Can't wait to read this.

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. […] And action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all.”

Se leggere è commuovente, immedesimarsi è straziante.

Ma come si fa a leggere testimonianze simili e rimanere distaccati?



”Dietro di me udii il solito uomo domandare: - Dov’è dunque Dio?
E io sentivo in me una voce che gli rispondeva: - Dov’è? Eccolo: è appeso lì, a quella forca...
Quella sera la zuppa aveva un sapore di cadavere.”


Elizer Wiese è un ragazzino.
Strappato da una piccola città della Transilvania dove le giornate avevano come ostacolo massimo quello di risolvere un enigma talmudico e scaraventato in una folla di corpi che non sono più parte del suo popolo ma ostacoli nella corsa per la sopravvivenza.

E una domanda ricorre martellante:
Dio dov'è?



” Mai dimenticherò quella notte, la prima notte nel campo, che ha fatto della mia vita una lunga notte e per sette volte sprangata.
Mai dimenticherò quel fumo.
Mai dimenticherò i piccoli volti dei bambini di cui avevo visto i corpi trasformarsi in volute di fumo sotto un cielo muto.
Mai dimenticherò quelle fiamme che consumarono per sempre la mia Fede.
Mai dimenticherò quel silenzio notturno che mi ha tolto per l’eternità il desiderio di vivere.
Mai dimenticherò quegli istanti che assassinarono il mio Dio e la mia anima, e i miei sogni, che presero il volto del deserto.
Mai dimenticherò tutto ciò, anche se fossi condannato a vivere quanto Dio stesso.
Mai.”



”Sia benedetto il Nome dell’Eterno!
Migliaia di bocche ripetevano la benedizione, si piegavano come alberi nella tempesta.
- Sia benedetto il Nome dell’Eterno!
Ma perché, ma perché benedirLo? Tutte le mie fibre si rivoltavano. Per aver fatto bruciare migliaia di bambini nelle fosse? Per aver fatto funzionare sei crematori giorno e notte, anche di sabato e nei giorni di festa? Per aver creato nella sua grande potenza Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna e tante altre fabbriche di morte? Come avrei potuto dirGli: Benedetto Tu sia o Signore, Re dell’Universo, che ci hai eletto fra i popoli per venir torturati giorno e notte, per vedere i nostri padri, le nostre madri, i nostri fratelli finire al crematorio? Sia lodato il Tuo Santo Nome, Tu che ci hai scelto per essere sgozzati sul Tuo altare?”

Quando si rimane senza parole si rimane anche senza stelline....

The horror that humans can afflict upon each other for any little crazy thing or thought or desire makes me sick to my stomach. I could not put this book down. The fact that this mass murder of a segment of society is a true story tells us a great deal about our species and what we are truly capable of when given into madness. Hitler was indeed a horribly sick man.

Όπως αναφέρεται στο επίμετρο αυτού του συγκλονιστικού βιβλίου όταν πρωτοεκδόθηκε το 1956 στην Αργεντινή (στη μητρική γλώσσα του συγγραφέα) είχε τίτλο:
«Και ο κόσμος σιωπούσε.....»
Θεωρώ πως δεν θα μπορούσε να υπάρξει πιο αντιπροσωπευτικός τίτλος για την ιστορία του βιβλίου αλλά και για την παγκόσμια ανθρώπινη ιστορία.

«Η νύχτα» του Ελί Βιζέλ είναι ένα αφηγηματικό ντοκουμέντο για το Ολοκαύτωμα.
Όταν άνοιξαν οι πύλες της κολάσεως για εκατομμύρια Εβραίους στα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης-εξόντωσης και πέρασε πάνω απο ανθρώπινες σάρκες και ψυχές το αιματοβαμμένο τρένο της ιστορίας κατά τον
Β´Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο.

Ο ακατανόητος ναζισμός έχει πρωταρχικό σκοπό των αφανισμό των Εβραίων απο πρόσωπου γης.

