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Elisha is a young Jewish man, a Holocaust survivor, and an Israeli freedom fighter in British-controlled Palestine; John Dawson is the captured English officer he will murder at dawn in retribution for the British execution of a fellow freedom fighter. The night-long wait for morning and death provides Dawn, Elie Wiesel's ever more timely novel, with its harrowingly taut, hour-by-hour narrative. Caught between the manifold horrors of the past and the troubling dilemmas of the present, Elisha wrestles with guilt, ghosts, and ultimately God, as he waits for the appointed hour and his act of assassination. Dawn is an eloquent meditation on the compromises, justifications, and sacrifices that human beings make when they murder other human beings.
81 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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About the author
Elie Wiesel
271 books4,492 followersEliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.
He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.
In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.
He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.
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August 14, 2024
L’UOMO ASSOMIGLIA A DIO SOLO NELLA CRUDELTÀ
Sono 80 paginette scarse, e scarne, che però pesano come secoli e millenni, anche se il racconto è racchiuso nel giro di pochi anni (il protagonista ne ha diciotto).
Un ebreo, in rappresentanza della sua gente, per sopravvivere deve imparare a odiare, e uccidere: dalla sera all’alba rivede la sua vita, la gente che ha conosciuto, le persone che hanno inciso la sua esistenza, prende la sua decisione e la porta a termine.
Pulizia etnica: l’esodo dei palestinesi a seguito della fine del mandato britannico, 15 maggio 1948.
Ilana dice a Elisha, il giovane uomo di 18 anni al centro della storia:
Presto tutto sarà finito. Gli inglesi abbandoneranno il paese e noi risaliremo in superficie per vivere una vita normale, sana, semplice. Ti sposerai. Avrai dei figli. Racconterai loro delle storie. Li farai ridere. Sarai felice, perché essi saranno felici; e lo saranno, te lo prometto. Non potranno non esserlo…
La resistenza ebraica, di cui Elisha e Ilana sono membri, parla di una Palestina libera e indipendente.
Membri dell’Haganà ‘accompagnano’ la popolazione palestinese fuori dalle loro case, città e paesi. Qui Haifa. L’Haganà era un’organizzazione paramilitare sionista che dal 1948 divenne il nucleo dell’esercito israeliano. L’operazione di pulizia etnica che condusse alla nascita dello Stato d’Israele si chiamava Nakba.
Che bel nome, Palestina… Peccato che adesso si chiami Striscia di Gaza o Territori o Cisgiordania o West Bank o … ma non Palestina.
Non più Palestina.
Il 31 ottobre 1946 tre militanti dell’Irgun, gruppo sionista, fecero saltare in aria Villa Bracciano, la sede dell’ambasciata inglese a Roma: una protesta contro il mandato britannico in Palestina che impediva i progetti sionisti messi in atto appena gli inglesi partirono e la conseguente nascita dello Stato di Israele. L’ambasciata fu poi ricostruita nel 1971 su progetto dell’architetto Sir Basil Spence.
Sono 80 paginette scarse, e scarne, che però pesano come secoli e millenni, anche se il racconto è racchiuso nel giro di pochi anni (il protagonista ne ha diciotto).
Un ebreo, in rappresentanza della sua gente, per sopravvivere deve imparare a odiare, e uccidere: dalla sera all’alba rivede la sua vita, la gente che ha conosciuto, le persone che hanno inciso la sua esistenza, prende la sua decisione e la porta a termine.
Pulizia etnica: l’esodo dei palestinesi a seguito della fine del mandato britannico, 15 maggio 1948.
Ilana dice a Elisha, il giovane uomo di 18 anni al centro della storia:
Presto tutto sarà finito. Gli inglesi abbandoneranno il paese e noi risaliremo in superficie per vivere una vita normale, sana, semplice. Ti sposerai. Avrai dei figli. Racconterai loro delle storie. Li farai ridere. Sarai felice, perché essi saranno felici; e lo saranno, te lo prometto. Non potranno non esserlo…
La resistenza ebraica, di cui Elisha e Ilana sono membri, parla di una Palestina libera e indipendente.
Membri dell’Haganà ‘accompagnano’ la popolazione palestinese fuori dalle loro case, città e paesi. Qui Haifa. L’Haganà era un’organizzazione paramilitare sionista che dal 1948 divenne il nucleo dell’esercito israeliano. L’operazione di pulizia etnica che condusse alla nascita dello Stato d’Israele si chiamava Nakba.
Che bel nome, Palestina… Peccato che adesso si chiami Striscia di Gaza o Territori o Cisgiordania o West Bank o … ma non Palestina.
Non più Palestina.
Il 31 ottobre 1946 tre militanti dell’Irgun, gruppo sionista, fecero saltare in aria Villa Bracciano, la sede dell’ambasciata inglese a Roma: una protesta contro il mandato britannico in Palestina che impediva i progetti sionisti messi in atto appena gli inglesi partirono e la conseguente nascita dello Stato di Israele. L’ambasciata fu poi ricostruita nel 1971 su progetto dell’architetto Sir Basil Spence.
April 17, 2023
Book two of the Night trilogy by Elie Wiesel
Would you execute an innocent man just because they told you to? Would you commit murder to further a righteous cause? Would you be able to look a man who hasn't done anything wrong other than be on the wrong side of the war, in the eye as you pull the trigger? Does one wrong, warrent another? For me, I don't know. I don't know if I could do it. I don't know if I could live with the aftermath of such an act. Our hero, Elisha, had to ask himself these same questions. But unlike me, young Elisha had to come up with an answer in the end.
A thought-provoking and emotional story. I'm not sure I was able to granish all the meaningful lessons, or symbolism out of this amazing work, and maybe I'll reread it someday to try to get more out if it, but for now it was an amazing short read and a great second installment to the first book. I can't wait for book three and the conclusion of The Night Trilogy.
Would you execute an innocent man just because they told you to? Would you commit murder to further a righteous cause? Would you be able to look a man who hasn't done anything wrong other than be on the wrong side of the war, in the eye as you pull the trigger? Does one wrong, warrent another? For me, I don't know. I don't know if I could do it. I don't know if I could live with the aftermath of such an act. Our hero, Elisha, had to ask himself these same questions. But unlike me, young Elisha had to come up with an answer in the end.
A thought-provoking and emotional story. I'm not sure I was able to granish all the meaningful lessons, or symbolism out of this amazing work, and maybe I'll reread it someday to try to get more out if it, but for now it was an amazing short read and a great second installment to the first book. I can't wait for book three and the conclusion of The Night Trilogy.
November 27, 2017
Elie Wiesel, a world famous, highly honored (and sometimes-criticized) Jewish writer and political activist, was born in Romania in 1928. The novella Dawn was his first work of fiction, published in 1960. Together with his famous memoir Night (1958, of the time he spent in Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps in 1944-5) and his next fictional work, Day (1961) it appears in The Night Trilogy. Wiesel died in 2016.
