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The Night Trilogy #2

Dawn

elie wiesel frances frenaye

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Elisha is a young Jewish man, a Holocaust survivor, and an Israeli freedom fighter in British-controlled Palestine; John Dawson is the captured English officer he will murder at dawn in retribution for the British execution of a fellow freedom fighter. The night-long wait for morning and death provides Dawn, Elie Wiesel's ever more timely novel, with its harrowingly taut, hour-by-hour narrative. Caught between the manifold horrors of the past and the troubling dilemmas of the present, Elisha wrestles with guilt, ghosts, and ultimately God, as he waits for the appointed hour and his act of assassination. Dawn is an eloquent meditation on the compromises, justifications, and sacrifices that human beings make when they murder other human beings.

81 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1960
Series
The Night Trilogy
Places
british mandate for palestine, 

This edition

Format
81 pages, Paperback
Published
March 21, 2006 by Hill and Wang
ISBN
9780809037728
ASIN
0809037726
Language
English

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for elie wiesel

elie wiesel

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Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.
He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
27(27%)
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35(35%)
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Justforrating
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 14,2025
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This book is not a genuine continuation of Wiesel's renowned memoir Night.

I consider this to be the most disappointing aspect of this book. When I approached it with extremely high expectations, eager to learn about how Wiesel's life unfolded after the unfathomable horror and the experience of living in concentration camps, it was quite a letdown to discover that this is a work of fiction.

Moreover, it focuses on only a very few days of an imaginary character. I truly felt cheated.

However, setting that part aside, I will now move on to highlight some truly excellent points that I liked about the book.

This novel is very concise and is written extremely well. It is very much in Wiesel's style. His writing is highly unique and captivating.

He perhaps dwells a bit too much on God, but I think he magnificently captured the dark thoughts and what is going on inside the head of a killer.

A killer who acts in the name of a nation, in the name of honor, and of so-called self-defense. A young boy, brainwashed, who attempts to hate the victim, tries to justify the terrible act that is about to occur, yet cannot truly find it within himself.

I give it "almost 4 stars" due to the powerful ending, which left me deeply disturbed and shaken.

I firmly believe that any book that evokes strong emotions in the reader should be read and is worthy of the time we invest in it.

He who has killed one man alone is a killer for life. He may choose another occupation; hide himself under another identity, but the executioner or at least the executioner's mask will always be with him.
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impala39
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 14,2025
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Jan 24, 1130am


Before I embarked on reading, I was completely unaware that this second installment in the Night Trilogy was a novel.


The story is set in a time when the British were still in control of Palestine and the future Israelis were striving to break free from British rule.


Published in 1960, the preface to this particular edition was penned in 2006. Wiesel remarks, "This novel, my first, may be astonishing for its unexpected pertinence to our current era. Doesn't it pertain to hostage-taking, violence, and covert rebellion?"


The main character engages in a great deal of self-reflection, facing profound moral quandaries and philosophical inquiries that require deep thought.


It is truly disheartening that in 2025, there still exists "hostage-taking, violence, and clandestine rebellion."


It seems that we humans are perpetually trapped in a cycle of not maturing.

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mahsio
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 14,2025
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As usual, Wiesel's writing is a powerful and poignant exploration of the darkness that exists within the human experience.

He has a remarkable ability to describe the most inhumane actions with a sense of beauty and humanity, making his work both deeply moving and thought-provoking.

The sadness and tragedy that pervade his writing are palpable, yet there is also a certain beauty and quietness that emerge from his words.

Wiesel's work serves as a reminder of the atrocities that have been committed throughout history and the importance of never forgetting.

It forces us to confront the darker side of our nature and to strive for a more just and peaceful world.

His writing is a testament to the power of the human spirit to endure and to find meaning in even the most difficult of circumstances.

Overall, Wiesel's work is a literary masterpiece that continues to resonate with readers today.
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BenjaminRogers
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 14,2025
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A short and spare book delves into the thoughts of a 19-year-old Jewish man who enlisted in the Zionist effort to put an end to the British occupation of Palestine in the years following World War II. The young man finds himself burdened with a difficult task. If one of the Jewish freedom fighters is hanged, he is to kill a British Captain. This is an excellent and deeply sad story that has the power to resonate even today. It offers a glimpse into a tumultuous period in history, filled with conflict, sacrifice, and moral dilemmas. The young man's struggle to come to terms with his assignment and the implications it holds is a poignant exploration of the human condition. As we read this story, we are forced to confront the harsh realities of war and occupation, and to question the lengths to which people are willing to go in the name of freedom and justice.