Η ιστορία του βιβλίου αναφέρεται στους Εβραίους της Ουγγαρίας - τελευταία μεγάλη κοινότητα της Ευρώπης- και τον εκτοπισμό της στο Άουσβιτς.
Οι ναζί σπαταλούν χρόνο και δυνάμεις για να λυτρώσουν τον κόσμο απο το Κακό. Ένας λυτρωτικός αντισημιτισμός τη στιγμή που ο πόλεμος έχει ουσιαστικά κριθεί εις βάρος τους.

Και μετά τη Νύχτα.... ή και πριν απο αυτή ξημέρωσε μια κατάμαυρη ημέρα για την ανθρωπότητα.
Άπειρες νύχτες του παρελθόντος και αμέτρητα ξημερώματα του παρόντος και του μέλλοντος θα επικρατούν για πάντα στον πλανήτη των ανθρώπων.

Ο Βιζέλ διηγείται την δύναμη του κακού και τα βάσανα των θυμάτων που έπληξαν για πάντα την ανθρώπινη συνείδηση.
Διατείνεται και πολύ σωστά πράττει πως έγραψε το βιβλιο τούτο ως ανάμνηση της μακάβριας και τρομακτικής τρέλας που εισέβαλε τότε στην ιστορία και τις ψυχές για να αποτρέψει την επανάληψη της. Για να γιατρευτεί ίσως η ανθρωπότητα απο την εθισμένη έλξη της προς τη βία.

Κι όμως...
ήταν απλώς μια στάση του Κακού που επικρατεί αιώνια για να κοιτάξει μέσα στους ομαδικούς τάφους και να ευφρανθεί περισσότερο βλέποντας πως οι μελλοθάνατοι έσκαβαν με τα χέρια τους, οι ίδιοι, τους δικούς τους λάκκους.
Αυτοί, οι δυο φορές σκοτωμένοι απο τους πρεσβευτές του Κακού, τους υποκριτές, τους αδυσώπητους στυλοβάτες του κόσμου που χειραγωγούν την κοινωνία και καταφέρνουν πάντα να καθαγιάζονται απο τη λαϊκή ευαισθησία.

Όλοι οι παλιάνθρωποι του πλανήτη ενωμένοι σε έναν στρατό.

Τρομερά πλούσιο δειγματολόγιο θα βλέπαμε.
Απο μικρά παιδάκια γαλουχημένα με μίσος, κλέφτες δημοτικούς υπαλλήλους, ψεύτες υπουργούς και κυβερνήτες,πουλημένους γιατρούς και δικηγόρους, διεφθαρμένες κυρίες φιλανθρωπικών ιδρυμάτων, νεαρές κοπέλες προστατευμένες απο ηλίθιους πλούσιους, απατεώνες διευθυντές επιχειρήσεων, παρασημοφορημένους πρεσβευτές, αποικιακούς υπαλλήλους, εν ολίγοις, επίσης, όλες οι οργανωμένες δυνάμεις του κράτους, η απάτη του Κλήρου, ο Στρατός, η Λαϊκή Παιδεία.

Το σύμπαν της στρατιάς των θριαμβευτών της επιστήμης και της αμοιβαίας γνώσης, που στην πορεία του χρόνου και στη θεωρία της εξέλιξης οι ευθύνες που τους βαραίνουν κατά της δικαιοσύνης και της ανθρωπιάς πρέπει να μετρηθούν με ζυγαριά παλιανθρωπιάς, και να χαριστεί στον καθέναν το ακριβές βάρος της βρόμας του προς βρώση. (Περιττώματα).

Ποια η διαφορά των ναζί απο τους αναλφάβητους σε κάποια πολιτεία της Αμερικής που προσεύχονται στο θεό την ίδια ώρα που λιώνουν στην εκμετάλλευση νέγρους στη Γουατεμάλα.

