Night by Elie Weisel (review and my only 6 star rating)

I didn't choose Night by Elie Weisel because it was part of Oprah's Book Club but because it is one of the books on the most banned books list.

This memoir is written by a Holocaust survivor. It is hard to read at times because it's so graphic about the torture and inhuman conditions of the concentration camps. I knew the torture that the Jews endured was horrendous but this was beyond my worst imagination. If there is a hell then this is exactly what it is like.

Even at 34 years old, I felt this book robbed me of some innocence that I wasn't even aware that I still had. I never truly understood the depths of the evil in Hitler until I read Night. As I read the book I wished with all my heart that what I was reading hadn't really happened.

However, even though the book shocked me about what humans are capable of, I know that the truth must be told. We have to know the mistakes of our past in order to not repeat them. We have to learn the truth of what is in our history. I think some people try to claim that the Holocaust never happened because it's impossible for them to believe that humans are capable of doing such horrendous things.

This book also changed my views in another way. A truly life altering way. I have always considered myself a pacifist. "War is never necessary" was a motto that I lived by. The only way to stop the atrocities that Hitler and his armies were carrying out was war. You can't talk an evil person into not being evil. Sometimes the only way to save people is to wage war against their oppressors. In certain situations, war is the answer. I never, ever, EVER thought I would say that, much less truly believe it.

This book gets something I have never done before and that is give it a 6 star rating!