“Night” by Elie Wiesel. “Night” is a memoir that recounts Wiesel’s experiences as a teenager during the Holocaust, specifically focusing on his time spent in Nazi concentration camps, particularly Auschwitz and Buchenwald, during World War II. The book provides a harrowing and deeply moving account of the horrors of the Holocaust, capturing the loss of innocence, the struggle for survival, and the enduring questions about humanity and God in the face of such profound evil. “Night” is widely regarded as a powerful and essential work of literature, offering readers a poignant and unforgettable glimpse into one of the darkest periods of human history.
Night Book Quotes
1. “And action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all.”
2. “In the beginning there was faith – which is childish; trust – which is vain; and illusion – which is dangerous.”
3. “Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”
4. “So now, muster your strength, and don’t lose heart. We shall all see the day of liberation. Have faith in life. Above all else, have faith. Drive out despair, and you will keep death away from yourselves.”
5. “It was pitch dark. I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek’s soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings–his last hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again.”
6. “I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions.”
7. “For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.”
8. “They are committing the greatest indignity human beings can inflict on one another: telling people who have suffered excruciating pain and loss that their pain and loss were illusions.”
9. “There’s a long road of suffering ahead of you. But don’t lose courage.”
10. “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
11. “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 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.”
12. “Hell is not for eternity.”
13. “Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.”
14. “Did I write it so as not to go mad or, on the contrary, to go mad in order to understand the nature of madness?”
15. “Better than one heart be broken a thousand times in the retelling, he has decided, if it means that a thousand other hearts need not be broken at all.”
16. “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
17. “For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive.”
18. “I shall always remember that smile. From what world did it come from?”
19. “One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live.”
20. “His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily: “I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.”
21. “We are all brothers, and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive.”
22. “He explained to me with great insistence that every question possessed a power that did not lie in the answer.”
23. “I believe it important to emphasize how strongly I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both.”
24. “Bread, soup – these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time.”
