Book Review: "Night" by Elie Wiesel (originally published 1958; this edition translated 2006)

"Night" is a brief, 120-page account of human rights activist Elie Wiesel's experience as a Jewish adolescent during the Holocaust. Losing his mother and three sisters, he finds himself shuffled from concentration camp to concentration camp throughout occupied Europe with his father. In addition to describing the absolute horror of what he and his fellow Jews were subjected to, "Night" alludes to the struggle that the formerly devout Wiesel had with his faith after seeing what God had wrought for Wiesel's people. He also ashamedly finds himself increasingly wishing that he be rid of the burden of his father so as to make his own suffering more bearable. For Wiesel, these two very human reactions are cause for his own personal "night" above and beyond the physical torture and mental anguish he goes through at the hands of the SS.

Of note in this edition is the inclusion of Wiesel's speech upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his humanitarian work. Looked at in the light of more recent genocides like Rwanda and others going on as we speak in places like the Sudan, it's clear that the Holocaust was not an isolated incident of ethnic slaughter, and for shame. Wiesel says:

"And then I explain to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe."

The victims of the Holocaust would not have died in vain if Wiesel's words had guided the world's actions when dealing with ethnic genocide since.

Overall rating: N/A. You can't assign a rating to a man's memoir of losing his family to hatred.