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Night

Night. By Elie Wiesel. Bellringer 1/16/14. “It is important to bear witness. Important to tell your story… You cannot imagine what it meant spending a night of death among death.” Elie Wiesel

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Night

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  1. Night By Elie Wiesel

  2. Bellringer 1/16/14 • “It is important to bear witness. Important to tell your story… You cannot imagine what it meant spending a night of death among death.” Elie Wiesel Do you think it is important to share your life story with people? If you are witness to major events in history, should you speak of your experiences with the rest of the world? Why or why not?

  3. Context of the Story • 1944-1945, the end of what was later named the Holocaust • Greek word for “complete destruction by fire” • 1933-1945 Adolf Hitler and the Nazis murdered one third of the world’s Jewish population

  4. AntiSemitism • Hatred of Jews • Dates back over 2,000 years to the time of the Roman Empire • Jews pressured to live by Roman values and were labeled as stubborn when they wanted to preserve their values and live their way • Blamed for many problems simply because they were different • Fear of the unknown turned into regarding the Jews as enemies • Jews put into confined sections of villages and cities, known as ghettos, long before the Holocaust

  5. The rise of Hitler • January 1933 • Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany • Created laws and orders based on racist notions • Dictatorship instead of democracy

  6. The Jewish Question • Germany faced with the dilemma of what to “do” with Jews who did not want to assimilate into German Christian culture • Hitler came into political power with an “answer” to this question – to ultimately kill Jews, which became The Final Solution to the Jewish Question • Non-Jewish Germans most likely approved of Hitler at first because they thought he would kick the Jews out of the country, not necessarily kill them • Conquered most of Europe and eradicated Jews in many countries

  7. Meet the author: Elie Wiesel (1928- ) • Holocaust survivor who thinks it is important to share his story • From Sighet, Romania – eastern Europe • Invaded by the Nazis and Wiesel was taken to concentration camps in 1944 • Camps where people were held prisoner; sometimes made to work and sometimes killed immediately) • Story begins when he is 14 years old

  8. Freed in 1945 • Lived in a French orphanage • Continued his education • Settled in the US in 1956 • Works against oppression (taking away people’s rights) and persecution (mistreatment) • Does a lot of public speaking and was recently at FSU in 2011

  9. Introducing the Memoir • Memoir • A true story of a person’s life written by that person – a memory • Book begins in 1941 in Sighet, Romania (then Transylvania) during World War II • Hungarian Jews still feel safe • Elizer – the author’s full name as a child – was highly religious, practicing a type of Judaism called Kabbalah

  10. Terminology • Sighet: Transylvanian town where Elie is from • Synagogue: Jewish house of prayer • Beadle: caretaker of the synagogue • Hasidic: sect of Judaism that focuses on mysticism, or Kabbalah • Shtibl: “little room” prayer house • Shekhinah: divine presence of God • Talmud: Interprets the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament) and how to apply its laws • Zohar: Kabbalah text • Gestapo (the SS): “secret state police” of Nazi Germany • Rosh Hashanah: Jewish New Year, celebrated in September

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