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NightBy Elie Wiesel

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke.

Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky….”

Student Study Guide

Name: ________________Mrs. Curley English 10H

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Kristallnacht

On the night of November 9, 1938, violence against Jews broke out across the Reich. It appeared to be unplanned, set off by the Germans' anger over the assassination of a German official in Paris at the hands of a Jewish teenager. In fact, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis carefully organized the pogroms. In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by. The pogroms became known as Kristallnacht, a term translated roughly from German into what we now call "Night of Broken Glass," for the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the streets.

The morning after the pogroms, 30,000 German Jewish men were arrested for the "crime" of being Jewish and sent to concentration camps, where hundreds of them perished. Some Jewish women were also arrested and sent to local jails. Businesses owned by Jews were not allowed to reopen unless they were managed by non-Jews. Curfews were placed on Jews, limiting the hours of the day they could leave their homes.

After the "Night of Broken Glass,"life was even more difficult for German and Austrian Jewish children and teenagers. Already barred from entering museums, public playgrounds, and swimming pools, now they were expelled from the public schools. Jewish youngsters, like their parents, were totally segregated in Germany. In despair, many Jewish adults committed suicide. Most families tried desperately to leave.

1. What are the pogroms? What does Kristallnacht mean?

2. What happened to Jews the morning after the pogroms?

3. How did life change for Jews after Kristallnacht?

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Key Terms/Social Context The Nazis opened their first concentration camp in 1933, just after Adolf Hitler became German Chancellor. Auschwitz, where Weisel was initially taken, opened in 1940. With its reception centers, such as Birkenau, Auschwitz eventually became the largest of these networked camps.

When Hitler invaded Russia in 1941, he was in need of supplies and weapons. Many of these concentration camps became labor centers used prisoners to fuel the Nazi death machine…..

Aryan Race—The ‘pure’ Germanic race, idealized by the Nazis to suggest a superior, non-Jewish Caucasian typified by height, blonde hair, blue eyes.

Cabbala/Kabbalah- branch of ancient mystical Judaism that probes mysteries of the universe.    Genocide—Coined after WWII as a direct result of how some nationalities and ethnic groups, particularly the Jews, were mistreated during the war.  Its intention is the total annihilation of a race or ethnic group. Ghetto—A section of a city in which Jews were required to live. A ghetto typically was surrounded by walls and/or barbed wire

Holocaust—refers to the destruction of 6 million Jews (and, by some estimates, 6 million non-Jews) during 1933-1945.  Its Greek root means “burnt whole.”   Gestapo—the secret police organized in 1933 to uncover and undermine political opposition Kapo: (German term) a concentration camp prisoner who was given privileges in exchange for supervising work gangs, ‘lead prisoners.’ Some may think of Kapos as traitors to their own people. When Kapos were tried for war crimes after WWII ended, some felt this presented a moral dilemma.

Selection—A term used when the SS forced prisoners to line up for inspection and decided which prisoners would live and which would be killed. SS— “Schutz-Staffel”—established in 1929 as Hitler’s bodyguards.  They became the elite guards of the Nazis trained in brutality and put in charge of the concentration camps.

The Final Solution—plan devised in 1941 to speed up killing the Jews and “undesirables.”  This final method used an efficient system of gas chambers and crematories to kills the Jews. 

Third Reich—The Third Republic of Germany which began with Hitler’s rule in 1933 and ended with his defeat in 1945.

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Yom Kippur—the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.  This is considered to be the day in which every individual is judged by God, and thus is a solemn day marked by prayer and repentance.  No Jew attends work or school on this day.

Foreword

1. How does Francois Mauriac feel about being interviewed by the young Wiesel? Why might this be?

2. What does iniquity mean as it is used on p. xviii?

3. What literary device is predominant on p. xix?

4. Why might rhetorical questions be used so predominantly on p. xxi?

5. Why does Mauriac end his foreword with “All I could do was embrace him and weep”?

Be sure to become very familiar with terms such as Holocaust, Kapo, Kabbalah, etc from previous page. Such familiarity will aid in enriching your understanding of Wiesel’s moving first-person account.

