Night

The Book "Night" was the autobiography of Eliezer Wiesel.
This was a horrible and sobering tale of his life story.
The story takes place in Sighet, Translyvania. It's the
year 1941 and World War II is occurring. Eliezer was 12 at
this time and wasn't really aware of what was occurring in
the world concerning the Jewish people. He had a friend who
went by the name Moshe the Beadle. Moshe was a very good
friend of Elezers'.
 
One day it was ordered that all foreign Jews in Sighet be
deported by German troops. They were told they had to wear
yellow stars to identify themselves. Eliezer's friend,
Moshe, was also a foreign Jew, which meant he had to be
deported. Eliezer did not see his friend Moshe for months.
When he finally saw him, Moshe was weeping. Eliezer asked
him what was wrong. Moshe told him he was in a
concentration camp. He said they threw him in a pit and
shot his leg, but he managed to escape and came back to
warn him to flee for his life. Eliezer didn't listen to him.
 
About three days later, German troops entered Sighet. They
order the people of Sighet to surrender to them or die. The
people surrendered and had to give up all their
possessions. Moshe was right, it did happen. All the people
of Sighet were jammed into train cars and shipped to the
concentration camp of Auschwitz. At that point Eliezer was
separated from his family forever with the exception of his
father. There was a large crematory in Auschwitz. You could
smell the burning flesh in the air. Eliezer was ordered to
the crematory. He came within two paces of it, but then was
ordered to the barracks. He was saved for that night only.
After that incident, he lived with fear of when was he
going to die.
 
Eliezer later went to other concentration camps in Bakenau
and Buna. During these years in the camps he lived through
great suffering. Starvation, and survival. He also
witnesses thousands of people die and murdered including
his own father. Eliezer was finally shipped to Buchenwald.
Which would end up being his last stay at any concentration
camp. It was now the year 1945 and this ordeal was finally
over. Allied forces had defeated the German troops and the
people who survived were free. The first chance Eliezer had
he wanted to look in a mirror. When he finally got the
chance he didn't see the same person he once was. He had
the look of a dead corpse in his eyes, and that look is
with him for the rest of his life.
 
"Night" was a very descriptive book about the horrors of
the Holocaust and what Elie Wiesel endured in his struggle
to survive. This moving story made me realize that we must
never allow such atrocities to happen again.