Night Elie Wiesel

1. Night Elie Wiesel Background & Historical Context

2. Prejudice , Stereotypes, and Scapegoats

3. The Holocaust • When did the Holocaust take place? • How many people were killed? • From which country were the most Jews killed? • What is “Anti-Semitism” ? http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/bldied.htm

4. Night , a memoir • Night is not a novel, it is a memoir . As a memoir , Night is a brief autobiographical work of a specific period in time of the author’s life. • There was resistance to publishing Night in the United States. • Wiesel’s purpose for writing Night was to honor the people who died, tell their horrible stories, and begin an attempt to find some human or divine explanation for the events he witnessed. • After WWII , a lot of people didn’t want to think about or talk about the horrible things that happened. Some people even deny that the Holocaust happened. Elie Wiesel’s Night demands that people remember.

5. Elie Wiesel • Born September 30, 1928 in Sighet , Romania • Interested in studying Jewish scripture and mystical doctrine • Deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 , at the age of 15 • Sent to Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945, was liberated by U.S. troops toward the end of the war. • Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986

6. Jewish Ghettos • Nazis concentrated the Jewish people into a “Jewish Quarter” so they would be easier to control. • Poor sections of a city • Surrounded by barbed wire or walls, the ghettos were sealed off. • Overcrowding , malnutrition, and heavy labor were problems

7. Overcrowding in a Ghetto

8. Conditions in the Ghettos • Forced labor was a Nazi strategy to exploit Jews • They were forced to work for the very people oppressing them • Food rations in the Ghettos allowed residents only 300 calories of food daily. Does anyone know the recommended amount ? • At one time , the Warsaw, Poland Ghetto contained 37% of the population squeezed into 4.6% of the area of the city!