Memoir:

Preface:

Foreword:

Anaphora:

Motif:

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Chapter 1

1. Why might Wiesel have chosen to begin his memoir with Moishe the Beadle?

2. Where did Elie grew up? How old was he at the start of his account?

3. How would you describe Moishe both physically and mentally? How is he received by his community? Why might this be?

4. Delineate Elie’s relationship with Chlomo.

5. How many siblings does Elie have? Who are they?

6. Why is Elie troubled with Moishe’s questions about prayer? Why did Eliezer pray, and why did he cry when he prayed?

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7. What happens to the foreign Jews in Sighet? What is the reaction to people taken away?

8. Upon his return, what story did Moishe tell? How is Moishe after his experience?

9. How did the townspeople respond to him? Why do you think they responded this way?

Read the following passage and then answer the questions in italics:"Jews, listen to me! That's all I ask of you. No money. No pity. Just listen to me!" he kept shouting in synagogue, between the prayer at dusk and the evening prayer.

Even I did not believe him. I often sat with him, after ser-vices, and listened to his tales, trying to understand his grief. But 5all I felt was pity.

"They think I'm mad," he whispered, and tears, like drops of wax, flowed from his eyes.

Once, I asked him the question: "Why do you want people to believe you so much? In your place I would not care whether they 10believed me or not…"

He closed his eyes, as if to escape time. "You don't understand," he said in despair. "You cannot under-

stand. I was saved miraculously. I succeeded in coming back. Where did I get my strength? I wanted to return to Sighet to describe to 15you my death so that you might ready yourselves while there is still time. Life? I no longer care to live. I am alone. But I wanted to come back to warn you. Only no one is listening to me …"

Find two similes in the passage. Why might these comparisons be made?

What are Elie’s thoughts on Moishe?

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Choose 1 sentence that best explains the main idea of this passage. In 3-4 sentences explain why this is the best sentence?

10. Describe Elie’s life in 1943.

11. How do the Jewish people feel in the Spring of 1944?

12. Explain what the following quote means, “Of course we had heard of the Fascists, but it was all in the abstract.”

13. Define disquieting.

14. “Optimism soon revived” is an example of what literary term/s? Define this literary term.

15. What is the initial impression of the Germans in Sighet?

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Read the following passage and then answer the questions in italics:THE EIGHT DAYS of Passover.

The weather was sublime. My mother was busy in the kitchen. The synagogues were no longer open. People gathered in private homes: no need to provoke the Germans.

Almost every rabbi's home became a house of prayer. 5We drank, we ate, we sang. The Bible commands us to rejoice

during the eight days of celebration, but our hearts were not in it. We wished the holiday would end so as not to have to pretend.

On the seventh day of Passover, the curtain finally rose: the Germans arrested the leaders of the Jewish community. 10

From that moment on, everything happened very quickly. The race toward death had begun.

First edict: Jews were prohibited from leaving their residences for three days, under penalty of death.

Moishe the Beadle came running to our house. 15"I warned you," he shouted. And left without waiting for a

response. The same day, the Hungarian police burst into every Jewish

home in town: a Jew was henceforth forbidden to own gold, jew-elry, or any valuables. Everything had to be handed over to the 20authorities, under penalty of death. My father went down to the cellar and buried our savings.

As for my mother, she went on tending to the many chores in the house. Sometimes she would stop and gaze at us in silence.

Three days later, a new decree: every Jew had to wear the yel- 25low star.

Some prominent members of the community came to consult with my father, who had connections at the upper levels of the Hungarian police; they wanted to know what he thought of the situation. My father's view was that it was not all bleak, or per- 30haps he just did not want to discourage the others, to throw salt on their wounds:

"The yellow star? So what? It's not lethal… "(Poor Father! Of what then did you die?) But new edicts were already being issued. We no longer had 35

the right to frequent restaurants or cafes, to travel by rail, to attend synagogue, to be on the streets after six o'clock in the evening.

Then came the ghettos.

What literary term best sums up lines 1-7? In 2-3 sentences explain why.

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From the context of the passage, what does the word edict (line 13) mean?

What does the mother do (line 24)? Why does she do this?

What does line 34 indicate? Why is it in parenthesis? What does it mean?

Cite examples of how the Jewish citizens of Sighet began to lose their rights.

16. Why is “normal” in quotations?

17. Why is the ghetto ruled by “delusion”? (What does this really mean?)

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18. What is the significance of “night fell”?

19. In the text the story says, “The story he had interrupted would remain unfinished.” What does this indicate?

20. Define phylacteries.

21. Why is the Chief Rabbi without his beard?

22. What is the significance of the Jewish people being described as “like beaten dogs”?

23. How does Elie describe his mother’s face? Why?

24. “Oh God, Master of the Universe” is what literary term?

