Night — The Beginning

What is the relationship between our stories and our identity?
To what extent are we all witnesses to history and messengers to humanity?

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever…Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." — Elie Wiesel, Night

The word Holocaust is taken from the greek words holos (whole) and kaustos (burnt). It's also known as The Shoah (a Hebrew word that means catastrophe, calamity, destruction). THe term Holocaust wasn't used until the 1950s.

Approximately 6 million European Jews were exterminated under the Nazi regime led by Adolph Hitler. Millions of other people were systematically killed by the Nazis as well (Catholics, homosexuals, disabled people, Polish, Romanians, and other political and religious opponents), so many believe the total number of lives lost is between 11-17 million. The genocide was carried out in systematic waves beginning in the early 1930s.

Brief Holocaust timeline

Voices of those who escaped

Elie Weisel — This I Believe

Who is a Jew?

What does it mean to bear witness? What we are about to read is Weisel's attempt to expose what happened to him and others, his attempt to make the event live on beyond his lifetime.

Memoir vs autobiography