Transcript Night

Night
Review
Page 3
• Moishe
– Beadle – caretaker of the synagogue
– No surname – no true identity, recognition as a man
– “jack of all trades” (master of none): he knew a lot
about many things, but no true religious education,
uneducated- Eliezer goes to him for education
– Why was he the exception to the rule regarding how
the poor were treated by the majority of the Jewish
community?
Continues
• Anaphora
– Repetition of a word, or phrase, for emphasis
– List of what he did that gave him acceptance
from the adult community.
• “He stayed out of people’s way”. “His presence
bothered no one”. “He had mastered the art of
rendering himself insignificant, invisible”.
– This is what the Nazi’s are counting on to destroy the
Jewish people.
– IRONY: Later when Moishe returns.
Eliezer’s view of Moishe
Softness in his tone. Childlike images
• Simile: “awkward as a clown” – circus
• “his waiflike shyness” – child who needs
protection; orphan; sweet; no conflict.
• “wide, dreamy eyes, gazing off into the distance” –
childlike imagination (this will later influence Eliezer
as to the credibility of Moishe’s claims)
• “He spoke little. He sang, or rather he chanted”
– Religious themes – Shekhinah in Exile; Kabbalah
• Eleiser – 13 years old; deeply observant; bar mitzvah
age. Influential age
• Following all the rules and laws of his faith.
Page 4
• Influence to begin independent thoughts; mysticism of the Kabbalah.
• His father wants him to be more educated. Protective father.
– “You are too young for that. Maimonides tells us that one must be
thirty before venturing into the world of mysticism, a world fraught
with peril. First you must study the basic subjects, those you are
able to comprehend.” “There are no Kabbalists in Sighet.” “He
wanted to drive the idea of studying Kabbalah from my mind.”
– A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. Important to know the
basics before developing an intellectual understanding of religious
practices and beliefs that may be flawed. Prevents confusion – or at
least is a step in the right direction.
– (grandmother) (father – bird)
• Father well respected by the community; however, no father/son
discussion when questioned. Eliezer then goes on his own quest of
his faith through Moishe. Parents often make this mistake. “I am
your father/mother, trust what I say without question.” This
oftentimes causes rebellion. – good/bad.
• Maimonides –Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon – first to write a code of
Jewish law all must follow. Mishneh Torah
Page 4 & 5
• Begins to ask questions. Why? Why? Why?
– It is always good to ask questions. From that, we
attain knowledge; critical thinking skills; ability to
differentiate between what is truth and fallacy.
• Is challenged by Moishe. Why? Why? Why?
• “Why do you cry when you pray?” Challenges his faith.
Does he do it out of rote? – mechanical repetition,
without real understanding of its meaning or significance.
• Repetition of “Why did I pray? Why did I live? Why did I
breathe?”
• Eliezer accepts his ignorance. Hard thing to do for
anyone. We don’t like to admit that we are wrong.
Then, we must admit that we are NOT PERFECT!
• Moishe knows why he prays: “I pray to the God within
me for the strength to ask Him the real questions.”
Page 6
• “Moishe the Beadle was a foreigner.”
• “Crammed into cattle cars.”
– Hungarian police
– Influence of Germany over Hungary so far
– “cried silently” - try to be insignificant; invisible, don’t
fight back….accept…accept.
– Not happening to us..just the foreigners…value?
– “What do you expect? That’s war..” too accepting
•
•
•
•
USA – Japanese
Long Beach
For their safety
Paranoia
Hungary’s Part
• While anti-Jewish legislation was a common phenomenon in
Hungary, the Holocaust itself did not reach Hungary until
1944.
• In March of 1944, however, the German army occupied
Hungary, installing a puppet government (a regime that
depends not on the support of its citizenry but on the support
of a foreign government) under Nazi control.
• Adolf Eichmann, the executioner of the Final Solution, came
to Hungary to oversee personally the destruction of
Hungary’s Jews. The Nazis operated with remarkable speed:
in the spring of 1944, the Hungarian Jewish community, the
only remaining large Jewish community in continental Europe,
was deported to concentration camps in Germany and
Poland. Eventually, the Nazis murdered 560,000 Hungarian
Jews, the overwhelming majority of the prewar Jewish
population in Hungary.
Page 6
• Time gives way to forgetting what happened.
• Rumors – Galicia, working, content..yes. Went to
Galicia…BUT….
• Weather is pleasant; back to normal
• Moishe returns
– Tells them the truth
– “forced to dig huge trenches…..took place in Galicia.”