The Night Trilogy edition of Dawn (which I read) has a preface, dating to 2006, in which Wiesel writes that, in the context of the narrative, he wished to explore questions such as
The story is powerfully told, very foreboding. On one page I wrote “magical realism?”, and then immediately amended that to “mystical realism”. Yes, there are many references to mystical beliefs of the narrator - as well as to mystical experiences. Elisha brings us into his disturbing, and perhaps crazy, dreamworld.
The story races to its conclusion much as a dark, ominous thunderstorm descends out of a hot summer sky.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Previous review: All's Well That Ends Well
Random review: Organization Man
Next review: The World As I Found It
Previous library review: The Kingdom Preview
Next library review: As God Commands Niccolò Ammaniti
The Night Trilogy edition of Dawn (which I read) has a preface, dating to 2006, in which Wiesel writes that, in the context of the narrative, he wished to explore questions such as
How are we ever to disarm evil and abolish death as a means to an end? How are we ever to break the cycle of violence and rage? Can terror coexist with justice? Can hate engender anything but hate?The short novel, less than eighty pages, is a first person narrative of Elisha, an eighteen year old Jewish boy, survivor of the death camps, who has been recruited to Palestine to fight in a terrorist organization, whose aim is to force the British out, as a step towards the creation of the Zionist state.
The story is powerfully told, very foreboding. On one page I wrote “magical realism?”, and then immediately amended that to “mystical realism”. Yes, there are many references to mystical beliefs of the narrator - as well as to mystical experiences. Elisha brings us into his disturbing, and perhaps crazy, dreamworld.
The story races to its conclusion much as a dark, ominous thunderstorm descends out of a hot summer sky.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Previous review: All's Well That Ends Well
Random review: Organization Man
Next review: The World As I Found It
Previous library review: The Kingdom Preview
Next library review: As God Commands Niccolò Ammaniti
December 11, 2024
There are times, his father said, when words and prayers are not enough.
The second book in Elie Wiesel’s trilogy, which is a work of fiction, recounts the feelings, thoughts and struggles of a Holocaust survivor, tasked to execute a hostage during the British control over Palestine.
"Tomorrow I shall kill a man," I said to myself, reeling in my fall. "I shall kill a man, tomorrow."
But would he be able to pull the trigger?
The second book in Elie Wiesel’s trilogy, which is a work of fiction, recounts the feelings, thoughts and struggles of a Holocaust survivor, tasked to execute a hostage during the British control over Palestine.
"Tomorrow I shall kill a man," I said to myself, reeling in my fall. "I shall kill a man, tomorrow."
But would he be able to pull the trigger?
September 15, 2020
Perhaps it's my fault for assuming that 'Dawn' was a follow up to Wiesel's brilliant memoir 'Night'.
Or perhaps the book was just boring. Well written, but boring.
In my view, 'Dawn' should not be packaged as the second part of a trilogy, because I did not get any sense of continuation; there was a lot of philosophising but no real sense of transition from the night that was Wiesel's life in a concentration camp to dawn in the Promised Land. I felt that there were a number of gaps.
It has certainly put me off reading the third part of the 'trilogy'.
Or perhaps the book was just boring. Well written, but boring.
In my view, 'Dawn' should not be packaged as the second part of a trilogy, because I did not get any sense of continuation; there was a lot of philosophising but no real sense of transition from the night that was Wiesel's life in a concentration camp to dawn in the Promised Land. I felt that there were a number of gaps.
It has certainly put me off reading the third part of the 'trilogy'.
May 4, 2020
When I first read Dawn, I found it a very compelling story that encased a perhaps insoluble moral dilemma; upon rereading it, I now find Elie Wiesel's novella a kind of parable attempting to relate the sometimes incalculable difference between good & evil. The brief book hadn't changed & I doubt that I had appreciably changed as well but sometimes (often) taking a 2nd glance at anything reveals aspects that seemed previously less than apparent.
An 18 year old named Elisha is assigned to murder a seemingly innocent British army captain, John Dawson, who is reckoned to be calm, brave, handsome & with "fine hands". In so doing, Elisha, who finds it impossible to hate the man he is about to murder, is about to "also kill the child within himself." Dawson has been captured while walking through Jerusalem, the home of countless non-Jewish Palestinians but an area the Zionists wish to claim as their territory in a future Israeli state, now under a British Mandate for Palestine. The act is also seen as reprisal for the death of a Jewish partisan named David Ben Moshe. But Elisha is seen as a non-combatant, someone who hopes to study at the Sorbonne...
Elisha admires Dawson's stature & especially his hands, asking if he had ever been a sculptor or perhaps a surgeon. Dawson, who has a son at Cambridge University, asks for permission to write a farewell note to his son. And while the man writes, Elisha attempts to develop hate for his captive but admits, "I did not hate him at all but I wanted to hate him", which would have made his situation much easier. He thinks to himself that..."hate--like faith or love or war--justifies everything."
As the minutes tick away, Elisha expects John Dawson to grow increasingly nervous. But the man continues to smile and even suggests that he feels sorry for Elisha, confounding the executioner, who orders him not to smile. Elisha asks Dawson why he is smiling, telling him that he can't shoot a man who is smiling. Dawson responds: "I'm smiling because all of a sudden it has occurred to me that I don't know why I am dying." And after a moment of silence, he added, "Do you?"
After a last cigarette, Dawson having declined the pack because he won't have need of the remainder, Elisha shoots Dawson, commenting that there was pain in his head & his body was growing heavy. The shot had left him deaf & dumb. That's it, Elisha says to himself. "It's done. I've killed. I've killed Elisha."
*My version of the Night Trilogy was published by Hill & Wang, not shown at Goodreads in the 3 component parts & so I have chosen to list a different version for my review of Dawn.
An 18 year old named Elisha is assigned to murder a seemingly innocent British army captain, John Dawson, who is reckoned to be calm, brave, handsome & with "fine hands". In so doing, Elisha, who finds it impossible to hate the man he is about to murder, is about to "also kill the child within himself." Dawson has been captured while walking through Jerusalem, the home of countless non-Jewish Palestinians but an area the Zionists wish to claim as their territory in a future Israeli state, now under a British Mandate for Palestine. The act is also seen as reprisal for the death of a Jewish partisan named David Ben Moshe. But Elisha is seen as a non-combatant, someone who hopes to study at the Sorbonne...
The study of philosophy attracted me because I wanted to understand the meaning of the events of which I had been the victim. In the concentration camp, I had cried out in sorrow & anger against God & also against man, who seemed only to have inherited the cruelty of his creator. I was anxious to re-evaluate my revolt in an atmosphere of detachment, to view it in terms of the present. Where is God to be found? Is it in suffering or in rebellion? When is man most truly a man--when he submits or when he refuses? Does suffering lead him to purification or to bestiality?But as the would-be executioner standing in the cell, considers the sitting man he is about to murder, he has doubts about his role. "Was God present somewhere in the room?" And is the lack of hate between executioner & John Dawson, somehow a sign of God? When Elisha comments that he is named after a disciple of Elijah, someone who restored life to a little boy by breathing into his mouth, Dawson smiles & comments "you're doing the opposite".
