Night

1. Night By Elie Wiesel

2. Systematic persecution of European Jews began as soon as the Nazis gained control of Germany's government in 1933. Within two years, the party decreed the Nuremberg Race Laws, which deprived Jews of German citizenship. In 1938, Kristallnacht, a government-organized campaign of street violence, resulted in the destruction of synagogues, businesses, and homes in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Soon Jews would be forced to wear the Star of David sewn to their clothing, as we will see in Night. The Holocaust

3. More on Kristallnacht…. Pogrom: Russian term meaning “to wreak havoc, to demolish violently” The term first was used to refer to well-organized, violent attacks perpetrated against the Jewish population in late 19th, and early 20th cen. Russia. Now, pogromsis used to refer to such violent attacks against Jews before and during WWII. The Holocaust

4. Adolf Hitler’s Genocide Genocide: the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. His goal was to exterminate all Jewish people. In March of 1944, the German army took over Hungary, and the holocaust reached that region. The Nazis murdered over 560,000 Hungarian Jews. Hitler’s army

5. Desperate after the Great Depression, Germans embraced Adolf Hitler's promise of riches to those he dubbed "the master race"—Aryans of pure German blood. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and started World War II. The German army immediately began isolating the Jewish population in ghettos. In 1942, Nazis declared "The Final Solution," a plan to murder all European Jews. (euphemism) The widespread deportation of Jewish families from the ghettos to concentration camps began. The Holocaust

6. While the book Night is about Wiesel’s life, it is not considered an autobiography, which typically sketches out an individual’s entire life story. He focuses strictly on those confined set of specific circumstances that have significantly impacted his life. Because of this, his nonfiction story is considered a memoir rather than an autobiography. Genre of Night

7. Memoir: a literary nonfiction genre that details a collection of specific and moving memories recorded by the individual who experienced them…. (somewhat similar to an autobiography) Elie- narrator and protagonist of his own history. Why do you think Wiesel called his memoir Night? Wiesel called his experiences of writing his story “cathartic.” Why do you think he used this word? Genre of Night

8. Preface & Forewords- both introductory segments of a literary work. Preface- written by the author to provide a solid basis of credibility. Foreword- written by what would be seen as a ‘credible’ source in an attempt to introduce the author to the reader & remind the reader why they should be reading this particular work.

9. Anaphora: a repetition of a word or series of words for poetic/dramatic effect. The repetition is typically found at the beginning of successive clauses. Motif: any subject, idea, concept, that is present all throughout a literary work. (It is almost like a ‘mini theme’)…..

10. 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”? Foreword of Night

11. Eliezer -  The narrator of Night, protagonist, a teenage boy in the 1940’s. Dedicated to his faith in the beginning. Chlomo - Eliezer’s father. His name is only mentioned one time throughout the novel, and is the only other character that is constant until the end. Highly regarded in the community. Moshe the Beadle - Eliezer’s teacher of Jewish mysticism, Moshe is a poor Jew who lives in Sighet. Characters

12. Chapter 1 Moishe is an expert on the Kabbalah, an area of Judaism (Jewish mysticism) Elie has a deep interest in. Moishe- “awkward”, doesn’t seem to care about what others think of him. He is comfortable in his own skin, seems completely sustained by his faith…. Elie’s father thinks he is too young to study the Kabbalah. It is the sort of area that can only be understood by those with greater wisdom and life experience….. Elie as a young boy….

13. It is 1941…..The memoir opens with Moishe the Beadle, a devoutly religious, “poorest of the poor” Jew from Elie’s hometown of Sighet in Transylvania (This region is now part of Romania). Notice that people, though, don’t seem to mind that he’s poor; he’s almost ‘invisible’, a harmless kind of guy... Moishe has a profound effect on Elie’s spirituality as a young boy of almost 13. Elie as a young boy….

