Night

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Summary: Terrific Power of Faith
Review: Night written by Elie Wiesel is one of the most powerful novels I have ever read. The Nobel Peace Prize winner of 1986 tells a terrifying tale in graphic detail of Elie Wiesel's experience of the World War II and inparticular the way the Jewish society was treated by the Nazis.
This book shows that if you have faith there is hope. Elie Wiesel had faith. He survived through the ghettos, the torment of the Nazis, stuffy crowed trains, lack of food and water and two different death camps. The description of the two death camps is so real and horrible that you wish in some parts it was not, and wish this was only a fictitious novel. It was only faith that helped him through this.
He explores some very strong theological ideas, the strongest though being, why does God let such suffering happen. In one episode three people are 'strung up' and hung. Two of which are men and one a small child. The men die quite quickly but the boy is so light he gradually suffocates to death over more than half an hour. Elie describes the way they are all (the men and boys of that section of the death camp) forced to watch this boy die, and as they do one man says, 'Where is God now?' and Elie answers him in his thoughts, 'Where is He? Here He is ' He is hanging here on these gallows''
Just those powerful lines remind us of the death of Christ and the amount of suffering he went through and his identification through suffering with all who suffer. It might not strike Elie that way because he was of the Jewish faith but to Christian it certainly strikes us that way. This novel is a very intriguing one that should be read by everyone (when they are of an age suitable enough to read it) so that in the future this may never happen again. When people do read this they will be able to see what pure hatred can do to people and why it is important to keep the faith.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: Night is the most powerful book I've ever read about anything; especially the Holocaust. I have read many other books and historical accounts, visited the Holocaust museum in Washington DC, and seen many movies such as Schindler's List that attempt to convey the atrocities of Hitler's Germany; but none of them had an impact on me comparable to that of Wiesel's Night. The book absorbs you and creates the most realistic images of the horrors experienced by the Jews. I firmly believe that every high school student in America should be required to read this book. I was, and it had a profound impact on my life.

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Summary: The Definitive Account of the Holocaust
Review: Wiesel's account is a powerful exploration of the Holocaust. A young Transylvanian ... lives a sheltered life. His family is wealthy and he is into religious dogma. Then comes the Nazi Wehrmacht to crush everything he assumes or believes in. First forced into a ghetto then into several concentration camps, his experiences grow more and more dark and depressing. His sister and mother are seperated from his dad and him, and are probably killed. Grueling work and no food are small problems, but the prisoners become monsters equivalent to the Nazis guarding them. Several passages, such as the son abandoning his father during a run so as not to be shot, and another son killing his father for a crust of bread, are among the most poignant in the book. Eventually the young boy forsakes God, becomes bitter and withdrawn, and, after many Jews are killed as examples and his father dies, he tries only to survive. This is a must for everyone to read, because if people are educated about hate and what it does to people, this might not happen again.

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Summary: Night was a fantastic novel
Review: Elie Weisel did an excellent job in writing this book. It may not seem to be a difficult read, but if you only read it once you haven't even scratched the surface of the book's meaning. I've read this book several times over the past few years and every time I read it I find new meaning in the words. Mr. Weisel wrote with book with a lot of care and I encourage anyone who hasn't read it to do so and for those who own it, read it again.

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Summary: wow :'(
Review: this is the only book that has ever made me cry... i was reading it at school and i could hardly stay in control. it really amazes me that people think this book is poorly written. i guess they can't read between the lines and see powerful emotions behind the simplest statements... "night" actually allows the reader to *feel* the holocaust as elie weisel felt it. i recommend it to anyone, even people who are not really interested in this subject matter. i love this book :)

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Summary: ONE SPECIAL EVENT IN THIS REMARKABLE BOOK
Review: There have been numerous people who have written so much about this remarkable book. I would like to comment on one event in the book. Mr. Weisel and his father had survived Auschwitz but they had to leave and march for miles and miles to another camp. The walk was extremely difficult. If you stopped walking, you might be executed immediately. Mr. Weisel's father was walking when he tripped over a person that had fallen. This person was concerned that his violin would be damaged. It was remarkable that this person could have the strength to carry his violin under such difficult circumstances. As a musician, I gained a new appreciation for the importance of music to certain individuals. Music was the strength that kept several people alive. I am grateful that Mr. Weisel shared this incident and the other events in this amazing book. This book should be read by everyone.

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Summary: You'll find yourself enveloped in the Night
Review: This book is listed as fiction, but is largely based on the author's experience as a concentration camp survivor during the Jewish Persecution of World War II. It is powerful in its compactness. My wife and I read it aloud to each other on the course of a 5-day backpack trip in Desolation Wilderness. It really read like a true to life horror story of the atrocities humans can inflict upon other humans. The most frightening thing about the book is the refusal to believe the impending hardships and relative blind sightedness the Jewish community in the Hungary village undergoes during the first part of the book. Hindsight offers us the element of dreaded expectation we feel in horror movies before something really bad is about to happen to the unwary on-screen character. Only with this book it really did happen. The author starts out with a developing devout mystical faith in God and by the end loses it in its entirety. No human bean should have to lose their faith that way and that really is the power of the book. At some of the holocaust displays and concentration camp sites that I have seen in Europe are the words, "Lest we forget." This book sears the lessons humanity learned from the terrible tragedy of the holocaust and leaves us with a yearning to never let those events occur again. Of interesting note is that the high tide of the protagonist experience in the book is when they are sequestered off within a controlled Jewish Ghetto in their Hungary village. The characters enjoy cultural unity and isolationism and find it comfortable and familiar. All this in the face of eventual imprisonment and extermination. There are parallels to the modern day Balkans and the sectionalization movement around the globe to align political entities with ethnic entities. Maybe it makes a group feel comfortable to be surrounding with like people. We just can't afford it in modern society. The world moves towards diversity and those that find a way to thrive and revel in that diversity will succeed. Lest we Forget.

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Summary: A Personal Emotional Account of the Holocaust
Review: Jewish writer and historian Elie Wisel was cut off from his childhood learning of his faith when the Nazis took him and his family away from home. Wiesel encountered a new home and new world view in which bigotry, theft, murder, and genocide existed. Wiesel's account of his experience while in the concentration camp leaves the reader on the brink of despair, which is where Wiesel had been. But perseverance and love for his father, respect and faith in his people led him away from the camp to the days of freedom only to be left with the tragic memory. That tragedy led to this compelling story of his life. Highly reccomended!!

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Summary: Buckeye Book Community
Review: This book was recommended to me by The Ohio State University's Buckeye Book Community. This book was amazing. I have read a lot of fiction books about the Holocaust, but this one was so amazing because it is true. It tells of a young boy's survival of Auschwitz and his struggle to stay with his father and keep him alive also. It is an amazing story.

Rating:
Summary: Not very good
Review: I thought that this book was very bad. Even though I felt for everyone that going through that, the awthor didn't really capture it well enough. It was terrible what happened and all, but this book just doesn't capture it well enough for me. - sorry