Elisha admires Dawson's stature & especially his hands, asking if he had ever been a sculptor or perhaps a surgeon. Dawson, who has a son at Cambridge University, asks for permission to write a farewell note to his son. And while the man writes, Elisha attempts to develop hate for his captive but admits, "I did not hate him at all but I wanted to hate him", which would have made his situation much easier. He thinks to himself that..."hate--like faith or love or war--justifies everything."
As the minutes tick away, Elisha expects John Dawson to grow increasingly nervous. But the man continues to smile and even suggests that he feels sorry for Elisha, confounding the executioner, who orders him not to smile. Elisha asks Dawson why he is smiling, telling him that he can't shoot a man who is smiling. Dawson responds: "I'm smiling because all of a sudden it has occurred to me that I don't know why I am dying." And after a moment of silence, he added, "Do you?"
After a last cigarette, Dawson having declined the pack because he won't have need of the remainder, Elisha shoots Dawson, commenting that there was pain in his head & his body was growing heavy. The shot had left him deaf & dumb. That's it, Elisha says to himself. "It's done. I've killed. I've killed Elisha."
The night lifted, leaving behind a grayish light the color of stagnant water. Soon, there was the tattered fragment of darkness, hanging in midair. Fear caught my throat. The tattered fragment of darkness had a face. Looking at it, I understood the reason for my fear. The face was my own.For me, Elie Wiesel's Dawn raises the issue not of the "banality of evil", to borrow Hannah Arendt's phrasing but rather, the ambiguity of evil as well perhaps as the ambiguity of goodness. Can a good man commit an evil act & still be a good man?? With thoughts of Elie Wiesel, with whom he shared a long dialogue, Francois Mauriac comments in his excellent preface to The Night Trilogy:
Have we ever thought about the consequence of a horror that, though less apparent, less striking than the other outrages, is yet the worst of all to those who have faith--the death of God in the soul of a child who suddenly discovers absolute evil.
*My version of the Night Trilogy was published by Hill & Wang, not shown at Goodreads in the 3 component parts & so I have chosen to list a different version for my review of Dawn.
August 24, 2016
I'm sorry, this book pushed all the wrong buttons for me. It only evoked the resentment I feel for the modern state of Israel and its policies, and I simply couldn't shake off the feeling.
Wiesel's point is that we are the sum total of everything that has ever happened to us and everyone who has ever loved us or given us their time. An interesting point, to be sure. But all the reasoning behind Elisha's acts couldn't convince me that trying to justify your monstrosity by blaming your enemies for making you a monster exonerates you from being a monster:
"John Dawson has made me a murderer, I said to myself. He has made me the murderer of John Dawson. He deserves my hate. Were it not for him, I might still be a murderer, but I wouldn't be the murderer of John Dawson."
When you treat innocent people who simply happen to belong to your enemy's nation the way you were treated when you were powerless renders you just as hideous as the people who committed all these crimes against humanity, and against the Jews in particular. No matter how you justify it.
While Wiesel's writing is as beautiful as in Night, this book put me off from reading the third part, at least for the foreseeable future.
Wiesel's point is that we are the sum total of everything that has ever happened to us and everyone who has ever loved us or given us their time. An interesting point, to be sure. But all the reasoning behind Elisha's acts couldn't convince me that trying to justify your monstrosity by blaming your enemies for making you a monster exonerates you from being a monster:
"John Dawson has made me a murderer, I said to myself. He has made me the murderer of John Dawson. He deserves my hate. Were it not for him, I might still be a murderer, but I wouldn't be the murderer of John Dawson."
When you treat innocent people who simply happen to belong to your enemy's nation the way you were treated when you were powerless renders you just as hideous as the people who committed all these crimes against humanity, and against the Jews in particular. No matter how you justify it.
While Wiesel's writing is as beautiful as in Night, this book put me off from reading the third part, at least for the foreseeable future.
January 12, 2018
I am a huge fan of Elie Wiesel so was very happy with this book, since I read "Night" and saw his interview with Oprah Winfrey, I was hooked.
Rarely has a such a short novel made me think as much as this one, usually its the 500 page sledgehammer that creeps into your dreams as you absorb it over a few weeks, in barely 80 pages Elie Wiesel burrows into the subconcious,into the darkest part of the soul.
The setting is Palestine, 1947ish, the brits are still running the mandate. Palestine is home to thousands of holocaust survivors from all over Europe,desperate people who have seen death and the lowest points of the human experience. Cultured souls from the Jewish disapora, who have seen their pre-war world shattered, they fight for what they believe. A young fighter has been asked to execute a british soldier.....he will have to kill him at dawn...
Wiesel looks hard at the mindset of the group of young Jewish fighters against british occupation gathered in a house near Tel Aviv, their motivations for the violence they are inflicting on the occupiers.
Try to picture these young, idealistic ruthless fighters, then compare them to the Palestinians of today, the idealistic, ruthless Hamas fighters in Gaza….there isnt much difference at all.
Rarely has a such a short novel made me think as much as this one, usually its the 500 page sledgehammer that creeps into your dreams as you absorb it over a few weeks, in barely 80 pages Elie Wiesel burrows into the subconcious,into the darkest part of the soul.
The setting is Palestine, 1947ish, the brits are still running the mandate. Palestine is home to thousands of holocaust survivors from all over Europe,desperate people who have seen death and the lowest points of the human experience. Cultured souls from the Jewish disapora, who have seen their pre-war world shattered, they fight for what they believe. A young fighter has been asked to execute a british soldier.....he will have to kill him at dawn...
Wiesel looks hard at the mindset of the group of young Jewish fighters against british occupation gathered in a house near Tel Aviv, their motivations for the violence they are inflicting on the occupiers.
Try to picture these young, idealistic ruthless fighters, then compare them to the Palestinians of today, the idealistic, ruthless Hamas fighters in Gaza….there isnt much difference at all.
July 26, 2024
🌅 How Elie hated to write about Jews killing hostages just a few years after finding out about Auschwitz. Nor would he be experiencing anything but additional angst were he alive today to see how the IDF (Israel Defense Force) treats Palestinians. Or how Israel, the Jewish Nation that arose from the Dachaus and Treblinkas, has confined them to live in confinement, under refugee camp conditions, apparently indefinitely. What sort of novel would he write about that?
His slim book Night was about the Holocaust.
Paired with it was Dawn, Jews fighting to obtain a Jewish state, but doing so often enough by acts of terrorism. So the night turns into dawn. But at dawn the Jews kill a hostage, a British soldier.
🌙 So, the author asks, what kind of dawn is it, after such a long and terrible night?
His slim book Night was about the Holocaust.
Paired with it was Dawn, Jews fighting to obtain a Jewish state, but doing so often enough by acts of terrorism. So the night turns into dawn. But at dawn the Jews kill a hostage, a British soldier.
🌙 So, the author asks, what kind of dawn is it, after such a long and terrible night?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2021
The GR star system completely fails me with this book. I do not rate it 5 stars because I think it is "amazing" - I rate it that because I don't want one thing I say to keep it off anyone's list. . . anyone who feels moved (for whatever reason) should pull it on to their list and read it.
