Elie Weisel died this year, just over 2 months ago. He was 15 during World War II, and this book is his account of the year he spent in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. This translation includes Weisel's Nobel Prize acceptance speech at the end, as well as an updated introduction written for the most recent translation of the book done by his wife. In it, he mentions the original draft was much longer, and even the new translation lacks some details from the Yiddish. This is very unfortunate; true accounts of events this significant in human history should no be edited and shortened for convenience or other reasons. As fewer and fewer people who remember these events are still alive, it's more and more important that their accounts survive and are read by more recent generations. His words are no less relevant today as back in 1944:
"Wherever minorities are being persecuted we must raise our voices to protest"
"When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant."