Name ___________________________________________ Class Period _________
Due Date: A-day, Monday, 12/8; B-day, Tuesday, 12/9
Night by Elie Wiesel
Reading Packet
1
Gallery Walk
Take a few minutes to observe each image taken from during World War II and the Holocaust, and then
respond to the following questions about each picture below.
1. “Two young boys wearing Jewish badges…”: Why do you think that even children were made to
wear the Jewish badges? What effect might this have on children?
2. “Some of thousands of shoes…”: Why do you think the shoes were taken from the prisoners
when arriving at the concentration camps? What does this say about their quality of life at the
camps?
3. “German soldiers march…”: What does the fact that these German soldiers are all walking in a
straight line, marching at the same pace, and carrying bayonets (a weapon) say about the brutality
of the Nazi regime during World War II? Why might it be important for them to portray a
powerful image?
4. “German soldiers of the Waffen-SS…”: What does this image show about the treatment of Jews
and other persecuted people during this time period? What emotions might be the emotions of
the kneeling Jew based on the expression on his face?
5. “A Jewish woman walks toward…”: What might this woman and her children be feeling as they
walk towards the gas chamber? Why? What emotions does this image bring about for you?
2
Background – Respond to the following questions and fill in the blanks while viewing the
Background PowerPoint for Night.
1. Adolf Hitler was born on ________________, ___________ in ________________,
_______________.
2. His grandfather may have been ________________ and left Adolf a small inheritance when he
died.
3. After his mother died, Adolf decided to move to Austria to pursue his dream of becoming a
______________________. Was he successful? Why?
4. What were three of Hitler’s influences while he was in Vienna?
a.
b.
c.
5. During World War I, Hitler found a home fighting for the _____________________.
6. What was Hitler’s reaction after Germany lost World War I?
a.
b.
c.
7. After being jailed for treason, Hitler used the opportunity to speak about
_____________________________________________________________________.
8. Hitler became Chancellor in __________ after using his popularity from writing his book Mein
Kampf to gain power.
9. What is one reason Hitler was so appealing to the masses?
10. The first concentration camp opened in ____________.
11. Germany began World War II when it invaded ______________ in ___________.
3
About the Book and Author – Respond to the following questions and fill in the blanks
while viewing the Background PowerPoint for Night.
1. Night is a ____________________, which is nonfiction.
2. It begins in ______________ when Eliezar was twelve and lived in ______________ and
________________.
3. He was very religious, praying often, and thought of becoming a ___________________.
4. When Nazis took over Eliezer’s Jewish community, his family was first sent to live in a
_____________ and then taken to ______________, one of the most infamous concentration
camps.
5. The word Holocaust comes from Greek meaning “___________________________________”.
6. The novel begins in 1941 in _________________ and ends in _____________.
7. In addition to Jews, Nazis also targeted ____________________, ____________________,
_________________________, ___________________________, and
___________________________.
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Author Biography
Eliezer Wiesel was born September 30, 1928, in a small, predominantly Jewish village
in Romania. The Nazis invaded Wiesel’s village in 1944 when Wiesel was sixteen years
old. Wiesel and his family, along with the other village residents, were rounded up and
deported to Auschwitz. His parents and his younger sister ultimately perished in the
camps.
After the liberation of the camps in 1945, Wiesel studied in Paris at the Sorbonne. He
began writing for a French newspaper. A mentor encouraged him to write about his
experiences in the camps, and thus he began his life’s work. In 1958, he published his
memoir Night (originally published in French, as La Nuit). He has since written over
thirty books on the Holocaust.
New York has been home to Wiesel for several decades. In 1956, he was in a
catastrophic auto accident, which left him confined to a wheelchair for a year. During
this time, he decided to become a United States citizen and has since become a key
figure in our country’s remembrance of the Holocaust. He was chairman of the United
States Holocaust Memorial Council from 1980 to 1986. He received the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1986. He now serves as a Professor of Humanities at Boston University.
Sources: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/holo/eliobio.htm,
http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1986/wiesel-bio.html
Jewish Terms
1. Torah - The primary source in the Jewish religion is the Hebrew Bible, consisting
of twenty-four books divided up into three sections. The Torah includes the first
five books of the Bible.
