"We May Use Words to Break the Prison": Elie Wiesel on Writing Night

Elie Wiesel explains that he wrote his memoir Night out of a duty to bear witness to his experiences in the Holocaust. He describes his writing style--using fewer words to give more meaning--and the difficulty of finding a publisher and selling the book, because people did not want to be burdened by his memories. As students began reading it, their parents were forced to remember what had happened and try to formulate meaning from it.