Student Name: _____________________________________________ Hour: ______ Date: ________________________
Oprah Winfrey’s Interview With Elie Wiesel at Auschwitz
Guided Viewing Questions
1. Approximately how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust? ___________________________
2. World War II began on ______________________, 1, 19 ____ when Germany invaded ___________________.
3. What was Hitler’s private army called? ____________________
4. Auschwitz, the most infamous of the concentration camps, was 6720 acres or just over the size of ______
football fields.
5. Auschwitz was divided into ________ sub camps: Auschwitz I, Birkenau (Auschwitz II), and Buna (Auschwitz III).
6. How old was Elie Wiesel when he arrived in Birkenau? _____
7. Wiesel explains to Oprah that most Jews went to their deaths unknowingly, and states “If we had known, we
would have ________ into the _____________________.”
8. As Wiesel got off the train and smelled the stench of burning human flesh, he tells Oprah that he thought of
Mrs. ________________________.
9. The process that the SS used to determine who would live and who would die was known as
_____________________.
10. The last time that Wiesel saw his little sister Tzipora, what was she wearing? _____________________________
11. Over sixty years after the Holocaust, what answers does Wiesel say he has found? ________________________
12. Auschwitz is the site of the largest mass ___________________ in the ______________________ of
____________________.
13. Wiesel refers to Auschwitz as a “______________________ of _________________.”
14. By 1934, __________________ Hungarian Jews a day arrived at Auschwitz.
15. Auschwitz II or Birkenau contained _________ gas chambers.
16. How long would it take for people to die in the gas chambers? ________________
17. Jewish concentration camp prisoners who worked in the “special unit” were given the task of
___________________
______________________.
18. Wiesel recalls that the Nazis first deprived the Jews of their _____________________________, then their
_____________________________, then their ____________________, their ________________________,
their ____________________, and finally their ____________________.
19. Wiesel states that the God of Auschwitz was the God of _________________ because _____________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________.
20. Military intelligence suggests that the Allies were aware of the concentration camps by the summer of
____________. The camps were not liberated for _________ years later. During this time, approximately
5,000,000 victims were murdered.
21. Approximately _______% of arrivals were immediately sent to the gas chambers. Those who were allowed to
live became ____________________.
22. Approximately how many people were assigned to one barrack? __________________
23. Due to _________, _____________, and other vermin, disease was rampant in the camps.
24. As a result of the harsh conditions, the average life span of a camp laborer was ________ months.
25. Wiesel recalls that he cannot remember ever walking. He was always _________________________. Why?
___________________________________________________________________________________________
26. In May ____________, Wiesel was moved to Auschwitz I, which was the ________ headquarters and a
_________________ center for political prisoners.
27. The iron gate at Auschwitz read Arbeit Macht Frei. Translated from German to English, this means
___________________________________________________________________________________________.
28. As Wiesel reflects with Oprah on the miracle of his survival, he lists several factors that would have made it
seem like he was an unlikely candidate to survive the harshness of Auschwitz. List a minimum of four.
a. ________________________________________________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________________________________________________
c. _________________________________________________________________________________________
d. _________________________________________________________________________________________
29. Wiesel tells Oprah that prisoners did not __________ in Auschwitz, why? _______________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
30. Block 11 is where the Gestapo tortured _______________________________ prisoners. Wiesel explains to
Oprah that they were taken to the _____________ and killed one at a time. Individual deaths, according to him,
were a __________________________.
31. During the winter of _______________, how many Jews were murdered in Auschwitz alone? _______________
32. Zyclon B was the chemical used in the gas chambers. What was its original purpose? _______________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________.
33. Oprah asks Wiesel, “What did you do with your anger?” How does Wiesel reply? __________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
34. In __________, Auschwitz was liberated.
35. Describe the scene in which Oprah and Wiesel examine the shoes on display.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
36. In Block 4, a sixty-seven foot long display case holds ________________________________________________.
37. Why were the heads of prisoners and corpses shaved? _______________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
38. How much hair was discovered when the Allies liberated the camp? ____________________________________
39. Wiesel explains to Oprah that he once heard that “When a __________ person dies, God sheds _____ tears, and
when they fall into the ___________________, they reverberate throughout the _____________________.”
What does this make Wiesel wonder? ____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
40. At the end of the interview, a message appears on the screen. It states: “To Those Who Lost Their Lives
____________________________________ To Those Who Survived ___________________________________
To The Next Generation _______________________________________________________________________”
Answer the three questions below using complete sentences. Be sure to include specific reasons to support your
responses.
41. Based on the interview, why do you think that Elie Wiesel wrote Night? What does this suggest about the power
of the written word?
42. Do you think the interview helped you gain a greater understanding of messages that Elie Wiesel hoped to
convey in Night?
43. Overall, did you feel that the interview was a worthwhile use of class time? Should Mrs. Fisher show the
interview to future classes or find another resource?