Unit: Reflections
Memoir
Night
Elie Wiesel
Active Reading Journal
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Unit: Reflections
What does it mean to reflect on your life? What is involved in this?
Define Memoir
Through out this Unit, we will examine these essential questions:

What do we learn about human nature from reading personal reflections?

How can reflecting on nonfiction and informational texts affect a reader’s view of him or herself
and his or her role in society?

How can writing a personal reflection aid a person in understanding his/her experiences?

What role does personal reflection play in influencing social change?
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Section 1: “They Called Him Moische the Beadle”
Before Reading: Vocabulary
1. Annihilate
2. Delusion
3. Deportees
4. Hysteria
5. Indiscriminately
6. Insinuated
7. Optimist
8. Redemption
9. Surreal
Before Reading Focus: Denial
Think about a time you were in denial. Why were you in denial of the situation? Did the denial
help?
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Section 1: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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Section 1: Before Reading: Important Terms
1. The Talmud (3)– the collection of a thousand years of Jewish law and tradition. To become a Jewish
Rabbi or spiritual leader, one must study forty odd volumes and 2.5 million words of the Babylonian
Talmud.
2. The Kabbalah (4)– a system of mystical interpretation of the Scriptures allowing initiates to
understand sacred mysteries and foretell the future.
3. Gestapo (6) – the Nazi police force.
4. Synagogue (7)– the Jewish house of worship and assembly.
5. Rosh Hashanah (8) – the Jewish new year
6. Rabbi (17) – Jewish title meaning “teacher” or master.
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Section 1: During Reading
1. Describe Moishe the Beadle.
2. How does Eliezer describe himself in 1941?
3. Describe Eliezer’s family.
4. According to Moishe, how does man come closer to God?
5. Why does Moishe go away? Why does he return to Sighet?
6. What is the news that arrives from the Russian Front in the spring of 1944? How does this
affect the Jewish elders and Moishe?
7. List and explain three adjectives that describe the attitude of the Jews of Sighet in the
spring of 1944. (When the German soldiers first arrived.)
ADJECTIVE
EXPLANATION
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8. Why do you suppose Eliezer asks his father to sell everything they own and emigrate to
Palestine?
9. Describe the process of the Jews
leaving the ghetto.
10. Describe the expulsion of Eliezer’s
family. What are the conditions like
at the synagogue where the Jews are held for 24 hours?
Find quotes that show examples of the towns people’s denial of the coming threat.
Quote from the Text
How does it demonstrate denial?
“The ghetto was ruled by neither
German nor Jew; it was ruled by
delusion” (12).
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Section 1: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
After Reading: Characterization
Go back through the chapter and find examples of Characterization to tell us what Eleizer is like.
Physical Description
Private Thoughts
Eliezer
Character Traits Exhibited Through Words and
Actions
Interactions with Other Characters
After reading question: How are the towns people like the people in “We Ate the Children
Last”? What can you predict about their future based on the comparison with the short story?
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Section 1: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
Section 2: The Train Ride
Before Reading: Symbols
A symbol is something which represents an idea, physical entity or emotion.
What might the following symbols represent?
Brainstorm Other Symbols
What prediction about
destruction is Frost making?
Fire and Ice – Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Describe the physical Characteristics of the two symbols Frost uses:
Fire
Ice
Brainstorm Symbolic meanings:
Fire
Ice
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Before Reading: Vocabulary and Focus Question
Before Reading Vocabulary
1. Abyss
2. Constraints
3. Intolerable
4. Pious
5. Stench
6. Wretched
Before Reading Focus on Humanity
1. What does it mean to be “Human”? (Consider looking it up.) Who do we expect Humans to
act?
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Section 2: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
During Reading: Train Ride
1. Describe how the behavior of
people changes once they are on the
train.
2. Who is Mrs. Shachter, and how
does she disrupt the journey?
3. How does Eliezer feel about Mrs. Schachter’s son?
4. How do the passengers respond to Mrs. Schachter during their journey?
5. What information do the men find out after giving bribes to locals at Auschwitz, and is
it true?
