Night by Elie Wiesel

Night was a sad telling of the struggles, despair, and horrible reality that the Jews had to go through during the Holocaust of WWII. It cuts deeper than just reading the number of deaths that happened during that time period, instead you get to read about it firsthand through the eyes of a 13 year old as Elie recalls what happened to him. This historic personal story teaches you lessons about humanity, good and evil, and strength through family in a way that a story told any other way wouldn't be able to connect. The book is short but you want it to be shorter as you read about atrocity after atrocity that the Jews had to go through, never getting better and only getting worse. It was a powerful read and I regret not having read it sooner.
Teaching this in the classroom would work really well paired with a history class that was teaching WWII at the same time. Even if that is not the case, I think it is a good read for students to learn the about the experiences of the Holocaust through a primary source. While the Diary of Anne Frank shows the dangers of being a Jew who had not been found, Night shows the other side of a Jew going through being found and living through what Anne Frank tried to hide from. It is a very heavy book and will take a lot of discussion to make sure that the students get more from the book than the initial sadness. There is also great strength in the narrator fighting through all of the hardships to stay with his father and live although everything was against him. Discussing with the students bravery and strength through adversity is something that could be done to alleviate some of the sadness. But the sadness is also something worth touching on. A book does not have to have a happy ending or happiness in it to still be an excellent book. Discussing the abrupt ending and having the students question what they think would happen next be an interesting activity.
If there is not a history class that would be teaching this material at the same time as this book is being read, it would be important for the students to know about the history of the holocaust and have background knowledge of Jewish culture and the different places that the main character ends up. A good activity to do would be to have the students look up another person that had lived during the holocaust and follow their lives and see what happened to them to get more exposure to all of the different lives that this event affected. This book is so good and important for students to read and learn from and there is so much that can be discussed even though it is short. I would definitely want to teach this in class if I could.