14. Elie has two older sisters, Hilda and Bea, and one younger sister, Tzipora. Elie’s crying when he prays reveals his tremendous faith. He is tremendously moved and affected by the idea of praying to God. Moishe helps foster Elie’s dialogue with God.

15. 1. Why is Kristallnacht viewed as a momentous historical event? 2. What do you feel is most notable about the relationship between Elie and Chlomo thus far? 2. Cite at two factors/textual instances that demonstrate Elie’s deep respect for his faith. 3. Why do the townspeople react to Moishe the way that they do? 4. Recall the way the townspeople react to Moishe’s account of his experiences. Then, review the description of Moishe in paragraphs one and two of the memoir. Is there any connection between the way he is described and the reaction that he experiences upon his return?

16. Moishe, since he is a foreign Jew, is taken out of Sighet due to Nazi orders…. He tries to warn the others of his horrible experiences, but they do need listen to his warnings for various reasons: they believe he actually is crazy or they are trying to protect themselves from hearing a horrible reality….(inciting incident) Moishe is never the same again; he never recovers from his experiences….

17. 1943 was a reasonably ‘good’ year for the Wiesels. The people of Sighet still fail to understand the depth of the threat that is fast approaching. Life is anything but “normal.” • “Annihilate an entire people?...By what means? …Of course we had heard of the Fascists, but it was all in the abstract.” (not based in reality)- reflects their denial. • 1944- Red Army (Soviets) make strides against Hitler. • “Optimism soon revived.” – personification& situational irony: a great contrast between what actually happens and what is expected or appropriate.

18. As begun during Kristallnacht, the Jews of Sighet notice their rights slipping away as edicts are issued. (an official order typically issued by the gov’t) • Mr. and Mrs. Wiesel both seem to be in a sort of shock… • Life is anything but “normal.” • Ghettos functioned as part of a larger apparatus: complex state-sponsored system designed for the purposes of control. Jews are not very frightened of the Germans since they are kind at first (strategic). • Anaphora- “No more fear. No more anguish.” “Ghetto was ruled by neither German or Jew; it was ruled by delusion.”

19. “Night fell.” – ‘Night’ is repeated as a metaphor for the emotional darkness and great sadness that envelopes Elie and his family. (Also a motif, powerful imagery….) • Stern: “The story that he had interrupted would remain unfinished.”- foreshadowing of the separation that was soon to occur. • Chlomo knows the transportsto the camps are about to begin. The ghettos will be emptied; the citizens will innocently board train cars to be sent to the death camps.

20. Phylacteries- Jewish term- leather pouches or boxes worn on the body containing Old Testament passages. They are considered sacred objects or like relics. • Notice Elie’s description of the “pitiful relics” and “valuable objects” all over the ghettos…..Elie still has his phylacteries. • Chief Rabbi was presumably forced to shave his beard. The face of Mrs. Wiesel is like a “mask”- her emotions have become deadened…(Or have they?....) • Elie: “Oh God, Master of the Universe!”- apostrophe, personification & kenning- Notice his faith is still intact • Conflagration- destructive fire (foreshadowing of /allusiontothe fires in the death camps)

21. Chapter 2 • Notice the inhumane conditions the people are forced to tolerate during the transports: they are so cramped they cannot lie down, are without anything to drink, and are extremely hot, are referred to as “dogs.” • Gestapo: If anyone escapes, those remaining would be shot. • Mrs. Schachter- her hysteria is a foreshadowing (prediction/hint) of what awaits them. They beat her mercilessly as she screams repeatedly about “fire.” She currently is with her son. She never recovered from being separated from her husband and two sons. She knows what awaits them. (How is she like Moishe?) “The separation had totally shattered her.”

22. Chapter 2 • Their great ignorance: they do not know what is happening at Auschwitz. Also, who does Elie refer to as “strange-looking creatures”? Why do you think he does this? Who are these people? • “The smellof burning flesh” overpowers them as they arrive at Birkenau, part of the Auschwitz complex. • The only thing that quiets Mrs. Schachter is the stopping of the train. Why might this be? • It is around “midnight.”