Ποια η διαφορά της δουλοκτητικής ηθικής κοινωνίας απο τους μισθωτούς σκλάβους.

Ποια η διαφορά ενός αρχηγού του Μπούχενβαλντ απο έναν αρχηγό γαλέρας.

Είναι καλύτερος ο θάνατος με βόμβες παρά με βέλη και τόξα;

Το βασανιστήριο του ηλεκτροσόκ αποδίδει καλύτερα απο τα βασανιστήρια με ποντίκια των Κινέζων;

Οι δολοφονίες της ιεράς εξέτασης ήταν πιο φρικτές απο τις «αντιτρομοκρατικές» δολοφονίες με σύγχρονα όπλα;

Αν η ανθρωπότητα ήθελε να επικρατήσει το Καλό δεν θα το εξόρκιζε. Δεν θα το στιγμάτιζε με θρησκευτικούς κανόνες και τιμωρίες.
Πρέπει να υπαγορευτεί απο πανάρχαιους θεικούς κανόνες το Καλό;
Και στην τελική το Κακό μας συστήνει και μας παραπέμπει στο Καλό, αφού αν δεν κάνουμε αυτό ή εκείνο, απειλούμαστε με αιώνια κόλαση.

Το γενικό νόημα του κόσμου με βάση την πνευματική και υλική πρόοδο παραμένει αιώνες αναλλοίωτο.

Εν κατακλείδι, οποιαδήποτε απόπειρα αντίδρασης ή επαγρύπνησης πνεύματος και προσωπικότητας ενάντια στις δυνάμεις που πάντα εξουσίαζαν τον κόσμο εκμηδενίζεται και καταστρέφεται.

Λαοί ολόκληροι αποδεκατίστηκαν, οι θρησκείες εκκαθάρισαν τον κόσμο.
Λαμπρά μυαλά και μεγαλοφυΐες βασανίστηκαν, κάηκαν, κρεμάστηκαν, γδάρθηκαν στο όνομα των αντιδράσεων που μπορούν να λυτρώσουν.
Οπότε

Νύχτα....Νύχτα...Νύχτα...
Βαθύ βελούδινο σκοτάδι.
Υπήρχε, υπάρχει και θα υπάρχει.

Κι ο κόσμος σιωπούσε....και θα σιωπά.

Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.

I teach this book yearly, but my students seemed distant from the true reality of the story. When I use the Holocaust Museum's interactive of Lola Rein's dress, it hits them. Real people, real history. The immediacy of the tragedy that was Wiesel's then comes to life in a way that a junior or senior can grasp. I also tell the story of my friend, Ida, and her "no grandparents". That is the hardest part for me as it is so personal. She was the daughter of survivors - she had no grandparents and I gave her mine. The sharing of my friend with my beloved grandmother and grandfather was one of the true blessings of my life and our lives were enriched through the immense addition to our family. I was also blessed by her adding us to her home and her celebrations. My faith was enlarged. This is a powerful book - a simple one to read, but a difficult one to comprehend. Engagingly written and honest to the core - even the difficult, prickly human parts that would embarrass anyone to reveal -- this is the heart of humanity's difficult path - how do we grow if we can't love one another for the similarities and the differences. I wish I could say there was no more genocide, but that would be a dreamer's lie. Bless this with a read and light a candle in our darkness. Also, go and view the dress at the Holocaust Museum website - you will leave changed.

What can I say that hasn't already been said?

This book is the newer translation, with some clarifications to the chronology of people and events, with introductions by Wiesel himself and the man who fought to have the book published, Francois Mauriac.

The prose is in a relatively simple style. After all, the story is dramatic enough; it needs no embellishment. It is as if you are watching the whole thing through a plate-glass window, and you're banging on it, yelling, 'Hey, hey you, they're trying to kill you!' But no one can hear you. It took me several days to read this very thin book (~120 pages), because it can be very hard to bear - emotionally and psychologically.

