“For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
Synopsis: “Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel’s memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man.”
It’s difficult to review a book like Night because all I really want to say is “Read it. Read it. Read it.” This book is short, falling short of the 150-page mark, but the emotion emanating from every page is poignant and palpable. There were several things that made me pause and reflect while reading. First, Wiesel’s relationship with faith is unflinchingly honest; he struggles to maintain his faith as he witnesses the horrors of the Holocaust and the evil of man. Second, Wiesel‘s feelings around the silence of others, the complicity of looking the other way, and the confusion of others’ inaction were devastating. Wiesel writes, “Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow,” and it’s a necessary reminder that we must be vigilant in calling out injustices. I, for one, do not want to look back on my life and think “I should’ve spoken up.”
Have you read this? What’s a book you recommend about WWII? 💛
NIGHT by Elie Wiesel
Read It Like Rory 