Night – Chapters 5 & 6
Chapter Five
Page 66
 Eliezer begins to lose his faith
Pages 67-68
 Eliezer mocks __________
Page 68
 Eliezer struggles with his sense of importance versus his sense of insignificance in the world. He
wonders if he is just disposable.
Pages 68-69
 Relationship between father & son: Eliezer is afraid to wish his father a Happy New Year that he didn’t
believe in. There was no smile on his face. “Not the shadow of an expression. ________________.”
 Yom Kippur is the Jewish “Day of ________________.”
 What does this word mean? _____________________________________________________________
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 This holiday is usually observed by fasting – not eating for a period of time.
 Eliezer did not fast. What two reasons did he give for not fasting?
o ______________________________________________________________________________
o ______________________________________________________________________________
 Why does Eliezer feel that “it was Yom Kippur year-round”? __________________________________
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Pages 69-70
 SS men give prisoners a New Year’s “present.” The “present” they speak of is not really a gift; it is
_________________.
 Eliezer isn’t in the same block as his father anymore. He’s in the construction Kommando (the “bad”
block Eliezer tried to avoid on page 48).
 On page 48, Eliezer doesn’t know why the construction Kommando is to be avoided at all costs. On
page 70, we discover why it is so “bad.” What is the reason? ___________________________________
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 Veteran inmates say Eliezer is “lucky” – Buna used to be a lot worse.
Page 71
 Instructions for selection:
o Undress
o Don’t look at anybody
o _________!
 Eliezer is instructed, “…don’t be afraid!” and says “this is a piece of advice we would have loved to be
able to_______________.”
 Personal Reflection: Describe a piece of advice you have been given that was impossible to abide by.
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Page 72
 Eliezer’s Goal: “Don’t let Dr. Mengele write down my ID number!”
 Info. Recall: What is Eliezer’s ID number? ________________________________________________
 Eliezer asks Tibi and Yossi if his number was written down and they say no. Rejoicing, Eliezer thinks
“the others __________ __________ _______________.”
 What change does this line reveal in Eliezer’s character since the beginning of the book? ____________
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Page 73
 Eliezer’s father gives him a “gift”:
o It’s a half-ration of __________
o He got this by trading a piece of _______________ that could be used to _______________
_____ __________.
 The __________ regulated everything in the concentration camp and Eliezer hated it. This is
comparable to your school __________, which designates the change of classes.
Page 74
 “All that mattered [to Eliezer] was to be far from the block, far from the _______________ of death,
from the center of hell.”
 What is the scientific definition of the word “crucible”? ______________________________________
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 Why is this word used in the text? What does it mean in relation to how Eliezer views the block at
Buna? ______________________________________________________________________________
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 Eliezer’s father’s ID number was recorded without his knowledge.
Page 75
 Eliezer’s father gives him his “inheritance” – a _______________ and a _______________.
 Personal Reflection: What would you say if it were your last moments together? __________________
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Page 76
 Akiba Drumer loses his faith and gets picked for selection.
 He claims, “it’s over. __________ is no longer with us!”
 Personal Reflection: Is this true or not? Provide evidence/proof of how you know this. If this is true,
where did He go? If not, why can’t Akiba Drumer find Him? __________________________________
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Page 77
 Faith kept Akiba Drumer strong, “but as soon as he felt the first _______________ in his faith, he lost
all incentive to fight and opened the door to death.”
 Akiba Drumer’s friends promised they would say the _______________, which is the prayer for the
___________, in his honor – three days after his selection.
 Every single person forgot.
 Personal Reflection: What is your reaction to Akiba Drumer becoming one of “the forgotten” so soon
after his departure? What implications does this have? ________________________________________
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Page 78
 Prisoners get used to the cold, but then Eliezer’s __________ swells up from frostbite and he goes to the
infirmary.
 He sends rations of __________ to his father.
 Cyclical Relationship: When we are babies, our parents care for us because we cannot take care of
ourselves. Then we grow up and become independent from our parents. When our parents are old, they
sometimes deteriorate – making them incapable of taking care of themselves. We then complete the
cycle by becoming responsible for the care of our parents, just as they took care of us.
 Hungarian Jew is the patient in the bed next to Eliezer. He says there is _______________ here, too –
only here it happens more often – to make room for new patients.
Page 79
 Eliezer becomes paranoid
 The following day is Eliezer’s operation
 The doctor gives him no anesthesia for the surgery – he is expected to be fully conscious for the whole
thing. However, Eliezer soon fainted from the pain.
