Wiesel, Elie.Night. Translated by Stella Rodway. New York: Bantam, 1960.
The author was silent for years before writing about his life in Nazi occupied Hungary and the concentration camps of Birkenau and Auschwitz. First published in 1960, Night began the purging of the nightmares so many Holocaust victims had suffered. In 1941, Wiesel was a 12 year old child from a very religious family; his days were spent in study and prayer. In the spring of 1944, Hitler invaded Hungary. Despite Nazi rule and establishment of the ghetto, the Jewish community could not recognize the implications of Hitler's occupation. Soon a stunned and battered people were deported to the concentration camps. Elie Wiesel survived, whereas 6 million other Jews were murdered.
[This book was chosen because Wiesel was one of the first Holocaust survivors to write about his experience. The words in this slim volume tell of a time of night, when Jews were unaware of what was happening until it was too late. The entire autobiography has a sense of occurring in the pitch black of night. The stark narration of survival is a nightmare.]
There had been a "roundup" in his village where all foreign Jews were expelled from the town. Several months passed and the Jews of the town forgot about the roundup and continued on with the routine of their Nazi dictated life; foolishly thinking things would get better. One day, a man returns to tell of the horror that he had seen as the Jews crossed into Polish territory and the Gestapo took charge.
"They take me for a madman," he would whisper, and tears, like drops of wax, flowed from his eyes.
Once, I asked him this question:
"Why are you so anxious that people should believe what you say? In your place, I shouldn't care whether they believed me or not..."
He closed his eyes, as though to escape time.
"You don't understand", he said in despair. "You can't understand. I have been saved miraculously. I managed to get back here. Where did I get the strength from? I wanted to come back to Sighet to tell you the story of my death. So that you could prepare yourselves while there was still time. To live? I don't attach any importance to my life any more. I'm alone. No, I wanted to come back, and to warn you. And see how it is, no one will listen to me.."