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Night: The Holocaust and Human Resilience

Explore Elie Wiesel's powerful memoir through discussion questions, analyzing themes of survival, faith, and family during the Holocaust.

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Night: The Holocaust and Human Resilience

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  1. Night • By Elie Wiesel “The Holocaust is a central event in many people’s lives, but it has also become a metaphor for our century. There cannot be an end to speaking and writing about it.” -Aharon Appelfeld

  2. Discussion questions…* Answer the questions on a separate piece of paper. Please keep all of your answers together * Chapter 1 • “And then, one day all foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet,” writes Wiesel, quite bluntly. “And Moishe the Beadle was a foreigner” (6). Why do you suppose this shocking information is delivered so matter-of-factly? What is the point of Wiesel’s abruptness? Also, consider the manner in which Moishe is treated by the Jews of Sighet after he has escaped the Gestapo’s capture. Are the people happy to see him? Is he himself even happy to be alive? Explain why Moishe has returned to the village. Why don’t the Jewish townspeople believe the horrible news he brings back to them?

  3. Discussion questions…* Answer the questions on a separate piece of paper. Please keep all of your answers together * Chapter 1 • While Nazi terror is only a rumor or distant threat, Eliezer's father chooses to remain in Sighet. Once they are forced into the ghetto, Eliezer's father tells his older children that they can go live with their former maid in her village, but that he will stay in the ghetto with their mother and little sister. Eliezer says, "Naturally, we refused to be separated" (20). Can you sympathize with their choice? What would it feel like for a family to have to choose to leave their home or separate from each other? Are there places in the world where families are faced with this decision now?

  4. Discussion questions…* Answer the questions on a separate piece of paper. Please keep all of your answers together * Chapter 2 • Cassandra was a figure in Greek mythology who received the gift of prophecy with the simultaneous curse that no one would ever believe her. Compare Cassandra to Mrs. Schächter. Chapter 3 • Not long after arriving at Birkenau, Eliezer and his father experience the horrors of the crematory firsthand—and are nearly killed themselves. “Babies!” Wiesel writes. “Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes . . . children thrown into the flames” (32). Look back on Eliezer’s physical, mental, and emotional reactions to this hellish and inexplicable experience. How does the story of Night change at this point? How does Wiesel himself change?

  5. Discussion questions…* Answer the questions on a separate piece of paper. Please keep all of your answers together * Chapter 3 • Consider the inscription that appears above the entrance to Auschwitz. What is it supposed to mean? What meaning, if any, does this slogan come to have for Eliezer? • Chapter 4 • When Eliezer sees his father being beaten with an iron bar, he keeps silent and thinks of "stealing away" so he won't have to watch what's happening (54). Instead of directing his anger at the Kapo, he becomes mad at his father. What do you think is really going on inside of Eliezer? Who is he really mad at?
 • Think of the kapos and the little blonde pipel who is hanged on page 64. Who are the bystanders? Who are the perpetrators? Who are the victims in Night? Do these roles sometimes overlap?

  6. Discussion questions…* Answer the questions on a separate piece of paper. Please keep all of your answers together * Chapter 9 • At the end of Night, Wiesel writes: "From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me" (115). What parts of Eliezer died during his captivity? What was born in their place?Finale • When Night begins, Eliezer is so moved by faith that he weeps when he prays—but he is only 12 years old. How does Eliezer's relationship with his faith and with God change as the book progresses? When the book ends, he is 16 years old. How would you describe him?What scenes from Night do you remember most vividly? Have they made you look at the world or your family differently? • Who did you identify most with in Night? Who do you most admire?

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