiff's biography of Nabokov's wife, Vera. This introduction served as a reminder of how remarkable translation and editing can be in transforming a literary work. This book was initially written in Yiddish, then translated into French and later English, only to be "rejected by every major publisher, French and American."

\\n  

Did I write it so as not to go mad or, on the contrary, to go mad in order to understand the nature of madness, the immense, terrifying madness that had erupted in history and in the conscience of mankind?

\\n

As I read this, I couldn't help but think that Wiesel was perhaps doing both as he penned these words.

Gloom and misery pervade the pages. Brief blasts of horror jolt the reader. Terror-stricken scenes unfold, chilling the mood. The pained and reflective voice manages to find distance from the trauma, the kind of distance essential for telling such a harrowing story. The style of the book mirrors the indescribable events it portrays. Night is war, and war is night. And the memory of war is both complete and fragmented, both lucid and obscure. The days resembled the nights, and the nights left in our souls the dregs of their darkness. A writer who dwells too long on these scenes risks alienating the readers. But this writer did not. This style, this structure - it works.

The angle of the story is equally captivating: a teenage son who experiences a role reversal when he has to care for his ailing father. There is so much one could say about this book. On second thought, there are countless aspects worth discussing, such as the encouraging idea that books like this are meant to be written and read to ensure that wars and their atrocities are not erased from the annals of history. However, one doesn't need to delve into all those details. One simply needs to point to an excerpt that says it all:

\\n  Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.\\n

The honesty and description of this book were truly overwhelming!!

It was as if the author had laid bare their soul on every page, presenting a story that was both raw and real.

The details were so vivid that they seemed to leap off the page, painting a picture in the reader's mind that was impossible to ignore.

From the very first sentence, I was drawn in by the author's honesty and the way they described the characters and events.

It was like I was a part of the story, experiencing every emotion and feeling right along with the characters.

This book is a must-read for anyone who appreciates a good story that is told with honesty and authenticity.

It will leave you feeling inspired, moved, and changed in ways that you never thought possible.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is truly a masterpiece.

Reading is moving, empathizing is excruciating. But how can one read such testimonies and remain detached? Elie Wiesel is a young boy. Torn from a small town in Transylvania where the greatest obstacle of the days was to solve a Talmudic riddle and thrown into a crowd of bodies that are no longer part of his people but obstacles in the race for survival. And a question recurs insistently: Where is God? Wiesel's words are powerful and haunting. He describes the horrors he witnessed in the concentration camps with a vividness that is almost unbearable. The smell of the corpses, the sight of the children being burned alive, the silence of the night that took away his will to live. These are images that will stay with us forever. How can we not be moved by such suffering? How can we not ask ourselves the same question: Where is God? When we are faced with such evil, it is easy to lose our faith. But Wiesel's words also offer a glimmer of hope. He refuses to give up, to let the darkness consume him. He continues to bear witness, to tell his story, so that we may never forget. And perhaps, in remembering, we can find a way to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again.

In 1944, when Elie Wiesel was just fifteen years old, he, along with his parents and three sisters, was forcibly transported from Sighet to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

Upon their arrival, they were given the cruel order: "men to the left, women to the right". This fateful separation meant that Elie would never lay eyes on his mother and younger sister Sarah again.

What followed was a nightmarish two-year period of living hell. The experiences within the concentration camp, for Elie and his father, were indescribable. Elie's account, however, is vivid enough to make us question how anyone could have endured such horror.

Most unfortunately did not survive. Elie's mother and youngest sister Sarah perished, and despite Elie's best efforts to care for and keep his father alive, he too succumbed after a death march in the dead of winter from Auschwitz to Buchenwald, where he was overcome by illness and beatings.

In the spring of 1945, the American Army arrived, liberating the camp and finally bringing an end to the "night" or the nightmare.

This book, like many others about this 20th-century horror, is difficult to read. But it is a first-hand account that serves as a reminder of the terrifying capabilities of human ignorance, hatred, and bigotry. We must never assume that such atrocities could never happen again, for they most certainly can.

Thankfully, Elie's two older sisters, Hilda and Bea, both survived the concentration camps, and they were later reunited. In 1986, Elie Wiesel was rightfully awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in bearing witness to the Holocaust and promoting peace and understanding.

\\n  His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily: \\"I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.\\"\\n


I truly find myself at a loss when it comes to reviewing this book. Here I am, sitting under a soft blanket, holding a warm cup of coffee, and yet, who am I to critique the story of someone's unbearable pain or the unimaginable horrors endured by millions? This book perhaps reveals the lowest depths to which humanity could have sunk. As I read, I couldn't help but constantly ask myself, "Why? Just why?"



\\n  \\"Behind me, I heard the same man asking:\\n  \\"For God's sake, where is God?\\"\\n  And from within me, I heard a voice answer:\\n  \\"Where He is? This is where--hanging here from this gallows...\\"\\n


As a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ellie Wiesel is perhaps one of the most renowned survivors of the Holocaust. This is a harrowing account of his survival, following a 15-year-old Elie. He and his family are taken from a ghetto in Hungary to the Auschwitz death camp. Throughout the course of this story, we witness him being transferred from one camp to another, barely surviving each time.


He didn't attempt to pen a long and elaborate tale of his ordeal. Instead, he provided a very straightforward account of what transpired, and I believe this makes it all the more powerful. It is a very short book, but on an emotional level, it is an extremely difficult read. Every few pages, I would have to pause and wonder how any of this could be possible. His survival is nothing short of a miracle. It is shocking and at times extremely painful to read, but this is a necessary read for everyone.



\\n  \\"To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.\\"\\n

Just about every day at lunch, I take a walk through the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. During this walk, I always pass a particular synagogue/community center.

A couple of days after the electoral college victory of Donald Trump, as I walked by the synagogue, the door opened, and an elderly man stepped out. He smiled at me, and I smiled back. However, as I passed him, a wave of shame washed over me. Only a day or two before, Philadelphia had made national news for an incident involving graffiti spray-painted on store windows and cars. There were swastikas, racial slurs, and of course, the word "Trump".

This man I saw in Society Hill was quite advanced in years. It was entirely possible that he knew people who had been victims of the Holocaust. It was even possible that he’d been in the camps himself. Someone like him should not have to see something like that, especially all these decades later when we really should have learned from our mistakes by now.

Suddenly, everything I’d been reading felt completely irrelevant. I picked up "Night" because I needed to read something with moral urgency, and it certainly fit the bill. But what struck me about this story was not just the brutality of the concentration-camp experience. It was all the ways our human nature prevents us from expecting the worst until it actually happens.

No one wants to believe that other human beings are capable of such astonishing acts of dehumanization, violence, and cruelty. But we’ve had more than enough examples throughout history that we no longer have any excuse for not being vigilant. From the particularly dark historical episode recounted in "Night", that’s the lesson I’m going to take with me into the particularly dark days I fear may be ahead.

I’ve read a significant amount about the Holocaust, and initially, I didn't have a strong inclination to read this particular testimony. However, during this winter, it seemed to call out to me, and I'm truly glad that I heeded its call.

It is a relatively slim volume that vividly bears witness to Wiesel's family's tragic experience. They were confined by the Nazis to a ghetto in their town in Transylvania. Later, Wiesel was separated from his mother and sisters and confined with his father at the Auschwitz camp. There, as a teenager, he valiantly but unsuccessfully struggled to save his father. All the wisdom and hopefulness that had been instilled in him by his Rabbi vanished like ashes in the dog-eat-dog world of survival on the cruel edge.

The vignettes描绘 of his existence in the camp are concise and unflinching. They don't dictate what emotions you should feel, which is part of the remarkable power of this writing. Wiesel didn't take up writing this for more than ten years after the events. In the face of hunger, cold, and the omnipresent specter of death, the elements of humanity among his fellow prisoners seemed to become increasingly rare. Toward the end, Wiesel couldn't help but see the dark truth in the advice from another prisoner: "Here every man has to fight for himself and not to think of anyone else. Even of his father. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone."

After the liberation of the Buchenwald camp where he ultimately ended up, Wiesel didn't dwell on thoughts of revenge but rather focused on how to confront himself. He wrote, "From the depths of the mirror a corpse gazed back at me. The look in the eyes, as they stared into mine has never left me."

This is one of the most commonly read books among my Goodreads friends. However, it appears that two-thirds of you, like me, have postponed reading it. Out of my deep-seated belief that this wasn't just the fate of the Jews at the hands of an alien, warped segment of our species, but something that all humans need to take responsibility for, I earnestly urge more of you to read this profound and moving account.

I find myself completely unable to pen a review of this book.

To be fair, it did manage to hold my attention throughout, which is no small feat. There were moments when it had such a grip on me that I felt almost numb.

However, there are certain aspects that are lacking, and I simply won't go into detail about them.

Perhaps it's because I'm still processing my thoughts and emotions regarding the book.

Or maybe I'm reluctant to expose the flaws that I perceive, as if doing so would somehow undermine the overall experience.

Whatever the reason, I remain silent on this particular work, choosing instead to let it stew in my mind for a while longer.

Maybe in time, I'll be able to put my feelings into words and offer a more comprehensive and insightful review. But for now, this is all I have to say.

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Elie Wiesel pens down his harrowing experiences at Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.

The book, initially composed in French, has been delicately translated into English by his wife Marion.

There is a preface in the new translation by Wiesel himself, and at the end lies his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

In just 120 pages, he skillfully shares his trauma and the conflict with his own beliefs in a way that震撼s the reader to the very core.

This slender volume is an absolute must-read for everyone, ensuring that humanity never again faces such indignity.

The book also serves as a testimony to the truth and, in that sense, is a terrifying documentation of a period in history when humanity sank to such depths!

It is a powerful reminder of the atrocities that occurred and a call to action to prevent such horrors from ever happening again.

Wiesel's words have the ability to touch the hearts and minds of readers, making them reflect on the importance of peace, justice, and human dignity.

This book is not only a historical account but also a moral and ethical guide for us all.

I have a profound feeling that this book may very well be on my list of favourite books of 2016! Undoubtedly, it is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read in my entire life.

Elie Wiesel vividly retells the harrowing experience of how he endured three long years at Auschwitz concentration camp during Hitler's tyrannical reign in World War Two. At a tender age of only fifteen, Elie and his family were brutally torn from their home in Hungary and thrust into the nightmarish horrors of Hitler's camps. We witness through Elie's eyes as he tragically loses his family and is compelled to survive in the most appalling conditions imaginable. Despite all the atrocities, he somehow manages to hold onto his faith. I simply cannot put into words the excruciating pain that Elie so powerfully conveys in this book. It truly broke my heart. I find it extremely difficult to read these kinds of books, as the things he recounts are truly shocking. I firmly believe that events like this need to be remembered, so that we do not end up repeating the same mistakes and falling into the same traps.

This is a harrowing and heart-wrenching read. For such a short book, it seriously packs a powerful punch. I wholeheartedly believe that this should be required reading for everyone. It is truly phenomenal.