23. Chapter 3 • Elie feels pressure to lie about his age and occupation to the SS officer since only those who are young and useful will escape selection. He is separated forever from his mother and Tzipora. • The prisoners want to fight for their lives, but they are unable to do so under constant threat of death: “We can’t let them kill us like that, like cattle in a slaughterhouse.” • Dr. Mengele- “Angel of Death”- kenning- among the worst of the SS officers- famous for his horrible medical experimentation upon the inmates. • Elie is scarred by the sight of babies thrown into the flames… • “Never shall I forget those flames”- anaphora- his faith is forever changed by what happened….

24. Characters Dr. Josef Mengele -  the historically infamous Dr. Mengele was the cruel doctor who presided over the selection of arrivals at Auschwitz/Birkenau. Idek - Eliezer’s Kapo (Nazi police officer at Buna, the work camp) Dr. Josef Mengele was appropriately nicknamed “the Angel of Death” by inmates at Auschwitz

25. Chapter 3 • Kaddish- Jewish prayer of mourning for the dead… • Elie’s changes both physically and spiritually: he is tattooed, made to wear a uniform, his head is shaved, and forced to endure his various beatings and others’ suffering, esp his father’s…. • Bela Katz- prisoner who is forced to throw his own father into the furnace • Who are Kapos?..... • The Gypsy beats Elie’s father, Chlomo. • The inscription on the gates of Auschwitz: Arbeit Macht Frei- “Work Makes You Free”- irony and propaganda • “Never shall I forget those flames”- anaphora- his faith is forever changed by what happened….

26. Auschwitz

27. Chapter 3 • The prisoners are given rations: black coffee, stale bread, soup. At first, Elie does not wish to eat, but then he wishes to eat to avoid starvation. • A-7713: Elie’s tattoo- he is stripped of his identity literally and figuratively….He is no longer thought of as a person. • Stein- an old relative of the Weisels. He is looking for his wife and young sons. To protect Stein, Elie lies and say he knows they are ok. • Stein: “We never saw him again. He had been given the news. The real news.” verbal irony- Elie is referring to Stein’s death… • Akiba Drumer: a fellow prisoner whose faith seems to be rock solid: “We have no right to despair..”

28. Chapter 4 • At the end of Ch. 3, Elie and his father are moved from Birkenau to Buna. Both camps were part of the Auschwitz complex in present-day Poland. • Young boys became targets of sexual abuse at the hands of lead Nazi officers. Notice how the “tent leader” and “head of the camp” are portrayed very negatively…. • Kommandos: work blocks or camps • Elie wishes to hold onto his shoes despite being offered more rations. (“They were all I had left.”) They are later taken from him anyway….

29. Chapter 4 • Medical examinations determine who is fit to work and who will be sent to the crematorium. Dentists would check for gold crowns and eventually extract them. • Juliek, a Polish prisoner and gifted violinist, is forbidden to play German music (Beethoven). • Franek- cruel Polish foreman, Kapo • Elie pretends to be ill to save his gold crown. Note the ironysurrounding the Jewish dentist: he is hung for keeping the gold crowns he extracted from the Nazis….

30. Chapter 4 • Idek- Kapo in charge of Elie’s work crew- prone to random and violent fits of madness, beats Elie and his father with an iron bar for virtually no reason • FLASHFORWARD- literary device in which the story shifts forward in time. It reveals important parts of the story that are yet to occur. • During the flashforward, Elie discusses meeting the Jewish Frenchwoman who had helped him after Idek had beaten him the first time. He learns during the flashforward that she was Jewish.

31. Chapter 4 • Franek beats Elie’s father Chlomo mercilessly so that Elie will give him his gold crown. Elie’s gold crown is extracted with the help of a rusty spoon. Franek is later transferred to another camp. • Elie catches Idek engaging in sexual relations with a female prisoner. Idek has Elie beaten publicly with a whip for ‘spying.’ • A man is shot for trying to steal a ration of soup during the Allied air raid. • The camp at Buna is being bombed; prisoners must dispose of it.

