Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
The first version of Night was much longer and started with the following line: "In the beginning there was faith—which is childish; trust—which is vain; and illusion—which is dangerous." Pretty powerful. Does that change the way you look at the book? (Source: Wiesel, Elie. Preface. Night. By Elie Wiesel. Translated by Marion Wiesel. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. x.)
"If in my lifetime I was to only write one book, this [Night] would be the one." That’s how Elie Wiesel starts off the preface to the new translation (by Marion Wiesel) of Night. To put this in perspective, Elie Wiesel has written more than 40 books. (Source: Wiesel, Elie. Preface. Night. By Elie Wiesel. Translated by Marion Wiesel. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. vii.)
Elie Wiesel’s two older sisters survived the Holocaust and he was reunited with them after the liberation of the concentration camps. That’s probably why they aren’t mentioned in the book’s dedication; only his parents and younger sister are. (Source.)
In February 2007, a Holocaust-denier named Eric Hunt stalked and attacked Elie Wiesel in his hotel in San Francisco in an attempt to get him to "confess" that his entire book, Night, is a pack of lies. On July 3, 2007, Eric Hunt pled not guilty to attacking Wiesel. (Source.)