– Character of the German soldiers
• Jews = animals, cattle, dogs, target practice
Page 7-8
• Moishe
–
–
–
–
–
Joy in his eyes gone
No longer sang
No longer quiet
“Jews, listen to me! That’s all I ask of you….
“They think I’m mad,” ….tears, like drops of wax…
• Simile; candle melting; moving from the light into the
darkness of Hell to come
• Christ-figure: Anaphora: “I was saved….I…I…I…only no
one is listening to me…” Light of the World – warning of the
evils of Satan. Do we listen? They refuse to see the light of
truth. They ostracize him; reject him totally as a member of
their community.
• Becomes silent.
– Beaten
– Eyes cast down; avoiding people’s gaze
Page 8- 1944
• False hope: Germany would be defeated; only a matter
of time.
• Anaphora: “The trees were in bloom. It was a year like
so many others, with its spring, its engagements, its
weddings, and its births.” – A sense of normalcy. Trying
to convince themselves that all is ok.
• “The Red Army….Hitler will not be able to harm us….”
They refuse to see the truth. What about all the millions
who have already died?
• “so many millions of people….in the middle of the 20th
century?” Not possible….difficult to accept the
possibility of something so evil….do we then doubt
Satan’s existence?
Page 9
• Fascist party takes over Hungary
• They did not understand what that meant.
• Begin to hear stories. Worried…for a moment.
“the Jews of Budapest live in an atmosphere of
fear and terror. Anti-Semitic acts take place
every day…”
• Simile – “news spread like wildfire”
– Flames fast and furious…but unlike most wildfires,
this one burns out quickly..Rationalize…
– No worry..won’t come to us…too far…again with
rationalizations…not us…therefore, no concern..
Page 9
• Jewish people refuse to see the signs:
– German soldiers enter their town.
– Officers stayed in Jewish homes.
– Attitude distant but polite…wolf in sheep’s
clothing….Satan hides well…keep those rosecolored glasses on as long as possible…then,
it is too late…
– “death helmets” – bringing death to all Jews
Death’s-head emblem on
German helmet- SS guards
Page 10
• Germans are waiting for the right moment. Keep
the Jewish people calm and unsuspecting.
“Three days after he moved in, he brought Mrs.
Kahn a box of chocolates…..There they are,
your Germans. What do you say now? Where is
their famous cruelty?” Refuse to see the reality
of what is going to happen.
• “The Germans were already in our town…the
Fascists…the verdict - (DEATH)…the Jews
were still smiling.”
– Very naive
10
•
Passover – 8-day celebration
– The Jews celebrated their Passover Feast in remembrance of God's deliverance from
death during the time of Moses.
Origination of Passover
– Moses had been instructed to lead God's people out of Egypt and save them from the evil
and ungodly Pharaoh. Because of Pharaoh's disbelief in the power of the One True God,
Yahweh sent a series of ten plagues upon the Egyptians: the Nile turned to blood and at
various times the land was filled with frogs, gnats, flies, hail, locusts, and darkness. In one
awesome act of God's ultimate authority, He sent one final devastating plague: every
firstborn of every household would be annihilated.
– In His mercy towards His people, God would shield the Israelites from such unmerciful
judgment if they would follow the instructions He gave to Moses and Aaron. The specific
instructions are outlined in Exodus 12:1-11. In sum, each family was to take a lamb and all
households were to slaughter their lambs at the same time at twilight after a certain number
of days. Then they were commanded to paint the sides and top of their doorways with
some of this blood. Once this was done and all the meat of the lamb was eaten in
accordance with God's instructions, God would spare the Israelites from death.
•
•
•
Sighet Weather perfect – however, synagogues closed. Acceptance? Don’t want to cause
conflict…don’t complain. Maybe they will go away.
Celebrate during this time; but they are pretending. Deep down they are concerned,
but they don’t want to admit it. Want the celebrations to be over so they have no
reason to celebrate.
10 still
• 7th day – “the curtain finally rose”
– The play is about to begin…HORROR is
behind the curtain.
– Arrested the leaders of the Jewish community
– Gold and all valuables taken; forbidden – help
from the Hungarian police.
– Metaphor – “The race toward death had
begun”
• Nazis want this done ASAP!
• Moishe confronts them…
Page 11
• Mom – tries to keep things together; job as
mom. Suffer in silence. Nurturer; worry about
her children.
• Yellow star – BRANDED LIKE CATTLE
• Reaction – no big deal; it’s just a patch; “it’s
not lethal.” IRONY – they have been marked
for slaughter.