32. Chapter 4 • Juliek whispers to Elie before the hanging of a young boy for theft: “This ceremony, will it be over soon? I’m hungry…” • Notice how desperate and even inhuman the prisoners had become. Elie himself had said that bread and food became his “entire life.” • Oberkapo- popular head overseer, is tortured and transferred to Auschwitz for sabotage during an air raid. The young pipel (described as an “angel”) who had helped him is hung publicly. • During this hanging, many are weeping, including some Nazi officers. The boy is so light that the hanging takes a long time. “For God’s sake, where is God?” (Elie: the gallows)

33. Chapter 5 • Chapter opens with prisoners gathering in prayer for Rosh Hashanah. • Elie’s faith continues to deteriorate- refers to himself as a “former mystic”, does not fast on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year- symbolic of his rebellion against God • “Achtung!”- German for attention, instills fear in the prisoners… • Elie constantly begins to fear that his father will not pass the selection process • Elie avoids selection only by running fast to prove he is fit, active, healthy….

34. Chapter 5 • Elie’s “inheritance”:- a knife and a spoon. He sobs, showing how much he has been degraded and how much he fears his father’s death… • Akiba Drumer, previously so faithful, struggles with his faith, but it is still present somewhat. • Notice that the inmates do not say the Kaddish for him as Akiba had requested. They forget, are too concerned with survival….

35. Chapter 5 • Elie’s right foot begins to swell for unknown causes in the infirmary (hospital). • His neighbor, suffering from dysentery, fears Hitler’s forces greatly, warns Elie that he should must leave the infirmary to avoid selection. (What would selection mean?...) • Elie’s operation goes well; his leg does not have to be amputated after all….. • Rhetorical questions throughout the narration make the reader think, heighten the mood, add drama and tension….

36. Quick Review of Key Literary Terms The plot of most literary works can be broken down into parts: 1.EXPOSITION: Introduction of setting and characters 2. INCITING INCIDENT: Turning point, or key event that introduces a conflict, drives plot forward 3. RISING ACTION/COMPLICATION 4. CLIMAX: moment of highest tension 5. FALLING ACTION/DENOUEMENT 6. RESOLUTION:Conflicts resolved

37. Diagramming the Plot…. 1.EXPOSITION: Audience is introduced to Elie, his family, Moishe 2. INCITING INCIDENT/EXCITING FORCE: Moishe tries to warn the Jews of Sighet about what had happened to him and the threat that was coming…. 3. RISING ACTION/COMPLICATION: Begins later in Chapter 1 when the Germans first arrive in Elie’s community…. 4. CLIMAX- occurs when the Jews are running from Buna, and Elie’s father is on the brink of death. 5. FALLING ACTION/DENOUEMENT: American forces come to Buchenwald to free the prisoners…. 6. RESOLUTION is achieved: Elie is at last “free”- looks into the mirror…

38. Chapter 5 3 Types of irony • Verbal Irony: a statement in which a character says one things but means something else. It is typically intentional, is similar to sarcasm. “A royal feast going to waste!” (Elie on the soup..) • Dramatic Irony: the reader knows more than the audience… • Situational Irony: what actually happens is not what one would expect or what would be appropriate. “After the war, I learned the fate of those who had remained at the infirmary. They were,….liberated by the Russians…”

39. Chapter 6 • What are the Jews typically referred to as all throughout the memoir? • As subhuman, as animals, “dogs,…swine, pigs”- powerful imagery, also a MOTIF • Other motifs: religion, religious traditions, and especially the use of the word “NIGHT.” • (Certainly food, too, of course).