For a long time I made a conscious choice to not read it, because it is a justification / explanation why one human decides to go ahead and kill another based on an order from another - with no personal connections other than that long, indirect thread of 2 warring parties. Stupid humans. Killing rarely checks the justified box in my head - but every time it does, the reasons are personal, close, real and affect others in the future as I understand it. Any other reason for killing another human. . .pretty much shuts the door. So knowing how this would go, before I read it, I was already considering it wasted time.
But then, there's Elie Wiesel himself. Who am I to not listen, at least listen?! His experiences, his perspective, his suffering demands it. I had read Night and Day, and this would finish it. And it's short.
On this side of the read, I find I was right and I was wrong. There is value in seeing inside the head of a person who would carry this out. There is value in weighing the reasons, seeing how that mind works, seeing how that moment is, after all the gun powder sifts to gravity's pull in the silence. Was it worth it? Elisha at 18 listened to the siren call of the murderers / terrorists. . .would a 30 year old? a 47 year old Elisha have done the same? 89 year old? It does seem worth noting that age groups within 2 decades of life seem to hear and respond to that call of the Stupid Humans more than others - and by this I mean the trigger-pullers, the stabbers, the ones catching heads in baskets. If all of those action providers refused, how far would the Master Minds get? If they had to do their own dirty work? I digress.
So, I was right. I hated this book and the fictional story it told beautifully. I was wrong that it was a waste of time to read. It took me places I don't usually wander, and that's not always a bad thing. It reminds me of the strong feelings and belief that have shaped me and continue to shine out of my soul and life, as long as my heart has at least one more beat.
Thank you, Elie Wiesel.
For a long time I made a conscious choice to not read it, because it is a justification / explanation why one human decides to go ahead and kill another based on an order from another - with no personal connections other than that long, indirect thread of 2 warring parties. Stupid humans. Killing rarely checks the justified box in my head - but every time it does, the reasons are personal, close, real and affect others in the future as I understand it. Any other reason for killing another human. . .pretty much shuts the door. So knowing how this would go, before I read it, I was already considering it wasted time.
But then, there's Elie Wiesel himself. Who am I to not listen, at least listen?! His experiences, his perspective, his suffering demands it. I had read Night and Day, and this would finish it. And it's short.
On this side of the read, I find I was right and I was wrong. There is value in seeing inside the head of a person who would carry this out. There is value in weighing the reasons, seeing how that mind works, seeing how that moment is, after all the gun powder sifts to gravity's pull in the silence. Was it worth it? Elisha at 18 listened to the siren call of the murderers / terrorists. . .would a 30 year old? a 47 year old Elisha have done the same? 89 year old? It does seem worth noting that age groups within 2 decades of life seem to hear and respond to that call of the Stupid Humans more than others - and by this I mean the trigger-pullers, the stabbers, the ones catching heads in baskets. If all of those action providers refused, how far would the Master Minds get? If they had to do their own dirty work? I digress.
So, I was right. I hated this book and the fictional story it told beautifully. I was wrong that it was a waste of time to read. It took me places I don't usually wander, and that's not always a bad thing. It reminds me of the strong feelings and belief that have shaped me and continue to shine out of my soul and life, as long as my heart has at least one more beat.
Thank you, Elie Wiesel.
February 10, 2025
In Wiesel's first work of fiction, we spend a long and harrowing night with Elisha, an eighteen-year-old Holocaust survivor who was recruited as an Israeli terrorist to combat the British occupation of Palestine in order to fight for the creation of the Zionist state. When the sun rises, Elisha is destined to execute a captured English officer in retribution for the hanging of a fellow freedom fighter, and Dawn is an unnerving exploration of the anguish and internal struggle Elisha lives through as he waits for the hour that will change him forever. It was inspired by Wiesel wondering what he might've been capable of if he had ended up in Palestine rather than France after the war, and the result is a powerful and ominous philosophical novel awash with symbolism that meditates on moral questions which the author summed up best in the introduction:
Dawn is the opposite of Night in the sense that we see a reversal of roles: The Jews were persecuted during the war, now the people involved in the Movement have become the persecutors, and Elisha is now in a position where he commits acts of hate akin to what the Nazis did to him. Caught between the horrors of Elisha's past and the dilemmas of his present, Wiesel contemplates the justifications and sacrifices humans make when they resolve to commit atrocities for what they believe a just cause, as Elisha wrestles with his guilt and ghosts from his past woven into the narrative with what I can best describe as elements of magical realism. Despite the incredibly dark themes, the fact that this is a fictional work made it a lot easier to digest than Night, and while I don't agree with some of the things Wiesel seemed to imply, the morally complex narrative of a sympathetic freedom fighter very well aware that he is about to kill an innocent and likeable man, and his attempts to justify and rationalize his action, make for a heartbreaking, provocative, and timely novella that is sure to blur the lines between "us" and "them" for every reader.
—————
My other reviews for the Night trilogy:
1: Night · ★★★★★
2: Dawn · ★★★★
3: Day · ★★★★
"How are we ever to disarm evil and abolish death as a means to an end? How are we ever to break the cycle of violence and rage? Can terror coexist with justice? Does murder call for murder, despair for revenge? Can hate engender anything but hate?"
Dawn is the opposite of Night in the sense that we see a reversal of roles: The Jews were persecuted during the war, now the people involved in the Movement have become the persecutors, and Elisha is now in a position where he commits acts of hate akin to what the Nazis did to him. Caught between the horrors of Elisha's past and the dilemmas of his present, Wiesel contemplates the justifications and sacrifices humans make when they resolve to commit atrocities for what they believe a just cause, as Elisha wrestles with his guilt and ghosts from his past woven into the narrative with what I can best describe as elements of magical realism. Despite the incredibly dark themes, the fact that this is a fictional work made it a lot easier to digest than Night, and while I don't agree with some of the things Wiesel seemed to imply, the morally complex narrative of a sympathetic freedom fighter very well aware that he is about to kill an innocent and likeable man, and his attempts to justify and rationalize his action, make for a heartbreaking, provocative, and timely novella that is sure to blur the lines between "us" and "them" for every reader.
—————
My other reviews for the Night trilogy:
1: Night · ★★★★★
2: Dawn · ★★★★
3: Day · ★★★★
January 24, 2025
Jan 24, 1130am ~~ Before I began to read, I had not known that this second title in the Night Trilogy was a novel.
The story takes place when the British were still ruling Palestine and the future Israelis were trying to rid themselves of British rule.
The book was published in 1960, and the preface to this edition was written in 2006, where Wiesel says "This novel, my first, may be surprising for its sudden relevance to our present times. Does it not have to do with hostage-taking, violence, and clandestine rebellion?"
There is much soul searching by the main character, deep moral dilemmas and philosophical questions to ponder.
Sad that now, in 2025, there is still 'hostage-taking, violence, and clandestine rebellion'.
We humans will never grow up.
The story takes place when the British were still ruling Palestine and the future Israelis were trying to rid themselves of British rule.
