Dawn by Elie Wiesel

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Many people may know of the famous book by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel called, "Night".In fact, I believe all three of my teenagers have been required to read this in school. It was a powerful memoir of his horrific experience in two of Nazi Germany's most infamous concentration camps. However, the book that followed, "Dawn", is much less well known. I picked it up a few weeks ago from a book store (I also bought the third in the trilogy, "Day"). This is actually a novel about a young man, who is also a Holocaust survivor, and his struggle with being on the other side of the equation. Ordered as an executioner of an English soldier in post war Palestine, he contemplates his purpose and morality. He is not comfortable with becoming a killer, but his people were at war with the English for an independent Palestine. I never knew about the struggles that the Jews had to overcome to create the state of Israel. Elisha's (the main character) inner turmoil was heartbreaking. I hate what people had to endure, who they had to become, for the survival of their people. It definitely gave me a greater appreciation of how Israel become a country, recognized by the UN. I can't wait to read "Day".