40. Chapter 6 • Zalman: Polish boy who is trampled to death during the death march • Elie: “Death enveloped me.” Strong personification • Jews run for at days…. • “One died because one had to . No point in making trouble.”- understatement All throughout, Elie uses words very minimally to make a more powerful statement. Understatement is a signature characteristic of modern prose.

41. Chapter 6 • Theme: importance of father-son bonds • Rabbi Eliahu’s son intentionally lost his father during the death march, wanted to be rid of him • Elie: “Oh God, Master of the Universe!” Give me the strength never to do what RE’s son has done!”…Sons abandoned their fathers w/out a tear….” • Juliek’s last act- plays a Beethoven concerto- loaded w/ symbolism

42. Chapter 7 • Euphemism- literary practice of using a milder or less abrasive form of a negative description instead of its original, unsympathetic form. • Euphemisms substitute unpleasant and severe words with more ‘genteel’ ones in order to mask harshness…The use of euphemisms is sometimes manipulated to lend a touch of exaggeration or irony in prose. • The label “Final Solution” is a sanitized substitute for the systematic, gov’t-sponsored murder of millions of innocents….

43. Chapter 7 • Theme: importance of father-son bonds continues- Elieprotects his father’s dying body in the cattle car, prevents him from being buried half-alive • Prisoners who serve as “gravediggers”- euphemism- emphasize how degraded they have all become, survival mode at its most dramatic… • Prisoners are “ready to kill for a crust of bread.” • Flashforward: Elie cannot bear the sight of the Frenchwoman throwing coins into a fountain and watching the kids fight over it; the sight reminds him of the prisoners fighting over the food.

44. Chapter 7 • On their way to Buchenwald in Germany, an unidentified man begs his son not to kill him over a crust of bread. The son kills the father for the bread, and then the son, too, is killed. • Elie on the above incident: “I was sixteen.” Understatement- why? • A stranger strangles Elie for no reason, most likely due to insanity- shows again how they are almost not human anymore…. • Meir Katz- once so physically and mentally strong- cannot protect Elie…. • Chapter ends with their arrival at Buchenwald.

45. Chapter 8 • Elie begins to become like a father to his own weakened father, Shlomo, who suffers from dysentery. • Elie on his father: “He had already chosen Death…” -Personification and Foreshadowing • Elie compares his father to a child and a “wounded animal.” He compares himself to Rabbi Eliahu’s son. Why? • At this point, how are Elie and his father like Mrs. Schachter and her son?

46. Chapter 8 • Elie listens to the advice of the head of the block: save yourself! Elie does decide to give his father soup, but he can only tolerate water. Elie feels guilty- and conflicted- about viewing his Shlomo as a burden… • On January 29, 1945, Elie wakes up to find that his father has died. • Elie on his father’s death: “Free at last!” • Why are these words in his consciousness?

47. Chapter 9 • April 5: SS guards order Jews to gather to prepare for liquidation and evacuation of the camp… • Elie’s first thoughts as a free man- food • After the death of Shlomo, “nothing mattered.” • “From the depth of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me.” Personification • Elie refers to himself in the third person. It’s almost as though the person in the mirror is a stranger to him. He cannot recognize himself- highly symbolic.

48. The entrance gate to Auschwitz bears the German words, Arbeit Macht Frei. “Work makes you free,” Professor Wiesel translates. “And that is the first ironic statement ever made here.”

49. Rhetorical Devices • Rhetorical Questions: • The speaker may want to encourage reflection in the reader. • For example, when Eliezer sees the babies being thrown into the fire, he asks a series of questions. • “Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?” (p. 32) • Eliezer does not expect an answer to these questions. • He wants the reader to think about what his or her reaction might have been in seeing the same thing.

50. Motifs • Throughout Night, Wiesel repeats literary devices and images that help to develop the memoir’s major themes. • Notice • how night and light are used throughout the text; • how the Jewish traditions and holidays help to pace the memoir; and • how animal imagery is used to explore the dehumanization of the Jews.