2. Talmud - Next in importance to the Hebrew Bible is the Babylonian Talmud, a
collection of teachings of early rabbis from the 5th and 6th centuries
3. Cabbala- Hasidic Jews also read this mystical commentary on the Torah.
4. Rosh Hashanah- Marks the new year of the Jewish calendar.
5. Yom Kippur - This is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. This is considered
to be the day in which every indi vidual is judged by God.
6. Passover - An eight-day festival commemorating the freeing of the Israelites from
Egyptian bondage.
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Background
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. Within a few months,
he established the first concentration camp at Dachau, and Communists, Socialists, and labor
leaders were confined there. The camp became a training center for SS guards and officers
who later ran other concentration camps. On August 2, 1934, Hitler declared himself Fuhrer of
Germany, and in 1935 he announced the Nuremberg Laws. These laws stripped Jewish
Germans of their civil rights as citizens and defined Jews as a separate race. Many more laws
were passed that set about defining th e so-called Aryan race.
Kristal nacht occurred on November 9, 1938 at the order of Propaganda Minister Joseph
Goebbels. Jewish synagogues, homes, and businesses were destroyed, and approximately
30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded
Poland, thus igniting World War II.
Jewish ghettos w e r e immediately established In Poland and Jews were required to wear
the Star of David as identification. The ghettos we re generally sealed off from the rest of
the city with guarded barriers, and the penalty f o r a Jew to leave the ghetto was death. In
1941the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jews began. Teams of firing squads, called
Einsatzgruppen, followed the invading troops and shot Jews on the spot. This practice
continued until the fall of 1942, resulting in approximately 1,500,000 murders. Hitler
ceased this practice in favor of the more impersonal mass exterminations of the
concentration camps.
Chelmno was the first death camp, and it began operating at the end of 1941. In
January 1942, SS official Reinhard Heydrich proposed the Final Solution at the Wannsee
Conference. AU Europeans Jews (approximately 11minion) would be transported to
concentration camps and exterminated. In addition all Russian prisoners of war and
gypsies would be destroyed.
In 1942 camps at Auschwitz/Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobib6r were opened in
Poland and began killing trains full of prisoners as soon as they arrived. Hitler succeeded in
keeping the concentration camps secret for most of the war. Jews believed that they were
simply being resettled in the east. 2.7 million Jews died in concentration camps, and
between 5.2 and 5.8 million were killed in all. Approximately 5 million other people
(including Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, gypsies, dissenting clergy, and political
prisoners) were killed also.
Although most of the concentration camps were closed at the end of 1943, Auschwitz
continued to operate through the summer of 1944. Allied troops encircled Germany by the fall
of 1944, and the Nazis tried to cover up their crimes by shutting the camps. At the end of
1944 and the beginning of 1945, the remaining prisoners w e r e forced to walk to camps in
the middle of Germany in "death marches." Thousands died.
Although most of the concentration camp prisoners follow Nazi orders, resistance groups
did exist in both concentration camps and ghettos. Armed resistance generally took the
form of guerilla warfare. In October 7, 1944, a resistance group succeeded in blowing up a
crematory at Auschwitz, and resistance continued until the end of the war.
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Novel Setting
The overall setting of the novel is the horrific concentration “work” camps in Europe during
World War II. The author chooses to begin his autobiographical work at the start of 1941 in his
home town of Sighet, Transylvania (modern day Romania), in order to show the sharp contrast
between what life for a Jewish family was like prior to the war with its traditions, security, and
overall belief in the goodness of people, and that extreme barbarism. The description of the
brutal conditions within the concentration camps and the forced death marches experienced by
the author completes the stark contrast between “home” and the concentration camp.