25. Define conflagration. Why would Wiesel choose this word over other words?

26. Describe the conditions in the train (at the end of the chapter).

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Chapter 21. What became intolerable in the cattle car?

2. How do some of the adolescents take advantage of the darkness?

3. What does the German office warn the people in the cattle car?

4. Define hermetically.

5. Describe the event with Mrs. Schachter. What literary term might this be?

6. What did some of the passengers do to quiet Mrs.Shachter? Why? Is she crazy or actually perhaps very mentally stable?

7. What is the reaction to the name “Auschwitz”? Why?

8. What literary term is the following passage: “We return to our places, shame in our souls but fear gnawing at us nevertheless.”

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9. What smells linger in the air?

10. Where did the train finally stop?

Chapter 3Read the following passage and then answer the questions in italics:THE BELOVED OBJECTS that we had carried with us from place to place were now left behind in the wagon and, with them, finally, our illusions.

Every few yards, there stood an SS man, his machine gun trained on us. Hand in hand we followed the throng. 5

An SS came toward us wielding a club. He commanded: "Men to the left!Women to the right!"Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion.

Eight simple, short words. Yet that was the moment when I leftmy mother. There was no time to think, and I already felt my fa- 10ther's hand press against mine: we were alone. In a fraction of a second I could see my mother, my sisters, move to the right. Tzi-pora was holding Mother's hand. I saw them walking farther and farther away; Mother was stroking my sister's blond hair, as if to protect her. And I walked on with my father, with the men. I 15didn't know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever. I kept walk-ing, my father holding my hand.

What happens as soon as they arrive and disembark from the train?

In line 3, what does illusions mean?

Lines 8-9 are illustrating what literary term?

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Which of the five senses is most important in this passage? Why? Provide support.

What do the last lines of this passage reveal?

1. When questioned by the S.S. Officer, why did Elie lie about his age andoccupation?

2. Explain the importance of the simile: “We can’t let them kill us like that, like cattle in the slaughterhouse.”

3. Who is Dr. Mengele?

4. What was the first horrifying sight that Elie at first disbelieved?

5. Explain what Elie meant when he said, “Never shall I forget these flameswhich consumed my faith forever.”

6. What was Bela Katz forced to do once he was chosen for his strength?

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7. What is the Kaddish?

8. How has/had Elie changed in such a short time?

9. Who grabs Elie?

10. What is Dr. Mengele referred to as? What literary term is this?

11. What does the Gypsy do to Elie’s father?

12. What does ArbeitMachtFrei mean?

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13. What sort of identification was used on the prisoners? Why?

14. How does Elie react to the food? How does this change and why?

15. Who is Stein? What does Elie tell Stein? Why?

16. Who is AkibaDrumer?

Chapter 41. Define the word traffic as used in the context in this chapter. What do we learn about young boys?

2. Explain what happens between Elie and his shoes.

3. Why do the men get their teeth checked?

4. Why were the Jewish musicians not allowed to play music by Beethoven?

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5. How did Elie initially avoid losing his gold crown?Why might this have been dangerous.Explain the irony regarding the dentist. Why might this have been dangerous?

6. What happens between Elie and Idek the first time?

7. Define flashforward. What happens in the flashforward? Why might a flashforward be important in regards to this story?

8. Who else faces Idek’s wrath?

9. What happens to Elie’s tooth? Why does he do this?

10. What does Elie catch Idek doing? What is the after effect?

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Read the following passage and then answer the questions in italics:

In no time, the camp had the look of an abandoned ship. No living soul in the alleys. Next to the kitchen, two cauldrons of hot, steaming soup had been left untended. Two cauldrons of soup! Smack in the middle of the road, two cauldrons of soup with no one to guard them! A royal feast going to waste! Supreme tempta- 5tion! Hundreds of eyes were looking at them, shining with desire. Two lambs with hundreds of wolves lying in wait for them. Two lambs without a shepherd, free for the taking. But who would dare?

Fear was greater than hunger. Suddenly, we saw the door of 10Block 37 open slightly. A man appeared, crawling snakelike in the direction of the cauldrons.

Hundreds of eyes were watching his every move. Hundreds of men were crawling with him, scraping their bodies with his on the stones. All hearts trembled, but mostly with envy. He was the one 15who had dared.

