I only know that without this testimony, my life as a writer - or my life period - would not have become what it is: that of a witness who believes he has a moral obligation to try to prevent the enemy from enjoying one last victory by allowing his crime
Speaker: Elie Wiesel
Significance: this is his reason for why he wrote Night. he feels that if he kept silent, he would be letting the Nazis win one last victory.
I had many things to say, i did not have the words to say them. Painfully aware of my limitations, i watched helplessly as language became an obstacle...Hunger-thirst-fear-transport-selection-fire-chimney: these words all have intrinsic meaning...
Speaker: Elie Wiesel
Significance: he is telling the reader the struggles he faced while trying to write night. he wanted to use the words he mentioned, but he knew that they would have a different meaning to him then to us.
For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living... To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing then a second time.
Speaker: Elie Wiesel
Significance: he is saying that if we don't learn from the deaths of the people in the concentration camps, then they died in vein.
Moishe the Beadle
A poor jew who lived in Sighet with Elie; He was very good at making himself invisible; He helped Elie study Kabbalah; was taken by the germans, shot, and left for dead but he survived and came back to ward Sighet-no one believed him
Elie's sisters
Hilda, Bea, Tzipora
'You cannot understand. I was saved miraculously. I succeeded in coming back... I wanted to return to Sighet to describe to you my death so that you might ready yourselves while there is still time. Life? I no longer care to live. I am alone'
Speaker: Moishe the Beadle
Significance: Moishe comes back to bear witness but no one believes him.
Elie's hometown
Sighet, Transylvania
You should have hanged yourselves rather than come here. Didn't you know what was in store for you here in Auschwitz? You didn't know? In 1944?
Speaker: a prisoner
Significance: the prisoners are upset that no one knew what they were going threw-these camps had been going on since 1941
Dr. Mengele
When he arrives at Auschwitz, Eliezer encounters the historically infamous Dr. He was the cruel doctor who presided over the selection of arrivals at Auschwitz/Birkenau. Known as the "Angel of Death," HIs words sentenced countless prisoners to death in th
Kaddish
the Jewish prayer for the dead
Camps Elie goes to
Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, Gleiwitz, Buchenwald
Never shall i forget that night, the first night in camp that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall i forget that smoke. Never shall i forget the small faces of the children whose bodies i saw transformed into smoke under a s
Speaker: Elie
Significance: this is the most famous passage from the book. Elie describes his first night in the concentration camp and how everything changed. He will always remember the children dying and what it was like to have your faith truly tested
I ran to look for my father. At the same time I was afraid of having to wish him a happy year in which i no longer believed.
Speaker: Elie
Significance: this is when the reader sees a truly significant shift in Elie's faith in God. He is angry at God for not doing anything about the concentration camps and letting so many people suffer.
'Here, take this knife,' he said. 'I won't need it anymore. You may find it useful. Also take this spoon. Don't sell it. Quickly! Go ahead, take what i am giving you!' My inheritance...
Speaker: Elie's father
Significance: If WWII hadn't happened, Elie would receive the shop and his father's gold if his father died because everything goes to the son. But now all his father has to give him is a knife and a spoon.
As for me, i was thinking not about death but about not wanting to be separated from my father. We had already suffered so much, endured so much together.
Speaker: Elie
Significance: This is when Elie makes the decision to leave the camp even though his foot is still healing from the operation. He does not want to stay in the hospital because he has heard that all of the patients will be killed. He just wan
My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support.
Speaker: Elie
Significance: Elie's father keeps Elie alive because even though Elie wants to drop dead, he knows that if he dies, his father will have nothing to live for and will die too.
God knows what I would have given to be able to sleep a few moments. But deep inside, I knew that to sleep meant to die. And something inside me rebelled against death.
Speaker: Elie
Significance: After everything he has been threw, Elie still has a will to live which is a small miracle.
And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a pray to this God in whom i no longer believed. 'Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength to never do what Rabbi Eliahu's son has done.'
Speaker: Elie
Significance: Elie wants to honor his father and be there for his father, not abandon his father so he has a better chance to survive.
The darkness enveloped us. All i could hear was the violin, and it was as if Juliek's soul had become his bow. He was playing his life. His whole being was gliding over the strings. His unfulfilled hopes. His charred past, His extinguished future. He pla
Speaker: Elie
Significance: Juliek knows that he is near death, and he is sending off the dying around him while playing for his own pleasure.
