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Summary: A small book that hits like an atomic bomb
Review: I read this book for a college religious study course I took called "Religion and modern literature" at Long Beach State University. I found this book difficult to read because Elie Wiesel graphically describes the horrors of the holocaust. He gives a graphic description of people , especially children being thrown into the furnace at Auschwitz. The cruelity of the Nazis were purely barbaric. In the book Elie Wiesel describes his conflict with God amonst the suffering of his people. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to fully understand one of humanities darkest period. Six million people were murdered because of blind hatred.
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Summary: What's Going On Here ?
Review: Why haven't you heard about this: All present Holocaust Museums and literature are all about Gas Chambers. Isn't it odd Elie never mentioned one? At the time of his writing, Elie had several to chose from : Boiling water or steam(spread by the Polish communists); electrocution (spread by the Soviets); the fire method(origins yet undiscovered), and the gas chamber(spread by the American communists/pro-communists, etc.).On the scholarly plane, the gas chamber myth is finished. It ended at the Sorbonne colloquium in Paris(1982)- the problem is censureship; no means to get the message out. Even amoung "Court Historians" the 'Fire' war-propaganda/myth has long ceased any resemblence of credibility. The war-propaganda/myths of 'Boiling water", 'Steam' and 'Electrocution' have long been discredited. And why am I watching countless 'school' children being forced to read this nonsense for required 'school' readings ???
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Summary: Why?
Review: In Elie's time at the concentration camp he questions many things. He is constantly questioning why his people still praise and glofiy the same God who has betrayed them. Elie demands to know why God is punishing his people? But there is no end to the questioning of God's reasons, and there are only silent answers. Elies belief in his God waivers throughout the whole novel and eventually is destroyed. The Nazis not only murder his whole family but also his God. This was an insightful book full of pain, but extremely realistic. It makes you question the little things we take for granted, like our freedom.
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Summary: Not ONE word out of place
Review: This is a book that makes the most of simple, well-chosen English to create a powerful, poetic picture. The whole thing can be read through in a couple of hours, and then read again to pick up all those exquisite images created by the author's prose.Even if you are not interested in the Holocaust, you can read this book if for no other reason than to see an example of powerful writing that is balanced and not overwrought with detail.
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Summary: hunger, hunger, hunger
Review: Obviously, I agree with most of the things said by the other reviewers. What grabbed me, though, is this: the importance of hunger. How when you are starved enough, it really stops mattering how many people are being killed around you or even whether people are beating you up. Reading this reminded me that, even in the midst of all the terrorism and other terrible things that are going on in our world, material abundance (or at least a full stomach) is really nothing to sneeze at.
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Summary: You'll never forget this book
Review: During Mr. Wisels acceceptance speech for this pulitzer prize winning novel, he mentioned that he wrote this because he never wanted people to ever carelessly forget what had happened in concentration camps just as they had carlessly let it take place. In that he did an excellent job. The images that are drawn for the reader in this book are so horrifying and so vivd that they leave a lasting imprint on your soul. He uses simple diction while showing the evrelating "night" that he and so many others felt. He writes of the loss of his illusions , the loss of his innocence and the loss of his god on that horrible "night". I know that I will never forget, read this book so you can remember.
Rating: 
Summary: A Realistic Concentration Camp Account
Review: Night is an excellent book. It is a very vivid and detailed account of the concentration camps during World War II. It is told through the eyes of a young man, Elie Wiesel. This book is extremely thought-provoking.
In the book, Elie describes his fear and terror of being brought to a ghetto with his family. At first, the ghetto was not bad at all; it was better than Elie and his family had expected. However, the day his family packed up and was transported to a concentration camp was the day Elie's life changed forever. On the way to the concentration camp, Jewish people were packed into trains so they could hardly move. Once at the concentration camp, families were split up. Elie was terrified; he was still very young. He was separated from his mother and siblings, but he was not separated from his father. From that day, all the way until the end, Elie stayed with his father. When Elie's father grew weak, Elie gave him some of his food ration from the day. Soon after arriving at the camp, every person was sent to work. Elie and his father were split up during the day, but continued to support each other. After what seemed like forever, Elie and his father were moved to another concentration camp. All of the Jews were forced to run to the next camp. Anyone who stopped or was too weak to continue was shot. The officers in charge had no mercy for anyone and killed even little children. Soon, the weather turned cold, and people began to die from sickness. Elie's foot became infected and his father grew ill. Through it all, Elie forced himself to stay alive and stay strong. He forced his father to do the same. In the end, Elie learns a powerful lesson. He learns that belief in himself and in others got him through this horrific experience.
In this book, Elie describes everything with such graphic detail, I could see everything he described in my head. For example, I still remember the picture I got in my head when Elie described the ghetto when everyone had left to go to the concentration camps. It was empty, desolate, and silent, almost like a desert. It was as if no one had every lived there at all. I thought Night was an excellent historical biography of the cruelties of World War II.
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Summary: A Personal Account of the Holocaust
Review: This is an incredible book. This is the story of a boy's life in a concentration camp. He survives, but as an orphan and without any kind of family. It's a graphic description of what his life was like there. The two most touching moments for me were when the prisoners all recite the Jewish prayer for the dead for themselves, and when the narrator (Wiesel himself, I believe) discovers his mother and sisters are dead when he is sorting clothing of dead prisoners and recognizes their clothes. Prior to that he had been separated from them and assumed that they were simply in a different part of the camp, when in fact, as was standard operating procedure most of the time for prisoners who the Nazis didn't consider valuable, they were sent to the gas chambers. It's the poignant personal moments like this that make this book so gripping. We must never forget, and it must never happen again.
Wiesel has written two other books chronicaling what happened next, after the camps, but I haven't read them yet.
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Summary: What is there left to say?
Review: This short work speaks for itself and leaves the reader speachless. This is perhaps the most eloquent and riveting account ever put to paper by a holocaust survivor. Even in translation, the prose is simple and cuts to the heart of the inhumanity and horror Wiesel experienced (though if you are able, look up a copy of this book in its original French: La Nuit). A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Night
Review: In this bookthe auathor Elie Wiesel is a young Jewish boy who tells of his life. It first began when he was living in the ghetto. At this time the ghetto was a place where the Germans put all Jews so they could watch over their every movements. He then talks about him leaving the ghetto being forced by the Germans to concentration camps. There he was seperated from his mother and sisters. He and his father had a difficult time going through the rigourous training. You'll have to read the book to find out what actually happened in these concentration camps.
I like this book because it shows of real life and how the jews were treated back in the 1940's. It was sort of like reading a history book on Jews and concentration camps. I liked the way they showed the struggle of love between the father and son.
My favorite part in the book was when the father was very ill and his son struggled and struggled to keep him alive. He kept pushing his father to try to live and to think of how they would be after they were saved from the concentration camps. His father was very ill and was taken to the sickly section of the camp. He stayed there to keep his father's eyesopen so the people wouldn't take him away and presume him dead.
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