Night

Night is narrated by Eliezer, a Jewish teenager who, when the memoir begins, lives in his hometown of Sighet, in Hungarian Transylvania. In the spring of 1944, the Nazis occupy Hungary. After being rounded up and crammed in train box cars, the Jews were sent to the Gateway to Auschwitz, the deadliest concentration camp during World War II. Proving to be fit for work Eliezer and his father are separated from their mother and sister, whom they never see again. While recovering from an injury, the camp is quickly evacuated in fear of the Russian advances. The Jews are forced to walk 50 miles to the next camp in severe weather, killing most them before the American’s liberate the camp.

Being a relatively shorter novel, I think this book could be very useful for teacher to create a centerpiece around lesson for the Holocaust that students can find interesting and engaging without having to feeling like they’re trudging through chapter after chapter. Written from the experiences of a person who lived with suffering these atrocities during the Holocaust gives great insight to the troubling nature and ways we can prevent something like the Holocaust from happening ever again. One of the biggest struggles Eliezer dealt with was being young while living through the Holocaust. He lost his religion because he didn’t think that God would allow something like mass murder to happen. It can be difficult for adolescents to understand how the world works when they have such little experiences with the world. I think this book can help show students the potential power of people and how aware we should be with political risings, their struggles with life and the power of the human mind. The vivid nature of the book can also give students a chance to learn how symbolism and imagery are used to convey meaning throughout.