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BasedMan123
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 14,2025
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This book came to me by accident.

One day, I was visiting the library at Anatolia High School in Thessaloniki. As is occasionally the case, there was a pile of books on a table outside the door - books that had been purged from the collection, free for the taking. I am usually wary of such books, as they are often not worth the trouble. Either they are falling apart or they are lousy books. But this one caught my eye because I had heard of one of Elie Wiesel's other books, "Night", due to it becoming one of Oprah's book club selections. Not that I follow her book club religiously, but I read just about any article I come across that recommends good reading material.

I initially thought that "Dawn" might be some sort of sequel to "Night", but it isn't. "Night" is an autobiography, the harrowing story of Wiesel's internment in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944 and 1945. However, "Dawn" is a novel. It is considered to be part of a trilogy, along with "Night" and "Day", which draws on Wiesel's Holocaust experiences.

"Dawn" is very short; my edition was only 102 small pages with large print. It is listed as a novel but is really more of a novella. It is told in the first person by a teenage survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald who has been recruited in Paris and then trained in Israel in terrorist tactics against the English. This eighteen-year-old, Elisha, has been ordered to execute a captive British officer at dawn, and the story focuses on his personal anguish at being given this task. It takes place during the night before the execution, with flashbacks to earlier times. There is also a fantasy element, as ghosts from Elisha's past show up to keep vigil and converse with him, including his father, his mother, the rabbi who was his teacher, some other friends and acquaintances, and a small boy who represents a younger version of himself. Elisha realizes that the execution will change him forever, that he will become a murderer after he has committed this deed, but nevertheless he feels compelled to follow through with it.

This book is not to be read for entertainment. It is devastating, heartbreaking, and depressing. It shows a man at the mercy of a dark destiny that he cannot change, and it portrays war as an evil in which there are no winning sides. It is told succinctly, in direct, spare, and poetic prose. There is no excess or fluff. It is lean and abrupt, like a bullet in the brain. It is a parable that could apply to any war in any age, in which men who have no personal animosity towards one another nevertheless confront one another as enemies.

I recommend this book, but as I said, do not approach it lightly. It is the type of literary experience that has the power to change people, to knock the silliness out of them, to sober them up, and to cause them to confront their humanity. If you are up for this kind of profound and life-altering experience, give it a try.

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Mlover4Ever
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 14,2025
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The young soldier had narrowly escaped the horrors of the holocaust death camps.

Now, he found himself in a situation that was equally harrowing. He had been ordered to carry out the death sentence of a British officer.

The very thought of taking a man's life weighed heavily on his conscience. He wrestled with the decision in his mind, constantly tormented by the implications of the deed he had to do.

It brought about vivid nightmares, where he saw the faces of those he had left behind in the camps, and the ghosts of his past seemed to haunt him. Extreme guilt consumed him, as he questioned whether he could go through with it.

But, at the appointed hour, he mustered the courage to do his deed. And as he did, the ghosts seemed to fade away.

When it was all over, he looked in the mirror and saw his own face, forever changed by the events that had unfolded.

He knew that he would have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life.
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clust3rfuck
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 14,2025
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I have already read a book by this author and I really enjoyed it. So much so that I was eager to read another one of their works. However, unfortunately, I didn't realize that this particular book was fiction.

I don't know the exact reason, but for some reason, I just don't enjoy fictional accounts about the Holocaust or its survivors. The true story of the Holocaust is already horrific enough on its own.

Anyway, despite the fact that this book is well written, I just couldn't seem to get into it. Maybe it's because my mind is so focused on the real events and the real people who suffered during that time.

I'm sure there are many people who will enjoy this book, but for me, it just didn't hit the mark. I think I'll stick to reading non-fiction when it comes to topics like the Holocaust.
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oceano1
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 14,2025
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This book is truly distinct from any other that I have perused.

It serves as the sequel to Elie Wiesel's renowned memoir Night. However, this time around, the narrative is fictional.

Given its fictional nature, it is immediately more palatable than Night.

The story centers on the morals and thought processes of a Holocaust survivor. After he becomes a part of the Jewish Resistance in Palestine, he is commanded to execute a British soldier.

This raises profound questions such as: Can the victim ever transform into the murderer? Do the misdeeds of others justify one in committing the same crimes against them?

The main character grapples with these moral conundrums.

It compelled me to contemplate matters that had never crossed my mind previously.

It offers a unique perspective on the complex themes of morality, vengeance, and the human psyche in the face of extreme circumstances.

Overall, it is a thought-provoking and engaging read that challenges the reader's preconceived notions.
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