Update
Intrigued by the success and popularity of this book, as opposed to more factual holocaust memoirs, I did a little research on the history of the book, and I came across an interesting article on Wikipedia.
According to the information contained in this article, Wiesel moved to Paris after the war and in 1954 completed an 862-page manuscript in Yiddish about his experiences, published in Argentina in 1956 as the 245-page Un di velt hot geshvign ("And the World Remained Silent")
It is unclear who edited the text for publication. Wiesel wrote in All Rivers Run to the Sea (1995) that he handed Turkov, a publisher of Yiddish texts, his only copy and that it was never returned, but also that he (Wiesel) "cut down the original manuscript from 862 pages to the 245 of the published Yiddish edition."
Wiesel translated Un di Velt Hot Geshvign into French and sent it to François Mauriac. Even with Mauriac's help they had difficulty finding a publisher; Wiesel said they found it too morbid. The text was edited down to 178 pages and published as La Nuit, with a preface by François Mauriac.
Wiesel's New York agent, encountered the same difficulty finding a publisher in the United States. In 1960, Hill & Wang in New York published an even smaller 116-page English translation as Night. It took three years to sell the first print run of 3,000 copies.
By 1997 Night was selling 300,000 copies a year in the United States. By 2011 it had sold six million copies in that country, and was available in 30 languages. Sales increased in January 2006 when it was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club. Republished with a new translation by Marion Wiesel, Wiesel's wife, and a new preface by Wiesel, it sat at no. 1 in The New York Times bestseller list for paperback non-fiction for 18 months from 13 February 2006, until the newspaper decided to remove it.

Literary critic Ruth Franklin writes that Night's impact stems from its minimalist construction. The 1956 Yiddish version, at 865 pages, was a long and angry historical work. In preparation for the French edition, Wiesel's editors pruned without mercy. Franklin argues that the power of the narrative was achieved at the cost of literal truth, and that to insist that the work is purely factual is to ignore its literary sophistication. Holocaust scholar Lawrence Langer argues similarly that Wiesel evokes, rather than describes: "Wiesel's account is ballasted with the freight of fiction: scenic organization, characterization through dialogue, periodic climaxes, elimination of superfluous or repetitive episodes, and especially an ability to arouse the empathy of his readers, which is an elusive ideal of the writer bound by fidelity to fact."

In a comparative analysis of the Yiddish and French texts, Naomi Seidman, professor of Jewish culture, concludes that there are two survivors in Wiesel's writing, a Yiddish and French. In re-writing rather than simply translating Un di Velt Hot Geshvign, Wiesel replaced an angry survivor who regards "testimony as a refutation of what the Nazis did to the Jews," with one "haunted by death, whose primary complaint is directed against God ...". Night transformed the Holocaust into a religious event.
Seidman argues that the Yiddish version was for Jewish readers, who wanted to hear about revenge, but the anger was removed for the largely Christian readership of the French translation. In the Yiddish edition, for example, when Buchenwald was liberated: "Early the next day Jewish boys ran off to Weimar to steal clothing and potatoes. And to rape German shiksas [un tsu fargvaldikn daytshe shikses]." In the 1958 French and 1960 English editions: "On the following morning, some of the young men went to Weimar to get some potatoes and clothes—and to sleep with girls [coucher avec des filles].
But of revenge, not a sign."

Here’s a similar article in the NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/bo...


Original review
'Night' was a good read, but I expected a lot more.
The reason I gave 'Night' only 3 stars, is because compared to the other holocaust memoirs I've read so far, I thought this was the weakest.
I gave 5 to 'If this is a man' (Survival in Auschwitz) by Primo Levi and to 'Five Chimneys' by Olga Lengyel, These memoirs were far superior to Mr. Wiesel's.
To 'Fatelessness' by Imre Kertész, I gave 4 stars.

Those memoirs gave more detailed, day-to-day descriptions of how it was to live in the camps. Don't get me wrong, it's not voyeurism I'm searching for in those memoirs. But sitting on my sofa, or in the sun, and never experienced a war or genocide except on television or in the newspaper, I simply can't imagine what life was like in the concentration camps. And I simply want to know the truth.

I think Mr. Wiesel's testimony fails to give the reader a full understanding of that experience. While reading Primo Levi, I nearly lived with him in the camp, felt his cold, his starvation, his exhaustion, the diseases, the mud, the pests...
I did not experience this when I was reading 'Night'. But I have to admit that the last part of the book touched me very deeply. That was the part about the death marches, and about Elie's poor father.
I also wondered why he didn't write anything about the rest of his family? What happened to them?

Mr. Wiesel was only 15 at the time, but already very devout. His experience caused a strong struggle with his faith, and he writes about that battle with God quite often. Of course, that religious conflict doesn't resonate with everyone.
Worse, I couldn't believe this when I read it :
"Yom Kippur. The day of Atonement. Should we fast? The question was hotly debated. To fast could mean a more certain, more rapid death. In this place, we were always fasting. It was Yom Kippur year-round. But there were those who said we should fast, precisely because it was dangerous to do so. We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises."

I remember that I first became aware of this story when it was put on the Oprah book club list years ago..I’ve always meant to read it since then.
We read all these novels based on the Holocaust and they are really tough to read, but these first hand personal experiences are so brutal and unimaginable.
Ellie was only 15 when he and his family where taken away to the camps.
I really can’t say more then others have said in their reviews, but.. just read it.. or listen, this audio was good!


Excerpt from Night
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 that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.
—Elie Wiesel, from Night

Un di Velt Hot Geshvign = Night (The Night Trilogy #1), Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel (Translator), François Mauriac (Foreword)

"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald.

Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. Testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must simply never be allowed to happen again.

تاریخ خوانش روز هشتم ماه مارس سال2018میلادی

عنوان: شب؛ نویسنده: الی ویزل؛ مترجم فریده گوینده؛ تهران، نشر لگا، سال1399؛ در133ص؛ شابک9786008987932؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان رومانیا تبار ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20م

عنوان: شب؛ نویسنده: الی ویزل؛ مترجم احسان قراخانی؛ تهران، میلکان، سال1400؛ در114ص؛ شابک9786222542948؛

الیزر (الی) ویزل، نویسنده، فعال سیاسی، و برنده ی جایزه صلح «نوبل»، و استاد «یهودی»، و از بازماندگان «هولوکاست» بوده است؛ که از سال1998میلادی تا پایان زندگی‌ خویش، سفیر صلح سازمان ملل، در موضوع حقوق بشر بودند؛ «شب» نامدارترین کتاب «الی ویزل» است؛ نویسنده در این کتاب، یادمانهای سرراست خود، از دوران هولناک اردوگاه‌های «نازی» را، بیان می‌کنند؛ این کتاب را نخستین بار خانم «نینا استوار» به فارسی برگردانده‌ است؛ که به کوشش بنیاد جامعه دانشوران، در «ایالات متحده آمریکا» به چاپ رسیده‌ است؛ نویسنده‌ ی کتاب «شب»، «الی ویزل»، هنگامی که همراه مادر، و خواهر و پدرش، از سوی مأموران «اس.اس» پلیس هیتلری دستگیر، و روانه‌ ی کشتارگاه‌های «یهودیان» شد، پانزده سال بیشتر نداشتند؛ بیشتر آن دیگران در اردوگاه‌های «نازی‌» به قتل رسیدند؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/02/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 19/12/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I have a feeling this may be in my favourite books of 2016 list! Undoubtedly one of the best non-fiction books I have read in my life.

Elie Wiesel retells how he lived through three years at Auschwitz concentration camp during Hitler's reign in World War Two. At only fifteen years old Elie and his family were wrenched from their home in Hungry and moved to the horrors of Hitler's camps. We see through Elie's eyes as he loses his family and is forced to live in the most horrendous conditions. Though it all he somehow manages to hold his faith - I can't express the pain that Elie conveys in this book, it honestly broke my heart. I find it so hard to read these kinds of books, the things that he recounts are truly shocking. I have such a strong belief that events like this need to be remembered, so we don't end up falling in the same traps.

A harrowing and heart-wrenching read. For such a short book it seriously packs a punch and I honestly believe this should be required reading for everyone. Phenomenal.

Even though I have read many other books about the Holocaust, none of them have left me feeling quite so haunted as "Night". It's a book that everyone should read. Based on author Elie Wiesel's experiences, the narrator is an observant Jewish fifteen-year-old in the Hungarian village of Sighet. His family and other Jews were sent to live in the ghetto by the Nazis. Then they were loaded onto cattle cars and traveled for days without food to Birkenau. Eliezer and his father were sent to Auschwitz while his mother and sister were placed in another line, probably headed for the crematorium.

Eliezer eloquently remembers the horror of Nazi cruelty--hard labor, beatings, and a lack of food and warm clothing. He shows how fighting for survival can also turn Jews against each other as they fight for a scrap of bread. His father offers emotional support, but is also a burden as he weakens. Eliezer questions his faith in God who allows such evil and suffering in the world. He is transformed physically, emotionally, and spiritually by his experiences.

This chilling quotation sums up Eliezer's reaction to the horror so well:

"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."

finally headed to dc and checked out the holocaust memorial museum. absolutely phenomenal and scarring experience. i saw unspeakable horrors, but it was a wonderful confirmation that the terrors jewish people went through from 1933-45 will never be forgotten. again, please read this book.

night is incredible. it may be the most horrifying book i've ever read, more scarring than the ones that made me cry in the middle of the night [i.e. horror], because i can't excuse actions simply because they are merely words on pages.

no. these words resemble something, something that i haven't learned about in my admittedly small time on earth. the holocaust was a hushed part of history where i grew up, in america. i'm not saying it's "the government's fault" i never learned about this event, but i do sometimes question why my education never brought it up.

throughout my time with this book, one of the ideas i kept questioning were morals, and their objectivity. a moral is objective. it's one of the reasons why good people do bad things. in their eyes, the explanation is deceivingly simple: it's the right thing to do. the 2d idea that a good thing, person, or thought is obvious was instantly shattered upon reading. elie explores this humanity in night through the eyes of a fifteen year old boy.

the only time i should've ever been exposed to gruesomeness was in the pages of my literary devices. this is what elie states in his 2006 forward before pouring out the memories behind the locked doors of his brain. the themes in this book are violent, disturbing, and human. bottom line: everybody should read this book. that's it. if you have it in you, do it.

(will not be rating, but consider it the equivalent of 5 stars. i don't feel right rating something like this, but that's just a personal opinion.)

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status updates are disabled so recording my thoughts here.

d1 - women, children…thrown into graves moments ago dug by themselves…elie puts into words pain so poignant, it clouds the reader’s senses. how can humanity be so inhumane?

d3 - my faceless neighbor spoke up: 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." i accidentally flipped to a random page of this book last night, but i wanted to share that this quote is at least a representation of the suffering, so horrible, that even death was something that could be turned into something twistedly optimistic.

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after reading this book, i hope to be a little less exceptionally uninformed about the horrors that raged in germany from 1933-45. my education never approached this inhumane part of human history, so i’ve begun to learn about this rather late, but better late than never.