The book was published in 1960, and the preface to this edition was written in 2006, where Wiesel says "This novel, my first, may be surprising for its sudden relevance to our present times. Does it not have to do with hostage-taking, violence, and clandestine rebellion?"
There is much soul searching by the main character, deep moral dilemmas and philosophical questions to ponder.
Sad that now, in 2025, there is still 'hostage-taking, violence, and clandestine rebellion'.
We humans will never grow up.
January 1, 2019
3.5
This wasn't exactly like the first book-it only showed one part, and I just learned that it's fictional. I won't say that I agree with the beliefs of Elisha, but his feels and thoughts have been written elaborately. It has a deeper meaning to it-it's about killing our fellow human beings, the excuses we use to justify it, whether they be political or religious, or simply because we hated the other person. The writer has successfully explained the dilemmas of 18 year old Elisha who is to become an executioner upon Dawn.
This wasn't exactly like the first book-it only showed one part, and I just learned that it's fictional. I won't say that I agree with the beliefs of Elisha, but his feels and thoughts have been written elaborately. It has a deeper meaning to it-it's about killing our fellow human beings, the excuses we use to justify it, whether they be political or religious, or simply because we hated the other person. The writer has successfully explained the dilemmas of 18 year old Elisha who is to become an executioner upon Dawn.
July 15, 2012
3 and 1/2 stars
Though this is a novella, it's sometimes marketed as part of a trilogy with the nonfictional Night. I can see the relevance, as Wiesel himself says in this book's introduction that he imagined what might've happened if he'd been recruited after his Holocaust experiences to become a terrorist in Palestine. And while I didn't find this as affecting as the memoir Night, it is still relevant, imagining the kind of young person that might become a murderer for a cause and the toll that would take on his psyche. The mystical elements and some beautiful lines are what stood out for me.
Though this is a novella, it's sometimes marketed as part of a trilogy with the nonfictional Night. I can see the relevance, as Wiesel himself says in this book's introduction that he imagined what might've happened if he'd been recruited after his Holocaust experiences to become a terrorist in Palestine. And while I didn't find this as affecting as the memoir Night, it is still relevant, imagining the kind of young person that might become a murderer for a cause and the toll that would take on his psyche. The mystical elements and some beautiful lines are what stood out for me.
August 17, 2025
Dawn by Elie Wiesel was a rough read. Especially the end. I don’t know if I can read the third book.
March 5, 2020
Excellent narration by George Guidall, who does the accent very well, and very easy to understand.
The story is a look into the mind of a holocaust survivor turned Israeli freedom fighter who has been assigned to execute a British soldier in retaliation for the hanging of an young Israeli soldier. The Brit was kidnapped, and his execution was a threat to retaliate. The British thought they would not go through with it, but the Israelis felt that once they made the threat, they had no choice but to follow through or lose credibility.
There was no action involved. It was all psychological or philosophical. The author wrote the story to explore his thoughts on how he would react to such a situation, that is, whether a peace-loving man could kill a stranger on purpose for an important cause.
I had mixed feelings about the subject. On the one hand, I have long felt that Israel is too heavy-handed in their dealings with the Palestinians. It seems that many innocent Palestinians suffer because of the retaliations against the terrorist elements. But on the other hand, I understand why it happens. Throughout history, it seems that the peaceful Jews have been persecuted by most of the world. After what happened during Hitler's reign, I can see how they would want to have a safe haven where they would not be persecuted for their religion. Being surrounded by nations who do not want them around, they feel they need to be the meanest dog in the junkyard to survive, and so try to never show weakness.
The book makes me examine my feelings about war. A simple philosophy is that war is always wrong. But isn't it sometimes justified? If it is, then who decides? When is it justified for one country to take land from another? It's not really that uncommon in our history. The whole situation is very sad to me because I feel that the people there are mostly friendly and peaceful, yet they can't seem to get along. Probably, it's much the same as the troubles in Ireland.
The story is a look into the mind of a holocaust survivor turned Israeli freedom fighter who has been assigned to execute a British soldier in retaliation for the hanging of an young Israeli soldier. The Brit was kidnapped, and his execution was a threat to retaliate. The British thought they would not go through with it, but the Israelis felt that once they made the threat, they had no choice but to follow through or lose credibility.
There was no action involved. It was all psychological or philosophical. The author wrote the story to explore his thoughts on how he would react to such a situation, that is, whether a peace-loving man could kill a stranger on purpose for an important cause.
I had mixed feelings about the subject. On the one hand, I have long felt that Israel is too heavy-handed in their dealings with the Palestinians. It seems that many innocent Palestinians suffer because of the retaliations against the terrorist elements. But on the other hand, I understand why it happens. Throughout history, it seems that the peaceful Jews have been persecuted by most of the world. After what happened during Hitler's reign, I can see how they would want to have a safe haven where they would not be persecuted for their religion. Being surrounded by nations who do not want them around, they feel they need to be the meanest dog in the junkyard to survive, and so try to never show weakness.
The book makes me examine my feelings about war. A simple philosophy is that war is always wrong. But isn't it sometimes justified? If it is, then who decides? When is it justified for one country to take land from another? It's not really that uncommon in our history. The whole situation is very sad to me because I feel that the people there are mostly friendly and peaceful, yet they can't seem to get along. Probably, it's much the same as the troubles in Ireland.
July 9, 2017
Every so often, I read a book that makes me wish I was back in grad school, so I could write a paper about it. This is one of those books. The only problem I have with it is that it's too short. I wanted to read more of Wiesel's beautiful and moving prose. I love his style of writing and was caught up by the characters and their stories.
The plot is about a young Jewish man named Elisha who is chosen to kill an English soldier named John Dawson. Elisha is part of the resistance movement in Palestine, and the English have captured another resistance member, David ben Moshe. The Jews, tired of losing their men to the English, have decided that, for every young Jewish man killed, an English soldier will also die. After David's arrest and sentencing, the resistance captured Dawson and vowed to kill him. Gad, one of the movement's leaders, who learned of and tracked down Elisha as a refugee in Paris after the liberation of the concentration camps, chooses Elisha to kill Dawson the same morning that the English have promised to kill David. What follows is Elisha's psychological and emotional journey between the dusk of the day before the scheduled killings and the dawn of the day the killings must take place.
The story is about the circularity of life. The English and the Jews were on the same side in World War II. Their goal was essentially the same--to stop Hitler and to reclaim Europe. But after the war, the Jews are liberated and looking to reclaim their homeland. Now, the English have to fight against them because they claim Palestine as their own. The two peoples that once fought together for the same purpose are now enemies. How does Elisha handle that? Can he really hate the English the same way he hated the Nazis? And how can he, an eighteen-year-old man, knowingly kill someone he's never met? How did John Dawson come to bear the weight of the entire struggle between the two peoples?
