I found this memoir less compelling than Night, but still a chilling picture of the buildup to transport and the difficulties facing the survivors beyond the immediate aftermath of liberation.

Audiobook, performed by the author, who reads with such emotion that I was at times moved to tears.

“Wherever my life took me, a part of me would remain in that street in front of my empty house, awaiting the order to depart. I see my little sister. I see her with her rucksack, so cumbersome, so heavy. I see her and an immense tenderness sweeps over me. Never will her innocent smile fade from my soul, never will her glance cease to sear me. I tried to help her. She protested. Never will the sound of her voice leave my heart. She was thirsty, My little sister was thirsty. Her lips were parched, pearls of sweat formed on her clear forehead. “I can wait,” she said, smiling. My little sister wanted to be brave, and I wanted to die in her place. I seldom speak of her in my writing, for I dare not. My little sister with her sunbathed golden head is my secret.”

For the Twelve Tasks of the Festive Season book challenge, Task the Sixth: The Hanukkah (Let the dreidel choose a book for you: create a list of four books, and assign a dreidel symbol to each one (Nun = miracle; Gimel = great; He = happened; Shin = there, i.e. Israel). Google "spin the dreidel," and a dreidel comes up for you to spin. Give it a spin and read the book that the dreidel chooses!)
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This is a very emotionally moving book. It is vivid and intense. This is a heart-wrenching memoir. ( )

For anyone to suffer the scourge of the Nazi Holocaust, survival is an enduring memory of questions and thoughtful reflection. Elie Wiesel did survive the Holocaust and went on to a successful career as a writer and champion of Israel. I think Wiesel's life and writing is summed-up nicely from page 354 of this book: "What is the difference between Jews and Christians? We all await the Messiah. You believe He has already come and gone, while we do not. I therefore propose that we await Him together. And when He appears, we can ask Him: were You here before? ( )

Carpathian Mountains to Auschwitz to France. The autobiography of a survivor. ( )

What I really loved about the two volumes of Wiesel's memoirs is that they humanized a person that I'd looked up to for a long time. He readily admitted the mistakes he made in his life, and this brought him down to the same level as the rest of us. ( )