Night, Elie Wiesel

1. Chapter-by-chapter plot summary Night, Elie Wiesel

2. Chapter 1 Characters Plot • Moishe the Beadle • Elie Wiesel • Elie’s father • Elie’s mother • Elie’s three sisters: Hilda, Bea, and Tzipora • Elie meets Moishe the Beadle and begins to study Kabbalah (in the hopes of understanding his own relationship with God). • Moishe the Beadle is deported and returns to warn the Jews. • Nazis arrive, creating two ghettos. • Jews in ghettos deported to concentration camps.

3. Chapter 2 Characters Plot • Elie Wiesel • Elie’s father • Mrs. Schachter • Elie and his family are on the train to concentration camps. • A woman who has been separated from her husband and eldest son is with her young son. • This woman shrieks about fire over and over again until she has to be subdued violently by the others on the train. • They arrive at Birkenau to the smell of burning flesh.

4. Chapter 3 Characters Plot • Elie Wiesel • Elie’s father • Elie’s mother • Elie’s little sister Tzipora • Elie and his father are separated from his mother and little sister (who are executed). • Elie and his father survive the first round of selection (by lying about their ages to Dr. Mengele). • “Never Shall I Forget” passage and other moments indicate Elie’s disillusionment with God and his loss of faith. • Elie is assigned a number (A-7713). • Elie and his father go to Auschwitz for three weeks and then are transferred to Buna.

5. Chapter 4 Characters Plot • Elie Wiesel • Elie’s father • Group of musicians, including Juliek, a Polish violinist • Idek, the Kapo • Franek, the foreman • Yossi and Tibi, two Czechoslovakian brothers who have just lost their parents. • Assortment of minor female characters • Elie and his father are assigned to the same kommando to work (electrical parts warehouse). • Elie almost loses his gold crown to the dentist, but the dentist is found to be stealing these items and shipped away before he can get Elie’s. • Franek wants Elie’s gold tooth; after tormenting him and his father for a week, he has a dentist remove it with a rusty spoon. • Idek has violent fits of anger, one of which is directed at Elie for witnessing him having sex with a Polish girl. • Elie and the others witness many hangings, none of which really bother him except for the Sad Eyed Angel (the pipel).