David, the Jewish symbol of the resistance against English rule, and John, the symbol of the English national character, become intertwined in unexpected ways. Wiesel's subtlety here is brilliant. David means "beloved" in Hebrew, and ben Moshe means "son of Moses," drawn from the waters of Egypt to go on and liberate his people. John, although spreading broadly to become a Christian name, is really from the Hebrew and means"God has been gracious," and He had been to the English. Dawson means "son of Daw/David." John's sentencing comes from David's. There is no reason to kill John except that there is a reason to kill David. Though John is the older man of the two condemned to die, he would not be where he is if it weren't for the younger man's arrest. The other names are less intriguing, maybe, but just as layered. Gad is the prophet who gives David three choices from God after his sin: plague, running from his enemies, or famine. Wiesel's Gad offers Elisha choices: fight for a future or live in the past. Elisha is the prophet Elijah's successor. He closely follows his master and sees him taken up to heaven then becomes an even stronger prophet than Elijah himself. Wiesel's Elisha is still an apprentice, learning about war, love, and himself. Will he be stronger in the end?
Elisha thinks a lot about the SS officers and the terrorists in Palestine. What's the difference between what the Nazis did and what the resistance is doing? What's the difference between the English hangman and Elisha himself? And, really, what is the difference between David, John, and all the rest? Elisha's colleagues constantly repeat the phrase, "Don't torture yourself; this is war," but does that mean that everything is forgiven or at least canceled out? The book of Job asks the question, "What do you answer when being called to account?" This book adds to that: "And to whom?" When you're playing God and deciding who dies and who lives, who do you answer to but yourself?
This book is beautiful and complex. It made me think and want to read slowly to savor it all. I couldn't, though, because it was so good that I had to keep reading. The time span is just a few hours, but the scope is an entire nation's history and its projected future. It covers the suffering, the torment, and the resistance. It's about the Holocaust and the forging of the new Israel, but it still feels current, and the questions it asks are still relevant. I highly recommend this book, whether you've read Night or not. It's worth the short time it will take to get through it, and the questions it poses and the manner in which it does will move you and make you wonder about love, hate, war, the past, and our future.
The plot is about a young Jewish man named Elisha who is chosen to kill an English soldier named John Dawson. Elisha is part of the resistance movement in Palestine, and the English have captured another resistance member, David ben Moshe. The Jews, tired of losing their men to the English, have decided that, for every young Jewish man killed, an English soldier will also die. After David's arrest and sentencing, the resistance captured Dawson and vowed to kill him. Gad, one of the movement's leaders, who learned of and tracked down Elisha as a refugee in Paris after the liberation of the concentration camps, chooses Elisha to kill Dawson the same morning that the English have promised to kill David. What follows is Elisha's psychological and emotional journey between the dusk of the day before the scheduled killings and the dawn of the day the killings must take place.
The story is about the circularity of life. The English and the Jews were on the same side in World War II. Their goal was essentially the same--to stop Hitler and to reclaim Europe. But after the war, the Jews are liberated and looking to reclaim their homeland. Now, the English have to fight against them because they claim Palestine as their own. The two peoples that once fought together for the same purpose are now enemies. How does Elisha handle that? Can he really hate the English the same way he hated the Nazis? And how can he, an eighteen-year-old man, knowingly kill someone he's never met? How did John Dawson come to bear the weight of the entire struggle between the two peoples?
David, the Jewish symbol of the resistance against English rule, and John, the symbol of the English national character, become intertwined in unexpected ways. Wiesel's subtlety here is brilliant. David means "beloved" in Hebrew, and ben Moshe means "son of Moses," drawn from the waters of Egypt to go on and liberate his people. John, although spreading broadly to become a Christian name, is really from the Hebrew and means"God has been gracious," and He had been to the English. Dawson means "son of Daw/David." John's sentencing comes from David's. There is no reason to kill John except that there is a reason to kill David. Though John is the older man of the two condemned to die, he would not be where he is if it weren't for the younger man's arrest. The other names are less intriguing, maybe, but just as layered. Gad is the prophet who gives David three choices from God after his sin: plague, running from his enemies, or famine. Wiesel's Gad offers Elisha choices: fight for a future or live in the past. Elisha is the prophet Elijah's successor. He closely follows his master and sees him taken up to heaven then becomes an even stronger prophet than Elijah himself. Wiesel's Elisha is still an apprentice, learning about war, love, and himself. Will he be stronger in the end?
Elisha thinks a lot about the SS officers and the terrorists in Palestine. What's the difference between what the Nazis did and what the resistance is doing? What's the difference between the English hangman and Elisha himself? And, really, what is the difference between David, John, and all the rest? Elisha's colleagues constantly repeat the phrase, "Don't torture yourself; this is war," but does that mean that everything is forgiven or at least canceled out? The book of Job asks the question, "What do you answer when being called to account?" This book adds to that: "And to whom?" When you're playing God and deciding who dies and who lives, who do you answer to but yourself?
This book is beautiful and complex. It made me think and want to read slowly to savor it all. I couldn't, though, because it was so good that I had to keep reading. The time span is just a few hours, but the scope is an entire nation's history and its projected future. It covers the suffering, the torment, and the resistance. It's about the Holocaust and the forging of the new Israel, but it still feels current, and the questions it asks are still relevant. I highly recommend this book, whether you've read Night or not. It's worth the short time it will take to get through it, and the questions it poses and the manner in which it does will move you and make you wonder about love, hate, war, the past, and our future.
June 20, 2021
Не го мразех. Но ми се искаше да го мразя. Това щеше да опрости нещата. Омразата, също както войната, любовта и вярата, е способна всичко да оправдае, всичко да обясни.
(...)
Ако можех да се позова на омразата, всички тези въпроси щяха да ми бъдат спестени. Защо съм убил Джон Доусън? Просто е: мразех го. Точка, това е всичко. Абсолютната омраза обяснява всяка човешка постъпка, дори когато последната е безчовечна.
(...)
Човек мрази врага си, защото мрази собствената си омраза. Казва си: "Врагът ми ме превърна в същество, способно да мрази. Мразя го не защото е мой враг, не защото той ме мрази, а защото предизвиква омразата ми".
(...)
Ако можех да се позова на омразата, всички тези въпроси щяха да ми бъдат спестени. Защо съм убил Джон Доусън? Просто е: мразех го. Точка, това е всичко. Абсолютната омраза обяснява всяка човешка постъпка, дори когато последната е безчовечна.
(...)
Човек мрази врага си, защото мрази собствената си омраза. Казва си: "Врагът ми ме превърна в същество, способно да мрази. Мразя го не защото е мой враг, не защото той ме мрази, а защото предизвиква омразата ми".
April 6, 2021
„Нощта“ на Ели Визел е книга, която толкова добре си спомням, че сякаш съм я прочел вчера. Толкова ме впечатли и ми повлия, че едва си написах ревюто за нея. Ели Визел е от писателите, които изключително успешно предават на листа своите вътрешни борби и страдания. Своите разсъждения, раздвоения. Успява да предава емоция и четящият няма как да остане безразличен.
В „Зората“ видях същия Ели Визел. И въпреки че тази втора част не успя да ми повлияе чак толкова емоционално, то ме накара да се замисля за много неща, докато я чета. Визел в типичния за себе си стил, през философията, показва вътрешния свят на едно 18-годишно момче, което за една вечер трябва да се превърне в убиец.