 When he wakes up, the doctor tells him that he is to remain in the hospital for ____ weeks to recover.
Page 80
 The doctor asks Eliezer if he trusts him. What is the significance of that question? _________________
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 Rumor: The Red Army (Russia) will attack Buna in ________________________ hours.
Page 81
 “I have more faith in _______________ than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all of his
promises, to the Jewish people.”
 Personal Reflection: What is your reaction to this line? ______________________________________
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 Evacuation: Eliezer wonders if they’ll leave the sick prisoners behind to wait for their liberators. He
decides, “probably not.”
Page 82
 Eliezer doesn’t want to be separated from his father. The kind doctor says he can sneak Eliezer’s dad
into the infirmary as either a patient or a medic if they decided to stay together during the evacuation.
Eliezer constructs a makeshift bandage for his foot and hobbles outside to find his father. He asks,
“What are we going to do?” then notes, “The choice was in our hands.”
 Personal Reflection: If you were in Elie’s shoes, what would you have discussed with your dad in order
to come to a decision? What information would you need in order to make an informed decision? _____
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 Personal Reflection: What would you have chosen? Why? ___________________________________
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 They choose to evacuate.
 Irony: Those who stayed behind were liberated by the Russians two days later.
Page 83
 Prisoners get double rations of food and as much clothing as they can carry

The “last night in Buna” reminds Eliezer of other “last nights.”
o “The last night at __________, the last night in the __________, the last night in the __________
__________, and now the last night in __________. How much longer would our lives be lived
from one ‘last night’ to the next?”
 Personal Reflection: You, too, will experience many “lasts” in the next few years – the last school
dance will be your prom, the last school play/concert or the last game of the season in the sport you play
will be the last time you’ll ever experience the activities that have become part of your identity with the
people who have become your second family. You’ll have your last first-day-of-school, last final exam,
last snow day, last pep rally, last class with your favorite teacher and, finally, your last time with the
class of 201? on stage at graduation. What “lasts” have you already experienced? How do you feel
when you look back on them? __________________________________________________________
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 Imagery: “Poor _______________, wider than tall, more dead than alive, poor _______________ whose
ghostly faces peeked out from layers of prisoner’s clothes!”
Page 84
 The block leader suddenly remembers that they’d forgotten to ______________ ______
_____________ one hour before leaving camp!
 Eliezer wonders, “Why? For whom?”
 The block leader responds, “for the _______________ __________... let them know that here lived
__________ and not __________.”
 Eliezer thinks, “So we were __________ after all?”
 Personal Reflection: Why did Eliezer think this? ___________________________________________
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Chapter Six
Page 85
 Animal Imagery: “Faster, you tramps, you flea-ridden ___________!”
 “We looked as though we were running away from them.” (Aren’t they?)
 SS men shoot anyone who cannot sustain the pace.
 Duality: my body and me – two separate things
 Personal Reflection: Describe a time when your body was on “auto-pilot” and your brain was
somewhere else. What does that feel like? _________________________________________________
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Page 86
 Religion: an escape from _______________

Eliezer’s last image of Zalman: half-dressed, on the ground, being trampled under the feet of the men
who followed him.
 The Zalman becomes one of “the forgotten”
Page 86-87
 Eliezer’s father’s presence keeps him from giving up.
 “I was his sole support.”
 More evidence of the parent/son role reversal.
 Singularity: “We were the masters of __________, the masters of the __________. We had transcended
everything – death, _______________, our natural needs. We were stronger than __________ and
_______________, stronger than the ___________ and the desire to __________, doomed and rootless,
nothing but _______________, we were the only men on earth.”
Page 88
 “As one man, we let ourselves sink into the snow.” The Nazis have stripped the prisoners of their
individuality and their humanity. They move as one body – to the Nazis, the Jews are no more distinct
from one another than individual cows in a herd.
 Eliezer’s father warns him that it’s dangerous to fall asleep in the snow because, “one fall asleep
_______________.”
 Eliezer compares the snow to a __________ ___________________.
Page 89
 “Beneath our feet, there lay men crushed, trampled under foot, dying. Nobody paid attention to them.”
 These people have become “the forgotten.”
 There was nothing but mass agony and _______________.
