After the Darkness : Reflections on the Holocaust

Rating:
Summary: A historical account told with honesty and reflection.
Review: While Elie Wiesel's first book, "Night", recounts his experience in the concentration camps, his new anthology, "After the Darkness", gives a wider perspective on the Holocaust. This book serves as both a historical record of this dark period and as a memorial to the 6 million victims of the evil that went unchallenged for far too long.

The factual documentation is accented with Survivors' testimonials that were previously unpublished. Full-page photographs add an incredible dimension to the stories that makes them easier to comprehend. There are two photographs that particularly moved me. The first is of a woman hanging from her balcony, desperate to escape the Nazis who wait on the street to capture her. The second photograph is of four women smiling as they peel potatoes just a few feet from a long stretch of corpses. This photo lets me see the utter loss and indifference that Wiesel describes in his book, "Night".

"Night" let us see the horrors of the Holocaust through Wiesel's memory. "After the Darkness" shows us how the Holocaust slowly crept up on an innocent and unsuspecting world. The narratives demonstrate the devastation that the Nazi regime had on many different people, and the photographs will remain in our memories to enforce the adage, "Never forget."

Rating:
Summary: A historical account told with honesty and reflection.
Review: While Elie Wiesel's first book, "Night", recounts his experience in the concentration camps, his new anthology, "After the Darkness", gives a wider perspective on the Holocaust. This book serves as both a historical record of this dark period and as a memorial to the 6 million victims of the evil that went unchallenged for far too long.

The factual documentation is accented with Survivors' testimonials that were previously unpublished. Full-page photographs add an incredible dimension to the stories that makes them easier to comprehend. There are two photographs that particularly moved me. The first is of a woman hanging from her balcony, desperate to escape the Nazis who wait on the street to capture her. The second photograph is of four women smiling as they peel potatoes just a few feet from a long stretch of corpses. This photo lets me see the utter loss and indifference that Wiesel describes in his book, "Night".

"Night" let us see the horrors of the Holocaust through Wiesel's memory. "After the Darkness" shows us how the Holocaust slowly crept up on an innocent and unsuspecting world. The narratives demonstrate the devastation that the Nazi regime had on many different people, and the photographs will remain in our memories to enforce the adage, "Never forget."