Barbara P. (gotchagal) - , reviewed on 1/25/2010 + 97 more book reviews

This is an intensely personal and extremely powerful book. The story is well-told, without any attempt to exaggerate any parts of the story for shock value. This true story itself is horrific.

As a young teenager, Elie Wiesel is forced to see what unbelievably terrible things human beings can do to one another. He loses beloved members of his family, who are put to death, and finally becomes a witness to the death of his father. People are worked to death, starved to death, shot to death and gassed to death. Awful, mind-blowing experiments are performed on many as well.

How could humans do these things to one another? If you have ever doubted the truth of what took place during the Holocaust, you can finally put your doubts aside.

I lost several dozen members of my extended family who were taken to camps from Hungary. Families, tiny babies, small children, young teenagers, just beginning to bloom and yet to discover who they really were about to be. So many family members I'll never know. So many aunts, uncles, cousins, I know little about except that they were murdered.

So many stories. Such horror and heartbreak. That is my family history in great part. This book gives you an idea of how these stories were cut short.

A distant cousin of mine has done an amazingly detailed study of our family's genealogy, but I've never been able to finish reading all the information he provided. Amongst other things, it contains many pages that read somewhat like; "Schwartz family, mother (name), 32, father (name), 36, sons (names)4 months old, 2 yrs, 6 yrs, daughters 5, 8 ---all died in (name of) concentration camp."

I've never been able to read all the information because I break down and cry so hard that I cannot go on. Dr. Mengle did the most painful, agonizing experiments on identical twins. I have identical twin daughters. Reading "Night" made me cherish them even more, and made me thank G-d I wasn't there. I cannot imagine how the mothers who lost children in the camps could go on. I couldn't.

If you have a teenager, by all means, do have them read this book. They need to know our history. They need to understand what happened to so many people; how it was allowed to happen. They are our next generation. It is up to them to make sure this kind of horror doesn't happen again, anywhere, ever.

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