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Explore Elie Wiesel's "Night" with detailed chapter summaries and analysis. Dive into the main characters, events, key questions, and photos that bring this powerful story to life. Learn about the haunting reality of the Holocaust through Elie's firsthand account.
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Today • Review chapter one. • https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_list.php?MediaType=am • Elie Wiesel's name is pronounced as: eh-lee vee-ZEL
Night Chapter 1 Pgs. 3-22
MainCharactersIn Chapter 1 • Elie- Narrator of the story, 14 years old at the time of transport • Chlomo Weisel- Elie’s father, community leader • Elie’s mother- keeps family together • Moshe the Beadle- Religious leader, temple keeper, teaches Elie Kabala
German Rules for the Jewish People • Couldn’t leave their residence for 3 days under penalty of death. • Could not own gold, jewelry, or any valuables. • Every Jew had to wear the yellow star. • Could no longer go to restaurants, travel by rail, attend synagogue, or be on the streets after 6 pm.
Main Events • 1942 -Moshe the Beadle is expelled from Sighet with all other foreign Jews. He survives and spreads the word about what is going to happen but nobody listens.
Key Questions • Why is it so important to Moshe that he be believed? • Do you think people really believe that Moshe is lying to them? What is the difference between saying that someone is lying and saying that you cannot believe what he or she is saying?
Main Events • German troops appear on the streets of Sighet. • On the 7th day of Passover, Jewish leaders are arrested. • “The race toward death had begun” • 2 Ghettos are created in Sighet. • Jews are still optimistic.
Main Events • Smaller ghetto is expelled first. (Elie was in the large ghetto) • Within a couple days the larger ghetto is also expelled. • The Jews are put in cattle cars and their journey begins.
Key Questions • How do the Jews of Sighet react to the arrival of the Germans? The creation of the ghettos? Their own deportation? How do you account for these responses?
Key Questions • Why do you think Elie Wiesel tells his story in the first person perspective? If Night were written in the third person, would it be more or less believable?
Night Chapter 2 Pgs. 23-28
Characters • Mrs. Schachter- Woman on the train with her 10 year-old son, was separated from the rest of her family, was delusional • German Officer- Orders all the Jewish people to give up any valuables they still have
Main Events • Jewish people are transported on a cattle car to Auschwitz. • During the journey a woman named Madame Schachter yells that she sees fire and flames. The people finally get fed up with her hallucinations and bound and gag her. When that fails to work, they start to beat her.
Main Events • At Auschwitz, the Germans allow two men to fetch water for the rest of the people. • The car moves on to Birkenau. • At Birkenau, the people see flames and smoke coming from the chimneys of the concentration camp. • The Jewish people can also smell burning flesh.
Key Questions • How is Madame Schachter like Moshe the Beadle? Does she, too, know or sense something that others refuse to believe? • What does it mean to know but not acknowledge what you know? When do people do this?
Night Chapter 3 Pgs. 29-46
New Characters • Dr. Mengele- SS Officer that separates who is going to the chimney and who is going to work. (Determines Life or Death) • Stein- Relative of the Wiesel’s from Antwerp. He was separated from his wife and children and lives only for them. Elie tells him they are fine and he is happy. He later finds out the truth and is never heard from again.
Josef Mengele • Josef Mengele was an SS physician, infamous for his inhumane medical experimentation upon concentration camp prisoners at Auschwitz. • Mengele, with his mentor, had performed a number of legitimate research protocols using twins as test subjects throughout the 1930s. • Now, at Auschwitz, with full license to maim or kill his subjects, Mengele performed a broad range of agonizing and often lethal experiments with Jewish and Roma (“Gypsy”) twins, most of them children
Main Events • When they get off the train, men and women are separated. This is the last time Elie ever sees his sisters and mother. • A veteran prisoner tells Elie and his father to lie about their ages so they are not sent to the crematory. (18 and 40) • Dr. Mengele separates people and Elie and his father make it through the first selection.
Main Events • As Elie and his father are marching towards their barracks, they see babies being thrown into ditches filled with flames. • Elie contemplates suicide by running into the electrical fence as he is marching toward the flames. • Elie’s father is severely beaten by the head of their barracks because he asks to go the bathroom. Elie is upset with himself because he lets it happen.
Main Events • Elie becomes A-7713, symbolizing that the last thing he had, his name, has been taken from him. • Elie and his father meet up with Stein, their relative from Antwerp. Elie lies to him and says his family is still alive. Stein later finds out the truth and is never heard from again.
Main Events • Elie begins to rebel against God for the first time. He questions why he would let this happen. • They are at Auschwitz for three weeks and then are escorted to a new work camp, Buna.
Key Questions • Why do you think the Germans take away the inmates’ personal belongings? Their clothing? Why do they cut off their hair? Tattoo a number on each person’s arm? • Eliezer tells the reader, “Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words.” (page 29) What are those words and why is Eliezer unable to forget them? How do they help explain why Eliezer and his father cling to one another in Auschwitz?
Night Chapter 4 Page 47
Characters • Juliek- A violinist that becomes friends with Elie • Yossi and Tibbi- Friends that Elie meets at Buna, their parents were exterminated in Birkenau • Franek- Foreman at Buna who forces Elie to give up his gold crown by torturing his father. • Idek the Kapo- overseer at Buna, has fits of rage and beats Elie and his father • Alphonse- the head of the orchestra block, he is nice to the prisoners.
Passages • Choose TWO passages from this chapter that stood out to you and complete the following: • What was your emotional response to the passage you selected? • How was the author able to evoke (draw forth) this response? Consider aspects of writing such as word choice, imagery, and sentence structure.
Main Events • Elie arrives in Buna, a work camp that is described as bearable. • Elie and his father are chosen for the orchestra block and they work in an electrical warehouse. • Elie is sent to the camp dentist to get his gold crown extracted. He claims to be sick and they tell him to come back at a later date.
Main Events • Elie comes back to the dentist and claims to be sick again and they give him a reprieve. The dentist later gets hung and Elie gets to keep his crown for now. • Elie’s most important thing becomes feeding his stomach. • Idek the Kapo beats Elie for no reason. A young French girl that he works next to helps him out. He sees her later in life and they reminisce about their time in Buna.
Main Events • Idek the Kapo beats Elie’s father with an iron bar. Elie watches it happen and does nothing. • Franek, the foreman, asks for Elie’s gold tooth. Elie refuses to give it to him so he seeks revenge on Elie’s father. Elie’s father cannot march in step so he beats him whenever he is not marching right. Elie gives into Franek and gives him the tooth.