Themes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Having and losing faith in God
Inhumanity and cruelty
Father and son relationships
Guilt and inaction
Compassion for those in need
Symbols:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Fire
Night
Star of David
Corpses
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Character List
Eliezer Wiesel (identification number A-7713}: The narrator of the book, Ellezer is
taken to concentration camps in Czechoslovakia and Germany at the age of fourteen. As a
young boy in Sighet, Transylvania, he is very devout and interested in Jewish mysticism,
and his religious faith evolves (but is never extinguished) during his time in concentration
camps. Though he is separated from his mother and sister upon first arriving at Birkenau,
Eliezer manages to remain close to his father during almost the entirety of his stay in
concentration camps. He is very devoted to his father, and the two share rations and look
out for each other. However, the harshness of camp life weakens Eliezer's filial devotion,
which causes him much shame and guilt. Eliezer becomes concerned primarily with feeding
himself and with escaping Nazi brutality, and this instinct of self-preservation often
outweighs concern for his father, who he expects to take care of himself. A few months
before the concentration camps are liberated, Eliezer's foot swells from the cold, and he has
to undergo an operation.
Elizar’s father (Chlomo Wiesel): Eliezer's father is very respected within the Jewish
community of his hometown, and he spends most of his time occupying himself with
community affairs. He is a member of the Jewish Council, which is the first group to hear
about deportation, and he refuses to try to escape the country. In the concentration camps,
he and Eliezer take care of one another. A fifty-year-old man, he is becoming increasingly
weak and dried up, and he finds it harder than Eliezer to escape the abuse of concentration
camp life. On the last march to Gleiwitz, he becomes very weak and sick, and at Buchenwald
he catches a deadly case of dysentery. He dies on January 29, 1945, after an SS officer
shatters his skull with a truncheon. His last word Is a whispered "Eiiezer."
Moche the Beadle: A poor, humble man who works at the Hasidic synagogue in Sighet,
Moche is well-liked by all the townspeople. He helps Eliezer to study the cabbala, and he
teaches him that it is more important to ask God the right questions than to try to find the
right answers. Early in the war, Moche is deported to Nazi concentration camps because he
is a foreigner. He manages to escape and tries to wam the townspeople of the horrors of
the Holocaust. They ignore him and think he's mad.
Eliezer's mother: Eliezer Is separated from his mother upon arriving at Birkenau. She
dies in the concentration camp.
Tzipora: Eliezer's seven-year-old sister, Tzipora and her mother are separated from
Eliezer and his father upon arriving at Birkenau. She also dies in the concentration camp.
Martha: An old Gentile servant of the Wiesel family. When the Wiesels are moved into the
smaller ghetto, she offers to hide the family in the country. Eliezer's father refuses to flee,
and Etiezer decides to stay with the rest of his family.
Madame Schaechter: Madame Schaechter is in the same train car as Eliezer during the
initial deportation to Auschwitz. She had been separated from her husband and two older
sons, and she is accompanied by another younger son. She loses her mind during the
journey and screams hysterically and repeatedly about a flaming furnace that she
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apparently sees in the distance. She terrifies the other occupants of the train, and she is
repeatedly beaten by young men trying to silence her.
Dr. Mengele: The SS officer who decides who is to go to the crematories during
selections. Biezer sees him twice, once upon arrival at Birkenau and again at Buna.
Stein of Antwerp: Stein of Antwerp is the husband of Reizel, who is the niece of Eliezer's
mother. He finds Eliezer and his father at Auschwitz and is desperate to hear news of his
family. Eliezer lies and tells him his family is doing fine, which keeps him alive for a while.
Jullek: A Polish violin player in the musician's block at Buna. He later reappears at Gleiwitz
when Eliezer discovers that he is lying on top of him in the incredibly crowded barracks.
He plays Beethoven soulfully in the night.
Franek: The Polish foreman of the musician's block at Buna. He gets Eliezer's father to work
in the same block as Eliezer, but he later forces Eliezer to give him his gold crown by
repeatedly beating his father.
Yossi and Tibi: Czech brothers who Eliezer befriends in the musician's block at Buna.
Together they all sing Hasidic melodies, talk about Palestine, and plan to emigrate from
Europe when freed.
Alphonse: A German Jew who is head of the musician's block at Buna. He is very kindly
and tries to give his charges extra soup whenever he can.
Idek: The Kapo of the musician's block at Buna. He is prone to flying into violent rages at
other prisoners. Eliezer catches him having sex with a young Polish girl, and Idek retaliates
by having Eliezer lashed twenty-five times.
Akiba Drumer: A fellow prisoner at Auschwitz and Buna, Akiba Drumer is a deeply devout
mystic with a beautiful baritone voice. He loses his faith at Buna and, simultaneously, his will
to live. He is sent to the crematories after the selection at Buna.