He reached the first cauldron. Hearts were pounding harder: he had succeeded. Jealousy devoured us, consumed us. We never thought to admire him. Poor hero committing suicide for a ration or two or more of soup … In our minds, he was already dead. 20

Lying on the ground near the cauldron, he was trying to lift himself to the cauldron's rim. Either out of weakness or out of fear, he remained there, undoubtedly to muster his strength. At last he succeeded in pulling himself up to the rim. For a second, he seemed to be looking at himself in the soup, looking for his 25ghostly reflection there. Then, for no apparent reason, he let out a terrible scream, a death rattle such as I had never heard before and, with open mouth, thrust his head toward the still steaming liquid. We jumped at the sound of the shot. Falling to the ground, his face stained by the soup, the man writhed a few seconds at the 30base of the cauldron, and then he was still.

Name three literary terms that come from the first paragraph. Cite specific examples.

Line 15 is an example of what literary term?

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Write down the line that best foreshadows the man’s death. Why is this the best line?

Find three examples of personification.

11. What happens at the Buna factory?

12. During one of the preliminary “ceremonies” for a hanging, what did Juliekwhisper to Elie? What does this suggest?

13. What makes the Oberkapo special?

14. What is a pipel? Describe what happens to him.

15. According to Elie, where is God found?

16. What does the soup taste like? What literary term is this?

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Chapter 5

1. How does Elie feel towards God at this point? How has this changed since the beginning of the memoir?

2. What literary term is the following sentence? “Thousands of lips repeated the benediction, bent over like trees in a storm.” Explain what this means.

3. How do the rest of the prisoners act on Rosh Hashanah?

4. Again, what is the Kaddish?

5. What is Elie’s dilemma on Yom Kippur? What does he decide to do, and why is this significant?

6. How does Elie avoid selection?

7. What literary term best describes the following passage? Explain why. “The bell. It was already time to part, to go to bed. The bell regulated everything. It gave me orders and I executed them blindly. I hated that bell. Whenever I happened to dream of a better world, I imagined a universe without a bell.”

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8. What is Elie’s “inheritance”? How does Elie feel towards it?

9. What did AkibaDrumer ask the others to do for him? Did they do it? Why is AkibaDrumer’s death so despairing?

10. Why does Elie go to the infirmary? What is the advice he receives?

11. How does Elie’s operation go?

12. How does the faceless neighbor feel towards Hitler?

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Read the following passage, and then answer all the bolded questions:The camp had become a hive of activity. People were running, calling to one another. In every block, the inmates prepared for the journey ahead. I had forgotten about my lame foot. A doctor came into the room and announced: "Tomorrow, right after nightfall, the camp will start on its 5march. Block by block. The sick can remain in the infirmary. They will not be evacuated." That news made us wonder. Were the SS really going to leavehundreds of prisoners behind in the infirmaries, pending the ar-rival of their liberators? Were they really going to allow Jews to 10hear the clock strike twelve? Of course not."All the patients will be finished off on the spot," said the faceless one. "And in one last swoop, thrown into the furnaces.""Surely, the camp will be mined," said another. "Right after the evacuation, it will all blow up." 15As for me, I was thinking not about death but about not wanting to be separated from my father. We had already suffered so much, endured so much together. This was not the moment to separate. I ran outside to look for him. The snow was piled high, the blocks' windows veiled in frost. Holding a shoe in my hand, for I 20could not put it on my right foot, I ran, feeling neither pain nor cold.

"What are we going to do?" My father didn't answer. "What are we going to do?"

He was lost in thought. The choice was in our hands. For 25once. We could decide our fate for ourselves. To stay, both of us, in the infirmary, where, thanks to my doctor, he could enter as ei-ther a patient or a medic. I had made up my mind to accompany my father wherever he went. 30

"Well, Father, what do we do?" He was silent. "Let's be evacuated with the others," I said. He didn't answer. He was looking at my foot. "You think you'll be able to walk?" 35"Yes, I think so." "Let's hope we won't regret it, Eliezer."

AFTER THE WAR, I learned the fate of those who had remained at the infirmary. They were, quite simply, liberated by the Russians, two days after the evacuation. 40

Line 1 is an example of what literary term? What does this show?

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Define the word lame (line 3) from the context of this passage.