6. What do the passengers see through the
train windows?
7. What is the source of the terrible odor
that the people smell?
Section 2: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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After Reading
Examples of Immoral and Inhumane Behavior
Nazis and Public
Jewish People in Train
After Reading Questions:
1. Why do you think the people on the train begin to act inhumanely?
2. Why do you think the guards treated the Jews inhumanely?
3. What might fire symbolize to the Jews in the cattle car?
Section 2: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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Section 3: Arriving at the Camp
During Reading Questions
1.
What are the eight words that Eliezer emphasizes? Why ?
2.
Why does the inmate tell Eliezer and his father to lie about their ages?
3.
Who is Dr. Mengele?
4.
What lie does Eliezer tell Dr. Mengele?
5.
What do Eliezer and his father witness?
6.
How does Eliezer feel when he hears others reciting the Kaddish?
7.
What does “the child I was had been consumed by the flames” mean?
8.
Why does Eliezer’s father get slapped?
9. What is the inscrition on the iron gate at Auschwitz? What
does it mean?
Section 3: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
10. What lie does Eliezer tell with regard to Stein’s wife and
sons? Athough no explanation is given, why do you believe Eliezer
lied?
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After Reading
Write down your reactions to this chapter. How do you feel, what surprised or frightened you?
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Notice that throughout this chapter, Eleizer continually questions; this shows ________________
conflict. Describe the conflict demonstrated in each of the pieces of evidence below.
Quote from the Text
“I pinched myself: 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?
No. All this could not be real” (32).
“For the first time, I felt anger rising
within me. Why should I sanctify His
name? The Almighty, the eternal and
terrible Master of the Universe, chose to
be silent. What was there to thank Him
for?” (33).
Conflict and Explanation
“I stood petrified. What had happened
to me? My father had just been struck,
in front of me, and I had not even
blinked” (39).
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Section 3: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
Section 4: Buna
Before Reading Vocabulary:
1. Altruistic
2. Conscientious
3. Credible
4. Meekly
5. Reminiscing
6. Sabotage
During Reading Questions
1. Why is Eliezer asked to give away his shoes? What happens to them?
2. Where do he and his father live? Who else lives there?
3. What job is Eliezer selected to do?
4. What belief do Yossi, Tibi, and Eliezer share in common?
5. How is Eliezer allowed to keep his gold crown?
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Section 4: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
6. What does the French woman do after Eliezer is beaten by Idek? Explain he and the
woman’s encounter years later.
7. Eliezer explains that he witnessed many executions, and that during them, most on-lookers
did not cry, except during one execution. Why does the execution of pipel cause weeping?
After Reading
Read the following quote from the end of Section 4:
“Where is God? Where is He?” someone behind me asked. ..
For more than half an hour [the child in the noose] stayed there, struggling between life
and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He
was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet
glazed.
Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
“Where is God now?”
And I heard a voice within me answer him:
“Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows. . . .”
In a well constructed paragraph, describe your reaction to this poignant moment in the novel.
What are the men saying about God? What is Eliezer’s reaction? How has Eliezer changed since
the boy at the beginning of the book?
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Section 4: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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Section 5: Selections
Before Reading Vocaulary
1. Agitated
2. Audible
3. Benediction
4. Emaciated
5. Submission
Background on Jewish Holidays
Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year.
Yom Kippur - also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year for the Jews. Its
central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services.
Yom Kippur completes the annual period known in Judaism as the High Holy Days.
Passover - is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the
ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. Passover begins on the 15th day of the month
of Nisan in the Jewish calendar, which is in spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and is celebrated
for seven or eight days. It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays.
