Book Report Thoughts

I rather enjoyed this assignment, although I probably would've enjoyed it more if I had done it sooner...but that's ok, it was still interesting. I read Night by Elie Wiesel, as I know a couple other people in the class did. The book is Wiesel's memoir about the Holocaust. I felt particularly affected by this book, and it's definitely one of those books I'll never forget reading. When we learn about the Holocaust, we learn about the statistics of it - that 6 million Jews and a total of 11 million minorities were killed during the Holocaust. We are told that the conditions of the concentration camps were terrible. We learn facts. However, Wiesel gives it from the perspective of someone who actually went through the Holocaust. And he doesn't leave anything out - he doesn't skip over those ugly details that none of us want to hear. I think he has several reasons for doing this; for one thing, I think he simply wants to tell it like it is. For another thing, I think he wants us to remember his story, so we don't forget what has happened and what could happen in the future; he doesn't want us to forget what humans are capable of doing to each other. It's those graphic, heart-wrenching, awful things he relates in the story that makes you remember the rest of it. Although infants being used for target practice is something I would rather not picture or have to think about, it's details like that that will make me remember this book forever.