В тази книга се запознаваме с Елиша, който на следващия ден ще трябва да се подчини на заповедите и да екзекутира капитан Джон Доусън. Оцелял от Бухенвалд, Елиша знае много добре: онзи, който извърши убийство в името на някой политически идеал, губи своята човешка същност. И все пак ционистката групировка, към която принадлежи, е готова на всякакви жертви в името на Израел.
„Зората“ ни отвежда в момента, в който Елиша е най-силно раздвоен и се терзае за това, което трябва да направи. Цяла нощ се приготвя да изпълни смъртната присъда. Връща се в миналото, привиждат му се мъртъвци, говори си с тях, иска съвет от тях. Знае, че след като слънцето изгрее на небето, той вече няма да е същият човек и може би през цялото време търси някакви успокоение, оправдание за това, което ще стори.
Припомняме си как в „Нощта“ германците преследват евреите, екзекутират ги без да задават въпроси, припомняме си лагерите и ужаса. И сега Елиша попада от другата страна – той ще трябва да отнеме живот. Сега той не трябва да задава въпроси. Сега просто трябва да убие един свой враг. Но дали е готов да го направи?
С тази книга Ели Визел ни показва нагледно „трансформацията“ на една човешка душа и ни казва: „Може да има времена, в които не можем да предотвратим несправедливостта, но никога не бива да има времена, в които не протестираме срещу нея.“
И въпреки че „Зората“ не ме докосна толкова колкото успя да го направи „Нощта“, аз ви я препоръчвам, защото докато се чете те кара да се замислиш за човечеството, за неговото минало, дори за бъдещето му. С удоволствие ще се потопя и в третата част от трилогията „Денят“, която съвсем скоро ще се появи на български.
https://bookadventureclub.blogspot.co...
В „Зората“ видях същия Ели Визел. И въпреки че тази втора част не успя да ми повлияе чак толкова емоционално, то ме накара да се замисля за много неща, докато я чета. Визел в типичния за себе си стил, през философията, показва вътрешния свят на едно 18-годишно момче, което за една вечер трябва да се превърне в убиец.
В тази книга се запознаваме с Елиша, който на следващия ден ще трябва да се подчини на заповедите и да екзекутира капитан Джон Доусън. Оцелял от Бухенвалд, Елиша знае много добре: онзи, който извърши убийство в името на някой политически идеал, губи своята човешка същност. И все пак ционистката групировка, към която принадлежи, е готова на всякакви жертви в името на Израел.
„Зората“ ни отвежда в момента, в който Елиша е най-силно раздвоен и се терзае за това, което трябва да направи. Цяла нощ се приготвя да изпълни смъртната присъда. Връща се в миналото, привиждат му се мъртъвци, говори си с тях, иска съвет от тях. Знае, че след като слънцето изгрее на небето, той вече няма да е същият човек и може би през цялото време търси някакви успокоение, оправдание за това, което ще стори.
Припомняме си как в „Нощта“ германците преследват евреите, екзекутират ги без да задават въпроси, припомняме си лагерите и ужаса. И сега Елиша попада от другата страна – той ще трябва да отнеме живот. Сега той не трябва да задава въпроси. Сега просто трябва да убие един свой враг. Но дали е готов да го направи?
С тази книга Ели Визел ни показва нагледно „трансформацията“ на една човешка душа и ни казва: „Може да има времена, в които не можем да предотвратим несправедливостта, но никога не бива да има времена, в които не протестираме срещу нея.“
И въпреки че „Зората“ не ме докосна толкова колкото успя да го направи „Нощта“, аз ви я препоръчвам, защото докато се чете те кара да се замислиш за човечеството, за неговото минало, дори за бъдещето му. С удоволствие ще се потопя и в третата част от трилогията „Денят“, която съвсем скоро ще се появи на български.
https://bookadventureclub.blogspot.co...
August 8, 2022
The young soldier had been spared form the holocaust death camps. Now he was called upon to carry out the death sentence of a British officer.
The thought of taking a man's life was so troubling to him. He wrestled in his mind of the deed he had to do. It brought about nightmares and ghosts and extreme guilt.
He does his deed at the appointed hour. The ghosts are gone. He sees his face.
The thought of taking a man's life was so troubling to him. He wrestled in his mind of the deed he had to do. It brought about nightmares and ghosts and extreme guilt.
He does his deed at the appointed hour. The ghosts are gone. He sees his face.
July 30, 2025
I was afraid to pick this book up because Night was such a pivotal book for me in middle school, that I continue to think about to this day (I'm 35). But I decided to give it a go, and I'm so sorry that I did.
Maybe the disappointment is because the book is labelled as a second to Night so I assumed it would be an extension of that gorgeous memoir. Maybe it's the genocide in Palestine that is coloring my opinion. But either way, I was neither prepared for nor interested in reading about an Israeli freedom fighter who murders people in Palestine.
I will say that Elie Wiesel does a tremendous job of pointing out Zionism as being a separate ideology than Judaism, and what antisemitism looks like. The book is also filled with philosophical exploration on who gets to take a life and what it all means. But while this had good stuff in it, and the writing was still good, I found myself getting bored.
I really wish this was so much different.
Maybe the disappointment is because the book is labelled as a second to Night so I assumed it would be an extension of that gorgeous memoir. Maybe it's the genocide in Palestine that is coloring my opinion. But either way, I was neither prepared for nor interested in reading about an Israeli freedom fighter who murders people in Palestine.
I will say that Elie Wiesel does a tremendous job of pointing out Zionism as being a separate ideology than Judaism, and what antisemitism looks like. The book is also filled with philosophical exploration on who gets to take a life and what it all means. But while this had good stuff in it, and the writing was still good, I found myself getting bored.
I really wish this was so much different.
October 30, 2011
This book came to me by accident. I was visiting the library at Anatolia High School in Thessaloniki one day and, as is occasionally the case, there was a pile of books on a table outside the door - books that had been purged from the collection, free for the taking. I am wary of such books, as they are often not worth the trouble, either because they are falling apart, or because they are lousy books. But this one caught my eye because I had heard of one of Elie Wiesel's other books, "Night", due to it becoming one of Oprah's book club selections. Not that I follow her book club, but I read just about any article I come across that recommends good reading material.
I figured "Dawn" might be some sort of sequel to "Night", but it isn't. "Night" is an autobiography, the story of Wiesel's internment in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944 and 1945, but "Dawn" is a novel. It is considered, however, to be part of a trilogy, "Night", "Dawn", and "Day", which draws on Wiesel's Holocaust experiences.
"Dawn" is very short; my edition was 102 small pages with large print. It is listed as a novel but is a novella, really. It is told in first person by a teenage survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald who has been recruited in Paris and then trained in Israel in terrorist tactics against the English. This eighteen-year-old, Elisha, has been ordered to execute a captive British officer at dawn, and the story concerns his personal anguish at being given this task. It takes place during the night before the execution, though there are flashbacks of earlier times. There is a fantasy element as well, as ghosts from Elisha's past show up to keep vigil and converse with him, including his father, his mother, the rabbi who was his teacher, some other friends and acquaintances, and a small boy who represents a younger version of himself. Elisha realizes that the execution will change him, that he will become a murderer forever after he has done this deed, but nevertheless he feels compelled to follow through with it.