Section 5: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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During Reading Questions
1. Describe Eliezer’s feelings while at the solemn service on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.
2. How does Eliezer compare man and himself to God?
3. Why doesn’t he fast for Yom Kippur?
4. Why do the prisoners fear the selection process?
5. What does Eliezer’s father give him on the day the selection numbers are called and why?
6. What does the Polish rabbi tell Eliezer? Why is it significant?
7. What change has happened to Akiba Drumer?
8. Why does Eliezer for the infirmary, and what is his experience there like?
9. Why is the camp being evacuated?
10. What choices are Eliezer and his father faced with, and what do they decide to do?
11. What does Eliezer learn about the fate of the camp after the war?
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Section 5: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
After Reading
At the beginning of the novel, faith is extremely important. However, as he novel progresses,
people begin to lose faith.
Person
Example of Loss of Faith
Section 6: The March
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Section 5: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
Before Reading Vocabulary
1. Bewildered
2. Deprive
3. Faltering
4. Famished
5. Parched
6. Poignant
7. Transcended
Section 6: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
During Reading Questions
1. During evacuation, what do the SS officers require the
prisoners to do?
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2. What stops Eliezer from succumbing to death during the run?
3. Why does Eliezer’s father wake him up?
4. Why is Rabbi Eliahu looking for his son?
5. What does Eliezer remember about Rabbi Eliahu’s son and how does he feel about him
leaving his father behind?
6. Why does Eliezer pray to a God he no longer believes in?
7. What ‘fact’ does Eliezer accept?
8. With whom is Eliezer reunited?
9. What unusually sound does Eliezer hear, and why is it significant?
10. What happens to Juliek and his violin?
Section 6: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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After Reading Activities
Remember: Imagery is language that appears to the 5 senses.
The goal of imagery is to enhance the mood or tone of the piece of writing. Go back through
this chapter and find examples of imagery. How do they make you feel?
Quote from the Text
What Effect Does the Imagery Have on You?
“The darkness enveloped us. All I could
hear was the violin, and it was as if
Juliek’s soul had become his bow” (95).
Look at the following lines, “And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a prayer to this
God in whom I no longer believed” (91). What does this mean for Eliezer?
Section 6: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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Section 7: Train Ride
Before Reading Vocabulary
1. Contagious
2. Dregs
3. Faintly
4. Grimace
5. Vitality
Before Reading Focus: How has Eliezer Changed?
Sorting, Arrival
at Aucshwitz
•Effect on Eliezer
Hanging of Boy
•Effect on Eliezer
March to
Glienwitz
•Effect On Eliezer
Section 7: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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During Reading Questions
1. While in Aden after the way, why does Eliezer as a Parisian woman to stop throwing coins
to the ‘natives’?
2. Who is ‘little Mier’ and what does he do to his father?
3. How old is Eliezer?
4. What is Eliezer’s father’s name?
5. Why is it disturbing to Eliezer that Meir Katz has ‘reached the end’?
6. Why does Eliezer say is contagious?
7. How many of the hundred men survive the train ride?
8. Where do the prisoners arrive?
Section 7: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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After Reading
Eliezer has changed dramatically through his experience. Go through and re-characterize him.
Physical Description
Private Thoughts
Eliezer
Character Traits Exhibited Through Words and
Actions
Interactions with Other Characters
Section 7: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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Section 8: Death
Before Reading Vocabulary
1. Dysentery
2. Feeble
3. Grudgingly
4. Plaintive
During Reading Questions
1. What is Eliezer’s “old familiar fear”?
2. When Eliezer argues with his father, trying to get him to get up, who does he realize he’s
“arguing “ with?
3. What does Eliezer do during the alert?
4. What makes Eliezer feel ashamed?
5. What illness does Eliezer’s father suffer from?
6. What advice does the Blockaltesteˆ give Eliezer?
7. What happens to his father and how does it make him feel?
Section 8: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________
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Section 9: Liberation
During Reading Questions
1. What does Eliezer dream about?
2. When called to the yard, why do the other inmates tell the children to go back to their blocks?
3. What plans had the underground resistance made?
4. What interrupts the evacuation on april 10?
5. When does the underground resistance decide to act and are the successful?
6. What do the survivors think about and do immediately after liberation?
7. After liberation, what happens to Eliezer?
8. What does Eliezer see when He looks at himself in the mirror?
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Section 9: Hw_______ CW______
Complete by: ____________________