Introduction
- Author Information & Historical Background
- Viewing: Oprah and Elie Wiesel at Auschwitz - Reaction Log (15)
- Tentative: Allegory: "Terrible Things" and "First They Came for the Jews"
Independent (Silent) Reading (CR B30.4)
Night by Elie Wiesel
Night is a memoir – an autobiographical story. The term comes from the Latin word meaning “to remember.” In the book, Why I Write, Elie Wiesel recalls what he saw and experienced during the Holocaust. He tells of how that story changed him as a person. When asked why he had chosen to tell it, he responded by speaking of those who did not survive to tell their own stories. “I owe them my roots and memory. I am duty-bound to serve as their emissary, transmitting the history of their disappearance, even if it disturbs, even if it brings pain. Not to do so would be to betray them, and thus myself (Wiesel, 202).
