Think about the following
question and write down your
thoughts.
WHAT EVENTS CAN SUDDENLY
CHANGE THE COURSE OF A
PERSON’S LIFE?
Think about events that unexpectedly happen, like natural
disasters or death. What are some effects and emotional
reactions you or others might have to these types of events.
Night
By Elie Wiesel
Meet the author: Elie Wiesel
“Look, it’s important to bear witness. Important to
tell your story…. You cannot imagine what it meant
spending a night of death among death.”
Wiesel was the only son of a Jewish family
in the village of Sighet, Romania.
Sighet was home to
15,000 Jews.
Like most of their
neighbors, the Wiesel’s
were poor but intensely
committed to education.
Young Elie spent most of
his evenings studying
sacred Jewish texts such
as the Torah and Talmud.
At age 12, he started
exploring cabbala, an
approach to Bible study
that analyzes hidden
meanings in the text.
Elie’s father, Chlomo began helping Jews
escape from Poland, risking his life to help
others escape Nazi persecution.
In 1944, during WWII, Germany’s armies invaded Sighet.
Elie and his family were sent to concentration camps at
Auschwitz and at Buna, both in Poland and Buchenwald,
in central Germany.
Buna
Auschwitz
Buchenwald
Wiesel and his older
sisters
Wiesel was freed in April
of 1945 when he was
sixteen years old.
He went to a French
orphanage and was later
reunited with his older
sisters.
Elie completed his
education, working as a
tutor and translator to
help him pay tuition.
Elie Wiesel settled in the United States in 1956.
He married Holocaust survivor Marion Erster Rose
in 1969.
He has written many other novels: Dawn, The
Accident, The Town Beyond the Wall, The Gates
of the Forest
The Nobel Peace Prize
Elie Wiesel teaches
humanities at Boston
University
He helped organize and
found the United States
Holocaust Memorial
Museum.
He won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1986 for his
activism and courageous
works
Wiesel wrote Night nearly 10 years after the end of WWII.
Though the story is written in narrative form it is not a novel, it is a memoir. A
memoir is a brief autobiographical work in which the author recounts events
he has witnessed and introduces people he has known.
Background and Setting of Night
• Night takes place in
Europe during World
War II (1939-1945)
• Germany’s
government was
broken, their military
was limited, and their
industry was
shattered due to
debts from WWI.
Germany after World War I: bread lines
• Many Germans were
humiliated and
demoralized during
WWI
The Nazi Party
• In German NAZI stands
for National Socialist
German Workers Party
• Came to power in 1920s
• Leader Adolf Hitler
blamed the Jews and
others whom he said
were not true Germans
for Germany’s problems
•
Looking for answers, many Germans responded
enthusiastically to Hitler’s ideas and he became the
leader of the country in 1933.
•
Hitler was able to restore Germany’s economy
and soon began to invade lands around
Germany that were struggling with the Great
Depression
Britain and France declared war in 1939, the US in
1941
•
In 1941, when Night begins, Hitler seemed unstoppable. By 1942 he controlled or
was allied with most of Europe, including Romania, which was pro-German.
As the story progresses, Elie Wiesel is confined in a total of three concentration
camps: Auschwitz and Buna, in Poland, and later Buchenwald, in central Germany.
Did you Know?
• Hitler was a hater of
Jews who viewed
them as an inferior
race.
• However, Judaism is
not a race, but rather
a religion
Some symbols of Judaism
Did you Know?
• Hitler defined Jews as anyone with at least one
Jewish grandparent.
• Hitler and his secret-police, the Gestapo, attacked
and imprisoned Gypsies, people with handicaps,
and homosexuals.
• Those who disagreed with Hitler’s political views
such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Soviet prisoners
of war were also imprisoned, enslaved, and
murdered.
Did you know?
• Of the 11 million people killed
during the Holocaust, six
million were Polish citizens,
three million were Polish
Jews and three million were
Polish Christians.
• Most of the remaining mortal
victims were from other
countries including Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Ukraine,
Russia, Holland, France and
even Germany.
Vocabulary
Chapter 1
Cabbala: medieval and modern style of Jewish
religion; religious books
Fascism: political philosophy that exalts nation and
race over the individual; headed by a dictator
Gestapo:
Secret police
organization
operating against
people using
terrorist methods
Ghetto:
A section of the city where Jews were
forced to live
Mysticism: experience having a spiritual meaning
Nazism:
Political and economic beliefs of the
National Socialist German Workers
party
Revelation:
Act of making known
or communicating a
divine truth
Talmud:
Authoritative book of Jewish tradition
Schutzstaffel (SS): elite guard; unit of the
Nazis created to guard Hitler