The amazing thing about this book is that it has never lost its power to communicate to us the horror of Nazi Germany, of the Final Solution, of what men will do to other men for reasons that seem so unimportant. Analysis upon analysis has been done, but yields little except the notion that humanity, if freed from the constraints of humanness, is a scourge on the planet.

And that is always worth remembering.

This is a true account of Elie Wiesel, a 15-year old Romanian Jew. At the beginning of the book, Wiesel’s religious leader warns him of the danger, but no one listens. The family is confident that everything will be alright. However, the Germans march in without even a fight. Overnight, regulations go into effect including wearing of the yellow star. Eventually, the Jews are forced into a ghetto. Then, they are told to move. Where they were going, no one knew. They were herded into a cattle car, bound for the concentration camps. What will happen to Wiesel and his family?

Night is a case where truth is stranger than fiction. It would be hard to imagine a scenario more gruesome. In the book, you can tell that Wiesel has deep regrets about choices that were made along the way. You can feel the weight, the burden on his shoulders, even though he was only an innocent teenage boy in an impossible situation.

This book was a sucker punch to the solar plexus. Even in the midst of unspeakable atrocities, there was so much hope. When arriving at Auschwitz, there was a discussion about trying to escape, “Let the world learn about the existence of Auschwitz. Let everybody find out about it while they still have a chance to escape.” The sad thing is that there were people who knew and did little to nothing to help.

However, I don’t want to diminish many of the brave people who risked their lives for the greater good. Before the pandemic, I was visiting the Canadian Aviation Museum, and they had a display about Operation Bad Penny/Operation Manna/Operation Chowhound. Operation Bad Penny consisted of a crew of seven men, five from Ontario, Canada, who dropped food into Netherlands to prevent the people from starving. The Germans had not yet agreed to the cease fire for the humanitarian mission so this test flight was to see if they would be shot down. They were not. This began 3,301 food drops. The Dutch people spelled out, “Many Thanks” in tulips. One of the people interrupted the tour. In a small, quavering voice, she said, “That was my grandparents. I’m from The Netherlands. They were dying, and the British, Americans, and Canadians saved them. I wouldn’t be alive except for this flight. That is why anytime, we have visitors from these areas, we were always told to say, ‘Welcome back.’”

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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First published in 1958, my copy is in English. 'Night' is the story of Eliezer (Elie) a son of a Jewish family of six, it is based on his experiences as a prisoner in the concentration camps lasting a little over a year from March 1944 to April 1945 which is in the end of WWII.

At the age of 15/16 Eliezer and his family are sent to the nightmare world of terror and horror he was forced to endure in some of the worst Nazi death camps (including Auschwitz and Buchenwald). His Mother and Sisters sent to one camp and his Father and himself to another. He was a loving Son that kept him and his Father together during such unbelievable treatment.

Reading “Night” left me with a great perspective of the torture they had to endure and how evil men could be. I also wondered, (knowing I should not question why, but) how can one allow such monstrous events to occur to another human being? There are no easy answers, this harrowing year he had to experience and the knowledge he survived, must of wracked him with guilt and heartache.

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget..."

For such a short novel, just over 100 pages, there's a lot packed in here. A lot of sadness, which is to be expected. I only wish I could have found out more about Wiesel's family and what happened to his mother and sisters. Did they survive Auschwitz? Other than that, this is an important novel that everyone should read. I'm only upset I didn't read it sooner, perhaps in Middle School, when everyone seemed to be reading Night.

Night (The Night Trilogy, #1) by Elie Wiesel

Synopsis /

Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man.

Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.


My Thoughts /

In 2008, writer and journalist, Rachel Donadio wrote an article in the New York Times which mentions that Night spent in impressive 80 weeks on the New York Times Best-Seller List, after Oprah Winfrey picked it for her book club in 2006. Originally published in 1955, Night has taken the long road to the best-seller list.

