Night.

I just finished reading 'Night' by Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust. He was a teen when he and his family got transferred from his home in Transylvania to several concentration camps including Auschwitz and Buchenwald. The book won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize and is one of the best I've ever read.

Wiesel's story is an interesting one. Some people in his home town, Sighet, were deported one day, including a crazy friend of his, who escapes later and comes back to warn Elie. Life continued normally as his friend told horrid stories of infants being tossed into the air and used as targets for machine guns. Throughout the weeks and months, the Jews in his town remained optimistic, especially with encouraging reports from the Russian army. Suddenly one day the Germans invaded Sighet, but people got a good impression of them and kind of lived in ignorance of what could happen to them. Slowly, things began to change. Synagogues closed, the Jews were moved into specific ghettos in their town, forced to wear the yellow star, etc.
"The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion."

Finally the order came- they were to be moved to Hungary to do factory work. Even to the last moment, people clung to hope that the order might be rescinded. On his march out of the city, Wiesel takes note of his father's reaction to their situation- tears. He had never seen his father cry. There was no distinction of class or financial status- "we were all people condemned to the same fate- still unknown."

Wiesel was separated from his mother and younger siblings, lying to the guards that he was 18 (he was 15) so he could stay with his father. They were loaded into cattle cars, forced to stand for days on end with little food and water. Finally they pulled into a station. "Someone near a window read to us: 'Auschwitz.' We had never heard that name before."

They thought conditions were good- only the young would work in factories, families wouldn't be separated, the old and sick would work in the fields. "Conditions were good. Confidence soared."

When they were able to leave the cattle train, they saw a tall chimney and huge flames, and the air reeked of burning flesh. Families were immediately separated, and Wiesel met some veteran inmates who scoffed at them, saying 'Didn't you know what was in store for you here?'

"I pinched myself: Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?"

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp...those flames that consumed my faith forever...moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes."

"A few SS officers wandered the room, looking for strong men. If vigor was that apprecaited, should one appear to be sturdy? My father thought the opposite- better to not draw attention. We found out later we were right." A man from Wiesel's hometown found out they were in his camp and sent them a note. Having been chosen because of his strength, Wiesel found out that he had been forced to throw his own father's body into the furnace.

One time Wiesel and his father were moved to a building with no floor. The inside was covered in mud, and soon after arriving, officers came to take people's shoes, if they had a decent pair. Wiesel did have a new pair- but they were covered in mud and were never noticed. "I thanked God, in an improvised prayer, for having created mud in His infinite and wondrous universe." Shoes, gold teeth- anything of value was taken from the inmates. Wiesel narrowly escaped giving up his gold tooth, until an SS discovered it one day. Wiesel would still not give up his crown, until the soldier beat his father everyday for two weeks until Wiesel allowed him to pry it off his molar with a rusty spoon.

It was at Auschwitz that Wiesel's arm was engraved and from then on he had no name- he was A-7713. He recalls memories of tens of thousands of inmates standing in rows while the SS checked their numbers.

Often Wiesel compares the officers and situations to animals- an SS officer with the neck of a bull, hands resembling a wolf's paw, SS men choosing who to throw into the crematorium as if they were selecting cattle.

One time he and his father were hauling cargo and his father got in the way of a German soldier- while he watched the man beat his father with an iron bar, Wiesel recalls watching the event in silence, not wanting to help. In fact, he claims he felt anger not at the soldier but at his father for not being able to avoid the man's wrath.

I could write several hundred more words about my reaction to the book- but if you have a few hours, (it's only 115 pages) read it for yourself. It's been awhile since I read a book this detailed, dramatic and dreary, but I just couldn't put it down.