Also by Elie Wiesel - Wikispaces

146 Pages·2013·1.54 MB·English

Also by Elie Wiesel
DAWN THE OSLO ADDRESS
DAY (previously THE ACCIDENT) TWILIGHT
THE TOWN BEYOND THE WALL THE SIX DAYS OF DESTRUCTION
(with Albert Friedlander)
THE GATES OF THE FOREST
A JOURNEY INTO FAITH
THE JEWS OF SILENCE
(conversations with John
LEGENDS OF OUR TIME Cardinal O'Connor)
A BEGGAR IN JERUSALEM
A SONG FOR HOPE (cantata)
ONE GENERATION AFTER
FROM THE KINGDOM OF MEMORY
SOULS ON FIRE
SAGES AND DREAMERS
THE OATH
THE FORGOTTEN
ANI MAAMIN (cantata) A PASSOVER HAGGADAH (illustrated
by Mark Podwal)
ZALMEN, OR THE MADNESS OF GOD
(play) ALL RIVERS RUN TO THE SEA
MESSENGERS OF GOD MEMOIR IN TWO VOICES (with
François Mitterand)
A JEW TODAY
KING SOLOMON AND HIS MAGIC
FOUR HASIDIC MASTERS
RING (illustrated by Mark
THE TRIAL OF GOD (play) Podwal)
THE TESTAMENT AND THE SEA IS NEVER FULL
FIVE BIBLICAL PORTRAITS THE JUDGES
SOMEWHERE A MASTER CONVERSATIONS WITH ELIE
THE GOLEM (illustrated by Mark WIESEL (with Richard D.
Podwal) Heffner)
THE FIFTH SON WISE MEN AND THEIR TALES
AGAINST SILENCE (edited by Irving THE TIME OF THE UPROOTED
Abrahamson)
Night

E L I E W I E S E L
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY MARION WIESEL
HILL AND WANG
A DIVISION OF FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX
NEW YORK
Hill and Wang
A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
19 Union Square West, New York 10003
Copyright © 1958 by Les Editions de Minuit
Translation copyright © 2006 by Marion Wiesel
Preface to the New Translation copyright © 2006 by Elie Wiesel
Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech copyright © 1986 by the Nobel Foundation
All rights reserved
Distributed in Canada by Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
Printed in the United States of America
Published simultaneously in hardcover and paperback by Hill and Wang
First edition of this translation, 2006
Library of Congress Control Number: 2005936797
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-0-374-39997-9
Hardcover ISBN-10:0-374-39997-2
Paperback ISBN-13:9 78-0-3 74-50001-6
Paperback ISBN-10:0-374-50001-0
Designed by Abby Kagan
www.fsgbooks.com
17 19 20 18 16
In memory of
my parents and of my little sister, Tzipora
E.W.
This new translation
in memory of
my grandparents, Abba, Sarah and Nachman,
who also vanished into that night
M.W.

Preface to the New Translation
by Elie Wiesel
I
F IN MY LIFETIME I WAS TO WRITE only one book, this would
be the one. Just as the past lingers in the present, all my writ-
ings after Night, including those that deal with biblical, Tal-
mudic, or Hasidic themes, profoundly bear its stamp, and cannot
be understood if one has not read this very first of my works.
Why did I write it?
Did I write it so as not to go mad or, on the contrary, to go mad
in order to understand the nature of madness, the immense, terri-
fying madness that had erupted in history and in the conscience
of mankind?
Was it to leave behind a legacy of words, of memories, to help
prevent history from repeating itself?
Or was it simply to preserve a record of the ordeal I endured as
an adolescent, at an age when one's knowledge of death and evil
should be limited to what one discovers in literature?
There are those who tell me that I survived in order to write
this text. I am not convinced. I don't know how I survived; I was
weak, rather shy; I did nothing to save myself. A miracle? Cer-
tainly not. If heaven could or would perform a miracle for me,