Night by Elie Wiesel
a personal biography & memoir of Aushwitz

Night
By Elie Wiesel
Type: Audiobook; Unabridged
Narrator: George Guidall
Publisher: Recorded Books, 2006
Length: 4 hours and 20 min.

Night by Elie Wiesel is a compelling autobiographical memoir about surviving the Nazi concentration camps as a teenager.

Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor turned scholar then author. He witnessed unimaginable terror during World War II as millions of Jews were executed which included his own family, friends and neighbors. In Night, Wiesel goes back to his childhood before the Nazis grabbed him from his home and the horrific daily encounters he endured inside the Nazis death camps. No matter how disturbing, painful and shocking this memoir is, Night is a definite must listen audiobook.

"And that is the first ironic statement ever made here."
-Says Professor Wiesel

"This iron gate is one of the most infamous symbols of evil still standing. Yet as you pass through it, there is a feeling of sacredness, haunting memory—something achingly sad and holy."
-Says Oprah

As many as 100 people were jammed into a single rail car. With no food, water or toilet and very little air Professor Wiesel remembers his own journey to Aushwitz in the NIGHT.

A chilling short excerpt brings true life to the past...

There was a woman among us, a certain Mrs. Schächter. … I knew her well. … Mrs. Schächter had lost her mind. On the first day of our journey, she had already begun to moan. … Later, her sobs and screams became hysterical. … "Fire! I see a fire!" … Some pressed against the bars to see. There was nothing. Only the darkness of night. … "She is mad, poor woman…" (pp. 24–25)

A young Elie Wiesel stepped off the cattle car days later at the Auschwitz subcamp Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II. Smelling the stench of burning human flesh he saw the crematorium throwing its flames into the sky. "[Mrs. Schächter] wasn't so mad at all, she was a prophet."
-said Oprah

"And we didn't listen, I had a very strange idea [when I arrived at Auschwitz]. I was thinking that maybe it's the end of history, and I thought maybe it's the end of Jewish history. And then I thought maybe it means the end of times."
-said Professor Wiesel

Every chapter brings many questions that have haunted the world since Hitler's reign:

• How does the world allow such a number of innocent people to be tortued and executed?
• How does a man survive when his entirety (body, mind, and spirit) is terrorized for months, or even years if one survived that long, while watching neighbors, families and friends die?

"The anger here is in me—hate is not," he says. "I write and I teach and therefore, I believe anger must be a catalyst."
-Elie Wiesel

Everyone needs to know what happended in the past, especially something so needless and horrific. Night by Elie Wiesel gives us an incredible true life encounter of these dark times like we could not imagine.

"It is hard for me to be back in the barracks because of the memories of those who perished inside. When I come here, I'm not really alone. I'm with you but I'm not only with you," Professor Wiesel tells Oprah. "They are around us. … I think of them all the time, but here even more so." -Professor Wiesel said

Even though Wiesel became involved within the journalism field, he has never brought forth his own personal recollections encountered during the war in these camps. However, a French Catholic writer and Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac became acquainted himself with Wiesel. Over many years Mauriac inspired Wiesel to break his own vow of silence and began writing about the ordeal and memories of surviving the Nazi concentration camps.

Night by Elie Wiesel preserves a time of the past that needs to be remembered by all for eternity.

The book turned into a personal account just under 900 pages, called "And the World Remained Silent". This book was first written in Yiddish and was published in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1956. A couple years later, a narrowed down 127-page French version called "La Nuit" (Night) was published. In 1960, the first English language translation of "Night" by Elie Wiesel was published.

Night has since been translated into more than 30 different languages, including this new 2006 edition, which was translated by his wife, Marion Wiesel. This current version of Night by Elie Wiesel offers the most accurate English translation of this book to date.

Elie Wiesels lifelong dedication is to ensure that the world will never forget the inhumanity man endured from man himself.

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