"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." -Elie Wiesel The Holocaust-the mass murder of European Jews by the Nazis during World War II. It was the unthinkable, the horrific murder of 6 million Jews and millions of civilians of different ethnic and racial backgrouds. It was average men entering the German army and turned into Nazis, cold-blooded killers. It was the connotation of Holocaust which became Night, by Elie Wiesel. This paints a picture, full of vivid imagery and truth, about the genocide of his own people. Elie witnesses the starvation, brutal beating, and eventual death of his friends, family, and fellow Jews. Wiesel, himself, survived Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald, and Gleiwitz, all German concentration camps, where atrocities such as cremation and murder hung thickly in the air like a heavy cologne. Born September 30, 1928, Eliezer Wiesel led a life representative of many Jewish children. Growing up in a small village in Romania, his world revolved around family, religious study, community, and God. Yet his family, community, and his innocent faith were destroyed upon the deportation of his village in 1944. One of the main topics in this book is how Elie, a boy of strong religious faith, along with many of his fellow jews, lose their faith in God due to the horrific effects of the concentration camps.