Night is one of the few books (and the only one that I have read) that recounts the experiences of a teenager during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel's memoir offers a detailed and disturbing account of life in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. From the starvation rations prisoners were fed, the freezing barracks in which they slept, to the days spent as slave laborers, and the constant brutality of the guards and even fellow prisoners; Elie's story, although unimaginable, is true.

Life in Sighet

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Sighet was the capital of Máramaros County in the Kingdom of Hungary. Following WWI, when northern Transylvania was returned to Romania, Sighet became part of Romania. During WWII, the town was again part of Hungary between 1940 and 1944.

Elie Wiesel was born and raised in an Orthodox family in Sighet.

There were four of us children. Hilda, the eldest; then Bea; I was the third and the only son; Tzipora was the youngest.

Deeply religious, Wiesel spent his time studying the Talmud (a manuscript containing the history of the Jewish religion, as well as their laws and beliefs, which is thought to be the basic tool for learning the ethics behind the customs of their religion).

For Wiesel and the rest of the Jewish community is Sighet, war seems far away, but in the Spring of 1944, the Germans arrive, and the entire population of the town falls to the Nazis. The Jewish citizens of Sighet are first moved into a ghetto, and then onto a cattle car and transported to the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenwald.

I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.

The last day had been the most lethal. We had been a hundred or so in this wagon. Twelve of us left it. Among them, my father and myself. We had arrived in Buchenwald.

The dehumanization of prisoners, the brutal conditions of the camps, forced labour, starvation, the physical abuse of those imprisoned within its walls. Wiesel recounts the unimaginable horrors of life in Auschwitz and Buchenwald and the loss of his deeply held religious faith. "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.” His descriptions are stark and unflinching. He does not shy away from addressing the atrocities that he witnessed in these camps - his language is direct and leaves little room for interpretation. It's no wonder Wiesel battled with his faith - with the feeling that God had abandoned him and his people.

From a historical perspective, the Holocaust is now almost 80 years in the past. There are generations now growing up who have only ever read about this subject within the pages of a book, like Night. Which, IMO, makes these books even more important.

For speaking out against injustice, violence, and repression, Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

UPDATE FEB 2021 ... read it again ... even more powerful this time ... Wiesel deals with so many issues, raises so many profound questions ... and tells a story of poignancy and horror, forcing the world to pay attention

I repeat, as I said below ... I am incredibly proud that Elie Wiesel read and commented favorably on my first novel, The Heretic.

UPDATE DEC 2019

I have re-read NIGHT for a very specific purpose ... to consider Elie Wiesel's view of God as I seek to end my new novel (CAUGHT IN A FLOOD OF EVIL, 1934-1946 ... the sequel to A FLOOD OF EVIL) with Berthold and Anna's feelings about God ... Wiesel pulled no punches, as these quotes make clear ...

... Someone began to recite Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I don't know whether, during the history of the Jewish people, men have ever before recited Kaddish for themselves … may His name be celebrated and sanctified … I felt anger rising in me ... Why should I sanctify His name? ... The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent ... What was there to thank Him for?

... Where is God's mercy? … where is God? … how can I believe? … how can anyone believe is this God of mercy?

... Blessed be God's name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled … Because he caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? ... Because he kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the holy days? … Because in His great might, he had created Auschwitz? … how could I say to Him: blessed be thou, Almighty, Master of the universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in the furnaces? Praised be thy holy name, for having chosen us to be slaughtered one Thine altar?

**********

Night is a powerful, moving memoir ... one of the first of its kind to be published, it served to unleash Wiesel's unique voice. Some time in the next year or so, I will be re-reading Night as part of my research on my next novel.

When I heard Wiesel speak in the early 1970s, I felt that, although he was speaking prose, I was hearing poetry. His is one of the great voices of our time.

I am incredibly proud that Professor Wiesel read and commented favorably on my first novel, The Heretic.