Why does Elie ask the audience questions (lines 7-11)?

Lines 37-40 are an example of what literary term. Why?

What is the motif of this passage? Use support to explain the motif you chose.

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Chapter 6Read the following passage and then answer all the questions. AN ICY WIND was blowing violently. But we marched with-out faltering.

The SS made us increase our pace. "Faster, you tramps, you flea-ridden dogs!" Why not? Moving fast made us a little warmer. The blood flowed more readily in our veins. We had 5the feeling of being alive…

"Faster, you filthy dogs!" We were no longer marching, we wererunning. Like automatons. The SS were running as well, weapons in hand. We looked as though we were running from them.

The night was pitch-black. From time to time, a shot ex- 10ploded in the darkness. They had orders to shoot anyone who could not sustain the pace. Their fingers on the triggers, they didnot deprive themselves of the pleasure. If one of us stopped for a second, a quick shot eliminated the filthy dog.

I was putting one foot in front of the other, like a machine. I 15was dragging this emaciated body that was still such a weight. If only I could have shed it! Though I tried to put it out of my mind, I couldn't help thinking that there were two of us: my body and I. And I hated that body. I kept repeating to myself:

"Don't think, don't stop, run!" 20Near me, men were collapsing into the dirty snow. Gunshots.A young boy from Poland was marching beside me. His name

wasZalman. He had worked in the electrical material depot in Buna. People mocked him because he was forever praying or meditating on some Talmudic question. For him, it was an escape 25from reality, from feeling the blows …

All of a sudden, he had terrible stomach cramps.

Examining the sentence on lines 5-6, what word or words make the sentence preposterous? Why?

What happened to anyone who could not keep up with the march?

Why does Elie refer to his fellow man as a filthy dog?

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Besides “filthy dog” find one other simile or metaphor in the passage and explain it.

Define the word emaciated (line 16).

In this passage, find a sentence with interesting syntax. Explain why the syntax is important.

1. Who is Zalman? What happens to Zalman?

Find three different literary terms in the following passage and explain them.“I soon forgot him. I began to think of myself again. My foot was aching, I shivered with every step. Just a few more meters and it will be over. I'll fall. A small red flame…A shot…Death enveloped me, it suffocated me. It stuck to me like glue. I felt I could touch it. The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me. To no longer exist. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot. To no longer feel anything, neither fatigue nor cold, nothing. To break rank, to let myself slide to the side of the road…”

2. In the sentence “…I still owned a body that galloped down the road among thousands of others” Why is the word galloped used?

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3. “The snow seemed to me like a very soft, very warm carpet” – What 2 literary terms is this?

4. According to Elie, why do people die?

5. What happens between Rabbi Eliahu and his son? Why does this happen? Why does this scare Elie?

6. What was Juliek’s last act? Explain the symbolism.

Chapter 7

1. What does the light on the horizon reveal?

2. “Then two ‘gravediggers’ grabbed him by the head and feet and threw him from the wagon, like a sack of flour.” What literary term is this? What does this emphasize?

3. What happens in the flashforward?

4. Explain the incident between the men and the bread.

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5. Why does Elie mention his age at the end of the bread incident? What literary term is strongly illustrated here?

6. What happens between the stranger and Elie? Why?

7. Where do they arrive at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 8

1. Explain how the father/son roles had been reversed in the case of Elie and his father.

2. What literary term is the following sentence? “This discussion continued for some time. I knew that I was no longer arguing with him but with Death itself, with Death that he had already chosen.”

3. When Elie thinks he lost his father, what is his reaction?

4. Elie compares himself to Rabbi Eliahu’s son; is this a fair comparison?

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5. Why was Elie’s father being beaten?

6. What did Elie think of the advice given to him by the head of the block?

7. What happened between January 28th and January 29th?

8. What are the last words of the chapter? Explain them.

Chapter 9

1. What happened on April 5th? What does the Lagerkommandant announce?

2. Where do Elie’s thoughts go first? Why? What are the prisoners’ first acts as free men?

3. What was the resistance movement? What did they do?

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4. Explain how personification is present in the last sentences of the memoir. Why do you think the text ends here and in the manner in which it does?

Preface to the New Translation

Based on your reading, how would you describe Elie’s reaction to his father’s death? Why do you think Elie reacted to his father’s death in the way that he did? Does this affect your understanding of Elie’s story in any way? Why or why not?