Night Foreword

Francois Mauriac recounts his first meeting with a young journalist from Tel Aviv, who had come to see him for an interview. The journalist spoke to him about the period of Occupation when Germany had occupied France during WWII. Francois tells the journalist that of all the horrific things that he had seen during the war, the most haunting image from that period was something he hadn’t himself witnessed. His wife had witnessed Jewish children packed tightly in cattle boxes at a train station in Paris. Francois is stupefied when the young journalist tells him that he had been one of those children.

Francois emphasizes the importance of Night, which describes Eliezer Weisel’s time at Auschwitz and his journey to the horrific death camp. He believes that Night’s harrowing tale is an incomparable account, very much like the memoir of Anne Frank, which is another account of the Holocaust. Francois describes Eliezer’s struggle with his faith as deeply moving and recounts how he had been unable to comfort him with words of God’s grace. Francois had simply hugged him and wept.