Somehow, I got all the way to the eighth grade without ever finding out what the Holocaust was. Maybe we were supposed to learn it in history class, but never did because classes tend to fall behind. Needless to say, my language arts teacher gave us a mini-lesson on the Holocaust just before we started reading it: I was horrified. Like "go home and never leave my room again" sort of horrified. For me, this book was the gateway for my interest in recent history and, eventually, my minor in Russian studies (in which I took as many WWII-era courses as I was allowed - funny how we didn't have a WWII/recent history minor). Wiesel's writing is powerful and every word wrenches your gut. 
 So why only four stars? While Wiesel's account is horrifying and disturbing, Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz is a more thorough account of camp life. That's not to demean Wiesel's account in any way - what he went through was terrible, but Levi's account gives a better picture for folks who weren't alive during this time period and are getting all of their information a full generation later.