Written in 1958, Night is Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's message to the world that the horrors of the Holocaust must never be repeated. This autobiographical story traces events from 1941 to 1945, during which time Wiesel and his family are taken from their village to a Nazi concentration camp. The family is split apart and Wiesel never again sees his mother and one of his sisters. The rest of the story focuses on Wiesel and his father as they struggle to survive the brutal horrors of the camps. Although his father eventually dies, Wiesel survives to be liberated by Allied troops and to offer this account of terror and guilt as well as faith.

Related Readings

"A Wound That Will Never Be Healed"—interview by Bob Costas

"Cattle Car Complex"—short story by Thane Rosenbaum

"Assault on History" and "Rewriting History 101: Bradley Smith's Campus Campaign"—newspaper articles by Bob Keeler

from Song of Survival—personal narrative by Helen Colijn

from …I Never Saw Another Butterfly—poems and artwork by the children of the Terezin concentration camp