 Personal Reflection: What other points in the story is this particular sound more powerful than
anything else? Why does this sound have such resonance? Why is it often more disturbing than other
noises that we consider as scary? _________________________________________________________
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 Father and son take turns staying awake to watch over one another.
Page 90
 Everyone is fighting against the death-sleep.
 Eliezer’s father smiles. Eliezer asks, “Where in the world did it come from?”
 Personal Reflection: Answer that question. ________________________________________________
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
Rabbi Eliahu’s words never provoked anyone – they actually consoled them. (Why were his words
different than the religious speeches of other characters that the prisoners hated and wanted to shut up?)
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 He is looking for his son.
Page 91
 Rabbi Eliahu and his son stayed together for three years (like Eliezer and his father) only to be separated
now.
 Rabbi Eliahu fell behind in the run from Buna and his son didn’t notice. He asks Eliezer if he’s seen his
son.
 Eliezer says, “no” but later, he suddenly remembers that Rabbi Eliahu’s son had been running beside
him.
 His son “had seen him losing ground… and he continued to run in front, letting the _______________
between them become _______________.”
 Eliezer wonders, “what if he wanted to be rid of his father?” What if he “thought by this separation to
free himself of a _______________ that could diminish his own chance for survival”?
 Eliezer concludes that “it was good that I had _______________ all that.”
 Personal Reflection: Why was it a good thing? Do you agree with him or not? Why? ______________
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 Eliezer prays to a God in which he no longer believes.
 Personal Reflection: Why does he pray if he doesn’t believe in God anymore? ____________________
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 What does Eliezer pray for? _____________________________________________________________
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Page 92
 The dead remained in the yard, under the snow without even a marker, like fallen __________. No one
recited the _______________ over them. Sons abandoned the remains of their fathers without a tear.”
 Personal Reflection: Write your reaction to these lines. ______________________________________
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 SS officers on motorcycles encourage the prisoners. Why would they do this if they were most likely
going to exterminate them anyway? ______________________________________________________
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 Eliezer says the words were of great help to the Jews, even though they came from the mouths of their
_______________.
 They arrive in _______________.
Page 93
 Tides of men trample and crush each other in an attempt to pack into the barracks. At this point, they’re
so driven by the desire to get out of the snow, that they’re literally killing each other: some on purpose,
some unintentionally.
 Eliezer recognizes a familiar voice screaming, “__________!”

He realizes that because he has others piled on top of him and can’t move, he’s crushing the body of his
friend, _______________, the boy from Warsaw who played the violin in the Buna orchestra (on page
49).
Page 94
 Juliek is afraid the men on top of him will crush his _______________.
 Eliezer digs a hole through human rubble in order to wriggle free enough to fill his lungs with air.
 Eliezer’s father is still alive – trying to sleep.
 Eliezer then hears music – an unfamiliar and unexpected sound. Someone is playing the __________.
Page 95
 Juliek was playing Beethoven – the music he was NOT allowed to play in Buna (because he was a Jew
and Beethoven was German – Jews were not thought of as worthy enough to play music by a German
composer).
 Eliezer thinks, “it was as if Juliek’s soul had become his bow. He was playing his life.”
 Personal Reflection: What does that mean? What is your reaction to this line? ____________________
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 Personal Reflection: The concerto was Juliek’s life – the music was his farewell, his own elegy. What
would the soundtrack of your life include? Be specific – what songs best embody or represent you?
Why? Give at least 5 songs with reasons. _________________________________________________
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
In the morning, Juliek was dead. “Next to him lay his violin, trampled, an eerily poignant little
_______________.”
 Personal Reflection: What do you think this line means? _____________________________________
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 The prisoners got no food or water for three days.
 The Russian Front followed them.
Page 96
 The prisoners were to be moved to the center of _______________.
 They threw blankets over their shoulders like prayer shawls.
 Selection: Eliezer’s father walks to the left, Eliezer to the right.
 Eliezer runs after his father, not willing to be separated from him, and inadvertently causes a distraction.
His actions saved the lives of a few people who managed to switch lines (his father included), but some
people were killed as a result of the SS men’s attempts to restore order from the commotion.
 People eat __________ off of each other’s backs with their spoons in order to satiate their thirst.
 The SS men are _______________ by this.
Page 97
 The prisoners are shoved into roofless cattle cars like animals.
 Disturbing Question: How skinny must these men have had to be in order to fit 100 men to a single car?
(Remember: they only fit 80 men to a car on the way to Auschwitz.)