Night by Elie Wiesel Review: The Holocaust Memoir That Cannot Be Forgotten

Night: A Holocaust Memoir That Has No Equal

ELIE WIESEL was fifteen years old when the Nazis arrived in his hometown of Sighet, Hungary. By sixteen, he had survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald, watched his father die, and witnessed things that he would spend the rest of his life trying to describe — and wondering whether description was even possible.

Night is 115 pages. It took Wiesel ten years to write it. Published in France in 1958, rejected by publishers in the United States for five years, it was finally released in English in 1960 and went on to sell more than ten million copies. It has over 72,000 Amazon reviews averaging 4.7 stars.

What Makes Night Different from Other Holocaust Accounts

Most Holocaust narratives carry an implicit arc toward survival, recovery, and meaning. Wiesel resists this. Night does not resolve. It ends with the liberation of Buchenwald — and with Wiesel looking at his own reflection in a mirror for the first time in months, seeing a corpse looking back at him.

The book's power comes from its refusal to explain or redeem. Wiesel describes what he saw. He describes the death of his father, which happened in stages so gradual that he could not grieve at the time. He describes the moment he stopped praying, and what that meant for a deeply religious boy who had planned to spend his life studying the Torah.

Should You Read It?

This is one of those books where the question isn't "is it good?" but "am I ready for it?" It is good — technically simple, emotionally devastating. If you're approaching the Holocaust through books, Night should be first. It is the most direct account, by someone who was there, of what it felt like to be there.

Pair it with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning, for perspectives from different angles. Find them all at Skriuwer.com.