Night

By Elie Wiesel

 

 

 

1.  As Eliezer’s family and neighbors are confined to a large ghetto and then expelled to a smaller, ghostlier one whose residents have already been deported, what do you learn about the process by which Hitler implemented doom?  How are you affected by the uncertainty endured by Sighet’s Jews on their prolonged journey to the concentration camps?

 

2.  With the words “Women to the right!” Eliezer has a final glimpse of his mother and of his sister, Tzipora.  His father later wonders whether he should have presented his son as a younger boy, so that Eliezer could have joined the women.  What turning point is represented by that moment, when their family is split?

 

3.  Eliezer observes the now-infamous inscription above the entrance to Auschwitz, equating work with liberty.  How does that inscription come to embody  the deceit and bitter irony of the Nazi camps?  Were any of the Auschwitz survivors ever liberated emotionally?

 

4.  What is the significance of the book’s final image, Wiesel’s face, reflected in a mirror?  He writes that a corpse gazed back at him, with a look that has never left him.  What aspects of him died during his ordeal?  What aspects were born in their place?

 

5.  The autobiographical Night offers an eyewitness account of the utmost importance, but it is essentially one young man’s story.  What had you read, heard, or otherwise learned about the Holocaust before reading Night?  How did Wiesel’s remembrance agree with or differ from what you knew about the history of this event?

 

6.  Who does Elie Wiesel refer to as his influence and inspiration in life?

(answer found in “interviews” link below)  http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wie0bio-1

 

7.  Elie Wiesel often refers to his beliefs and his person as being Hasidic; what is Hasidic Judaism?

(answer found in link below) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasidic_Judaism

 

8. What month and year were the Jewish people officially liberated from Oswiecim’s concentration camp?

(answer found in link below) http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/html/eng/start/index.php

 

9. Who is Dr. Mengele? Why is he known as the Angel of Death?

(answer found in link below) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele

 

10. What is the Humanitarian Award?

(answer found in link below) http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/HumanitarianAward/index.html