This book is not to be read for entertainment. It is devastating, heartbreaking, depressing. It shows a man at the mercy of a dark destiny which he cannot change, and shows war as an evil in which there are no winning sides. It is told succinctly, in direct, spare, poetic prose. There is no fat. It is lean and abrupt, like a bullet in the brain. It is a parable, in that it could apply to any war in any age in which men who have no personal animosity towards one another nevertheless confront one another as enemies.
I recommend this book, but as I said, do not approach it lightly. It is the type of literary experience that changes people, knocks the silliness out of them, sobers them up, causes them to confront their humanity. If you are up for this kind of experience, give it a try.
I figured "Dawn" might be some sort of sequel to "Night", but it isn't. "Night" is an autobiography, the story of Wiesel's internment in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944 and 1945, but "Dawn" is a novel. It is considered, however, to be part of a trilogy, "Night", "Dawn", and "Day", which draws on Wiesel's Holocaust experiences.
"Dawn" is very short; my edition was 102 small pages with large print. It is listed as a novel but is a novella, really. It is told in first person by a teenage survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald who has been recruited in Paris and then trained in Israel in terrorist tactics against the English. This eighteen-year-old, Elisha, has been ordered to execute a captive British officer at dawn, and the story concerns his personal anguish at being given this task. It takes place during the night before the execution, though there are flashbacks of earlier times. There is a fantasy element as well, as ghosts from Elisha's past show up to keep vigil and converse with him, including his father, his mother, the rabbi who was his teacher, some other friends and acquaintances, and a small boy who represents a younger version of himself. Elisha realizes that the execution will change him, that he will become a murderer forever after he has done this deed, but nevertheless he feels compelled to follow through with it.
This book is not to be read for entertainment. It is devastating, heartbreaking, depressing. It shows a man at the mercy of a dark destiny which he cannot change, and shows war as an evil in which there are no winning sides. It is told succinctly, in direct, spare, poetic prose. There is no fat. It is lean and abrupt, like a bullet in the brain. It is a parable, in that it could apply to any war in any age in which men who have no personal animosity towards one another nevertheless confront one another as enemies.
I recommend this book, but as I said, do not approach it lightly. It is the type of literary experience that changes people, knocks the silliness out of them, sobers them up, causes them to confront their humanity. If you are up for this kind of experience, give it a try.
June 30, 2008
This book is very different from anything else I've read. It's the follow up to Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, but this time the story is fictional. Because it's fictional, right off the bat it's easier to digest than Night. It revolves around a Holocaust survivor's morals and way of thinking after he becomes part of the Jewish Resistance in Palestine and is ordered to execute a British soldier. Can the victim ever become the murderer? Do the crimes of others make it okay for you to commit the same crimes against them? The main character wrestles with moral questions like these. It made me think about things that had never occurred to me before.
May 1, 2016
This is a follow-up to "Night", which I found to be a bit odd. It’s not that I didn’t like “Dawn”, I did and it definitely affected me emotionally, but “Night” is much better. It’s the only book in the trilogy that’s a memoir, so obviously the styles are different. I wonder what “Day” will be like. I plan on reading that soon.
December 4, 2020
Well written, just kind of boring.
January 22, 2008
Dawn is a beautifully written but disturbing novel about an Israeli terrorist waiting to assassinate a British officer in retaliation for the hanging of an Israeli. This novel evokes a great deal of thought about stopping violence with violence and hate with hate. Reflecting on the persecution the Jews have suffered, the young assassin Elisha says: "Now our only chance lies in hating you, in learning the necessity of the art of hate." However, the novel seems ultimately to say that hatred must be fought, or else we are lost.
October 15, 2008
Incredibly relevant. While a historical novel, in our post-9/11 world that's cluttered with arrogance and self-righteous politics, this should be required reading. Dawn is unnerving; it shakes you to the core. The lines between "us" and "them" are blurred and the reader cannot possibly walk away viewing the world through the same narrow lens they came in with. Read it.
May 29, 2019
I liked the novel for its heart-rending depiction of the protoganist's mental agony as the first time killer. Short and easy read and thought provoking as well.
September 3, 2021
I first read Night in high school, along with most people in my generation, and I reread it shortly after high school when I found this book. Unlike Night, which is an autobiography of Wiesel's life in the concentration camps, this is a work of fiction about a group of terrorists/freedom fighters calling themselves The Movement (based on the real life Haganah, which would later form the basis of the Israel Defense force) fighting for the freedom of the Jewish people from British-controlled Palestine. Only a few short years after the Holocaust and WWII, Jewish people are being threatened yet again.
When I first read this, I didn't understand anything that had happened after WWII. Back then, I just wanted Elisha to "make the right decision" and not do what he was being ordered to do. While I have learned some of the history of that time, and how the policy decisions after WWII impacted that region then and ongoing even to today, there's still a lot I don't know. But I do know that often things are a lot messier than we're told or lead to believe, and this short story shows the layers at work here in a stark, straightforward manner. Elisha's in the middle, thrust into the spotlight as it were, and there's no decision, right or wrong, for him to make. It was never that cut and dry.
Taking place over one night, Elisha takes the time leading up to dawn, the moment that will change him irrevocably, the moment two men will be killed, one for wanting freedom, and the other for retaliation, thinking over the events and people in his life that lead him to this moment. In just a little over 100 pages, Wiesel shows us a young man, a boy really, who is about to lose the last piece of himself, as well as a young man who no longer really knows who he was before the war took everything away from him, and in him we can see also the plight of the people around him, the people he's fighting for, for he represents them all.
This shows that you don't need to use a lot of words to tell a story, just the ones that will tell it in the best way.
When I first read this, I didn't understand anything that had happened after WWII. Back then, I just wanted Elisha to "make the right decision" and not do what he was being ordered to do. While I have learned some of the history of that time, and how the policy decisions after WWII impacted that region then and ongoing even to today, there's still a lot I don't know. But I do know that often things are a lot messier than we're told or lead to believe, and this short story shows the layers at work here in a stark, straightforward manner. Elisha's in the middle, thrust into the spotlight as it were, and there's no decision, right or wrong, for him to make. It was never that cut and dry.
Taking place over one night, Elisha takes the time leading up to dawn, the moment that will change him irrevocably, the moment two men will be killed, one for wanting freedom, and the other for retaliation, thinking over the events and people in his life that lead him to this moment. In just a little over 100 pages, Wiesel shows us a young man, a boy really, who is about to lose the last piece of himself, as well as a young man who no longer really knows who he was before the war took everything away from him, and in him we can see also the plight of the people around him, the people he's fighting for, for he represents them all.
This shows that you don't need to use a lot of words to tell a story, just the ones that will tell it in the best way.
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