Night - Book Review

World War II has given way to one of the most horrific events in the history of mankind: the holocaust. The holocaust was genocide of Jews, homosexuals, mentally handicapped, crippled, and gypsies. The holocaust killed more than six million Jews alone. Hitler, the leader of the German empire, and his army of Nazis and SS troops carried out the ruthless actions of the holocaust. Elie Wiesel is a Jew who went through the terror of the holocaust and its concentration camps. He tells his story in his book Night. Night reveals how Wiesel lost his family, faith, and innocence to the evil of mankind during the holocaust. Wiesel believes it is important for people today to read this book because they need to be shown how important it is not to keep silent and let something like the holocaust happen again. I agree with him. Wiesel was born September 30, 1928. Wiesel grew up with his family in Sighet, Transylvania. Wiesel and his family were deported to the concentration camps in 1944. Wiesel was held in a few different concentration camps until the Jews were liberated in April, 1945.
Night is a story about a boy named Elie Wiesel and his family being sent to a concentration camp because they are Jewish. The family was warned many times from people who had seen it with their own eyes but didn't believe it. One day they learned that the Gestapo were coming to the Jewish neighborhood. When they came the people were split into two ghettos, a small and large one. The Wiesel family was put into the larger ghetto. They remained there for some time until one day the Gestapo came and put the people on these train carts. They could not bring any belongs with them. The Gestapo put at least 70 people on one cart. There was a woman on the cart and she kept on having flashes of things she saw was going to happen. She screamed things like, "Fire, Get Away!" She did this many times and would not stop. Every time she did this someone ended up striking her in her face. When they finally pulled up to the camp people saw smoke and fire. Everyone just turned and looked at her while she sat down and kept silent. When everyone was let out of the carts, the Gestapo split the people into two groups Men and Women. That was the last time Elie Wiesel saw his mother and sister Tzipora. The men had to then go and say their age and profession. If the profession was of no use then you would be put into the crematoria. Luckily Elie and his father were put into the group to work. This was the beginning of Elie's life in a concentration camp; little did he know that the pain and horror would last for 4 years.
At the first concentration camp Birkenau, Elie is separated from his mother and sister, but stays with his father, in which he is very happy about. However they are still uncertain as whether they will be sent to labor camps or cremated. As they moved through Birkenau, they see babies thrown into cremation pits, with a separate pit for adults. Elie cannot believe what is happening, and his father cries. After being processed at Birkenau, the prisoners are sent to Auschwitz, where they are tattooed with their prison numbers and stay here for several weeks before being transferred again to Buna. At this point, the prisoners still have faith in god and see redemption in the future. While at Buna, the supervisor of Elie’s workgroup, Idek is prone to violent outbreaks and Elie’s father became a victim of it and was savagely beaten. Elie felt no pity for his own father and even felt anger since his father could not avoid Idek’s wrath.
After an air raid on Buna, several resistance members were discovered and executed. One of them was a young boy who was a servant of the resistance member. While the other two members cried out “Life, Liberty” before being killed, the young boy remained silent and was executed, which prompted tears from the crowd. It is here that Eliezer really starts to lose faith in god and humanity. According to Eliezer, god died with the death of the child, "hanging here on this gallows." Marking the end of summer, the holiest days Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the New Year and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. While most of the Jews at Buna come to celebrate, Eliezer’s questioning of his religion furthers and he refuses to bless God and also refuses to fast. News comes of an advancing army upon Buna. The camp is excavated and prisoners are sent on a long run, more than 42 miles to Gleiwitz camp. Without food or water for three days, the prisoners are moved again, by train to Buchenwald. At Buchenwald, Eliezer’s father is fatally sick and Eliezer abandons him when an air-raid siren calls all prisoners into the barracks. The next day, Eliezer makes a half-hearted attempt to search for his father, but also contemplates abandoning him to conserve his strength. Although by chance, he finds him, his guilt makes him give coffee and soup to his father. Eliezer’s father has dysentery, which is an inflammatory disorder of the lower intestinal tract and also causes extreme thirstiness. Eliezer tries to get his father medical attention, but the doctors refuse to help him. As the days past, other prisoners take advantage of his father by beating him and stealing his food. Eventually, Eliezer wakes up to find his father no longer there. Apparently he had been taken to the crematory during the night. Eliezer does not cry, but in fact feels relieved. News of an American army approaching to liberate Buchenwald, but Eliezer does not budge. While the Nazis decide to kill of the remaining Jews in camp, the resistance movement strikes and drives the remaining SS officers out of camp.
In a frenzy of hunger, Elie feasts himself on the remaining food in the camp and gets food poisoning. After spending weeks in a hospital, Elie finally looks at himself in the mirror shocked, "From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me." Elie lost his humanity and faith in his own religion, a religion in which he displayed such devoutness and fervor in the beginning of the novel. His survival was one marked by luck and circumstance, but more importantly, his will to survive, although at the cost of everything he once held dear. At the end of the novel, what remained of his humanity, died with his father.
Night by Elie Wiesel showed me the true horrors that took place during World War II. After reading this book, I really took time to think about and reflect upon the travesties that took place during that time. I recommend Night to anyone. Anyone who has a soul will read this book and be deeply moved and deeply disturbed by it. They will see how terrifying and evil mankind can really be. They will see how important it is to prevent something like the holocaust from ever happening again. It is definitely worth anyone's time to read Night. They will see that we cannot forget the ruthless actions that took place during the holocaust because if we do, then something just as evil and terrifying can and will happen again. Everyone should read this book because then maybe they will realize that they cannot keep silent.

"Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow" – Elie Wiesel