'Listen to me, kid. Don't forget that you are in a concentration camp. In this place, it is every man for himself, and you cannot think of others. Not even your father. In this place, there is no such thing as father, brother, friend. Each of us lives an
Speaker: One of Elie's Blockalteste
Significance: Elie loves his dad and does not want to abandon him, but he sees so many people abandon their family members that it becomes almost normal. He knows that it would be easier without his father, but he also
I woke up at dawn on January 29th. On my father's cot there lay another sick person. They must have taken him away before daybreak and taken him to the crematorium. Perhaps he was still breathing. No prayers were said over his tomb...
Speaker: Elie
Significance: Elie's father was one of Elie's only sources of encouragement to survive, so without his dad, survival is much more difficult.
Give examples of the ways Eliezer's relationship with his father is changing. What prompts those changes?
-before they had a traditional father-son relationship
-now they both rely on each other
- Elie is the stronger one
-they are all they have
What does Elie mean when he refers to his father as "his weak point"? why has he come to view love as a weakness?
-Elie thinks that he could do better on his own
-love is a weakness because someone you love is very likely to die and you have to worry about keeping each other alive, not just yourself
-love can be used by your enemies to get them to give you what they
How do the words like soup and bread take on new meanings for Elie? why does he describe himself as a starved stomach?
-soup and bread are the only thing keeping him alive
-all he thinks about is food
-you stop caring about everything else and cannot think about anything besides food (can't think about rebelling)
Why do you think Elie and the other prisoners respond so emotionally to the hanging of the child?
-the child looked like an angel
-no innocent child should be killed
-took the child a long time to die
-shows that the prisoners are still human because they have an emotional reaction
-hanging=tragedy
How does Wiesel try to help us understand why it is so difficult to judge those who "tried to play the executioner's game"?
-we can't judge people until we have been in their shoes
-they were just trying to stay alive
-we don't understand what they were going through
Wiesel writes that he prefers to remember "the kindness and compassion" of his fellow prisoners rather than those who were cruel and violent. How does he describe both groups in this reading? WHy does he view both as victims.
-describes kind people giving him words of comfort, putting him near his father, or just talking to him.
-describes the cruel prisoners as people who beat his father (Franek) and some of the pipel who were mean to their fathers
-they are all victims becau
My eyes have opened and i was alone, terribly alone in a world without god, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now...
Speaker: Elie
Significance: everyone around him has their faith but he does not (he is alone); he feels that god has abandoned him; doesn't understand why god is letting this happen; feels isolated by his loss of faith
Why does Elie direct his anger at god rather than the Germans?
he believed very strongly in god and was an observant jew, so to see so much suffering and have god not do anything about it was awful; god is more powerful and he should be able to stop it
How have Elie's experiences in Auschwitz affected his faith?
his faith is being tested and he pulls away from god and just tries to stay alive; he loses his faith in god; angry at god
Why did his father give Elie the spoon and knife as his inheritance? what is the significance of such a gift in Auschwitz?
-it was all he had to give Elie
-they could be traded for food or sold-can keep someone alive
What choices are open to Eliezer and his father when the camp is evacuated?
they can leave with the others or stay in the hospital (where Elie thinks they will be killed)
What do you think prompts Juliek to play that evening? What does the music mean to Eliezer? to Juliek?
-It is the most beautiful sound Elie has ever heard
-Juliek is sending off the dead and playing for pleasure because he knows that he is near death
-it gives people hope
What are the stories about the two sons?
-one son abandoned his father during the death march because he was too slow
-the other one killed his father for a crust of bread and ended up dying anyways
-Elie does not want to be like them
anti-semitism
discrimination against jewish people
Holocaust
A methodical plan orchestrated by Hitler to ensure German supremacy. It called for the elimination of Jews, non-conformists, homosexuals, non-Aryans, and mentally and physically disabled.
since my father's death, nothing could touch me anymore.
Speaker: Elie
Significance: Elie was going through life in a trance; he was no longer a complete person; he had lost his identity struggle; the Holocaust has taken everything away from him
The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.
Speaker: Elie
Significance: Elie didn't recognize himself; he had never seen that look in his eyes before; reflected in his eyes is the horror, sadness, loss of family, and loss of faith he has suffered; that look causes him to bear witness.
Consider why Wiesel titles his autobiographical story Night
-everything bad had happened at night
-people are vulnerable at night
-his 11 months were one long night filled with darkness and suffering
-night to us means something different than it does to Elie.