Zalman: A young man who had worked with Eliezer in the warehouse at Buna. Eliezer later
sees him in the run to Gleiwitz. Zalman has a stomach cramp, and when he tries to stop to
go to the bathroom, he is trampled underfoot by the crowd behind him.
Rabbi Eliahou: A very devout, pure, and well-liked rabbi who appears after the run to
Gleiwitz. He is looking for his son, who had been with him for three years in the
concentration camp, because they had gotten separated during the run. Eliezer realizes that
the son had consciously tried to get away from his father because he no longer wanted the
responsibility of looking out for another human being.
Meir Katz: A friend of Eliezer's father who worked in the garden at Buna. He is better
nourished and stronger than the other prisoners because he had had access to vegetables. In
the train to Buchenwald, Meir Katz saves Eliezer's life when someone tries to strangle him, but
he soon loses his will to live and dies.
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Night Study Questions
Complete the following questions as you read the novel.
Chapter 1: pgs. 3-22
1. Who was Moshe the Beadle?
2. Why did Eliezer spend a lot of time with Moshe?
3. What happened to Moshe that caused a great change in him?
4. How did the rest of the community react to what Moshe told them?
5. What were the ghettos?
6. At first, how did the Jews of Sighet feel about the ghettos?
7. Who offered Eliezer's family safe refuge?
8. On what day of the week was Eliezer's family expelled?
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Chapter 2: pgs. 23-28
9. Why did the Hungarian lieutenant move among the prisoners with a basket?
10. Who was Madame Schachter?
11. Who were the SS men?
12. What was Eliezer's last view of his mother and sister?
13. Why did Eliezer and his father lie to Dr. Mengele?
14. Why did his father wish Eliezer had gone with his mother?
Chapter 3: pgs. 29-46
15. What was actually happening to the women?
16. What is the Kaddish?
17. According to the SS officer, what was the only way to avoid the furnaces?
18. Why did the gypsy strike Eliezer's father?
19. What did the Iron Gate's inscription at Auschwitz say? What did Elie get tattooed
on his arm?
20. What relative did Elie and his father meet? What lie did Elie tell him?
21. To what new camp were the prisoners marched?
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Chapter 4: pgs. 47-65
22. What were the objectives of the medical examinations?
23. Why were the Jewish musicians not allowed to play music by Beethoven?
24. How did Elie initially avoid losing his gold crown?
25. Describe one of Idek's bouts of madness.
26. Whom did Elie meet years later on the Paris Metro?
27. What happened when Elie refused to give his crown to Franke? What was the end
result?
28. Describe the scene with the soup cauldrons.
29. During one of the preliminary ·ceremonies" for a hanging, what did Juliek whisper to Elie?
What does this suggest?
30. During one hanging, Elie and the other prisoners cried. What made this hanging
different from others?
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Chapter 5: pgs. 66-84
31. Why didn't Elie fast on Yom Kippur?
32. What advice was Elie given to pass the selection process?
33. How did Elie's father respond when he learned his name had been written down?
34. What did Akiba Drumer ask the others to do for him? Did they do it?
35. Why was Elie placed in the hospital?
36. Why was the camp to be evacuated? What did Elie learn of the fate of those who stayed
behind in the hospital?
Chapter 6: pgs. 85-97
37. What happened to anyone who could not keep up with the march?
38. How did Zalman die?
39. What horrible realization did Elie come to concerning Rabbi Eliahou and his son? How did
Elie respond to this?
40. What was Juliek's last act?
41. How did Elie help his father when the selection was made?
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Chapter 7:pgs. 98-103
42. How did Elie again help his father when they were on the train?
43. Describe the scene Elie witnessed between the father and son.
44. How many got out of the wagon? Where had they arrived?
Chapter 8: pgs. 104-112
45. Explain how the father/son roles had been reversed in the case of Elie and his father?
46. Why was Elie's father being beaten?
47. What did Elie think of the advice given to him by the head of the block?
Chapter 9: pgs. 113-115
48. What happened on April 5th?
49. What was the resistance movement? What did they do?
50. What did the prisoners do when they were freed?
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