• Ghetto
• Nazis are slowly killing the Jewish people’s
“being”. 1st step has been easy – to accept
the painless things being done to them. Baby
steps.
11-12
• Ghetto – enclosed within barbed wire. Cattle.
• Comfort zone. Away from the Germans. Safe…not
really…but let’s pretend… “in fact, we felt this
was not a bad thing.”
• Anaphora: “We would no longer have to look at
all those hostile faces, endue those hate-filled
states…No more fear….No more anguish…We
would live among Jews, among brothers.”
NO..NO..NO…this cannot be our reality.
• Euphemism: Nice way of saying something
uncomfortable, bad, etc… “Of course, there still
were unpleasant moments.” JEWS BEING
TAKEN AWAY.
• Personification: “The ghetto was ruled
by….delusion.”
Step 2
• Page 13
• German Officers – different mood; mother feels the
change
• News:
Transports; “The ghetto was to be liquidated
entirely.” Irony –The Final Solution: Liquidate the
Jewish people
• Now they are worried and want to know everything.
Secret on threat of death.
• Page 15
– Irony “Our backyard looked like a marketplace….All
this under a magnificent blue sky.” Irony – total
chaos – blue(peace and tranquility)
Page 16-17
• Pain of waiting… “there was joy, yes, joy.”
Irony…they think that this was hell..they
have no idea of the hell they are entering.
• Imagery: juxtaposition of Blazing sunny
day vs dead, empty houses
(personification) = darkness within the
hearts of the people- fear-despair
• Walk – “like molten lead”; “slowly, heavily,
the procession advanced toward the gate
of the ghetto.
Page 17-18
• “There they went, defeated, their
bundles…They passed me by, like beaten
dogs.”
• Juxtaposition of good vs. evil
– A summer sun vs. an open tomb
– Life vs death
• Personification :
– “gaping doors and windows looked out into the
void.”
Simile – surreal image “…like a small summer
cloud, like a dream in the first hours of dawn.”
“The verdict had been delivered”….death..
Page 19
• “My mind was empty.”
– “I felt little sadness.”
– numb
• Father – emotion now
– cries
• Mother- strong, no emotion
• Hungarian police
– First oppressors
– Hatred remains to this day
• Non-Jews
– Ignore the reality- hide their guilt for doing nothing
– Refuse to fight for their neighbors – condone ?
Page 20 - 21
• Move to small ghetto
– Still have faith
• “Oh god, Master of the Universe, in your infinite compassion,
have mercy on us..”
– Still have hope
• “..we were beginning to get used to the situation…miserable
little lives until the end of the war.”
– Verbal irony
• “…a big farce…just want to steal our valuables…easier to do
when the owners are on vacation…”
– Free will taken away
• “…we were all people condemned to the same fate-still
unknown.”
Page 22
• Change of control – irony – worse
– “It had been agreed that the Jewish Council would handle
everything by itself.”
– Jews have been conditioned to go along with the program.
Comfort zone to have friends organize the march toward death.
• Non-Jews
– Again – no one stands up for humanity
– “..behind the shutters, our friends of yesterday were probably
waiting for the moment when they could loot our homes.”
• Plan has been successful
– “…cattle cars were waiting…cars were sealed…one person...in
charge...someone escapes…person shot.”
– “Two Gestapo officers…all smiles; all things considered, it had
gone very smoothly.”
Page 23
• Juxtaposition of beauty vs evil
– “The lucky ones … could watch the blooming
countryside flit by.”
• Loss of sense of modesty, humanity
– “Freed of normal constraints….let go of their
inhibitions…caressed one another.”
• Human contact…love…necessary for survival of humanity.
• Metaphor
– “Our eyes opened. Too late.”
• Reality of their delusions of safety. No escape from Hell.
Page 24
• Inhumanity to humanity
– “…shot like dogs.”
– “The world had become a hermetically sealed
cattle car.”
•
•
•
•
Air-tight
Seal off the “contamination” of the Jews
Smothering
No one from the outside can help
Page 25 - 28
• Mrs. Schachter
–
–
–
–
–
–
Irony of sanity vs insanity
Insane – sees the truth – prophetess
Sane – refuse to see the truth
“Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!” – pity
Simile – “…she looked like a withered tree in a field of wheat.”
Fear – “…we felt the abyss opening beneath us.” (abyssimmeasurable chasm/void; total darkness)
– Like Moishe, “Jews, listen to me!...” warning; rejection
– Rationalization: “She is hallucinating…thirsty…flames devouring her…”
(personification)
– Cruelty breeds cruelty
• “bound and gagged her”
• “…received several blows to the head that could have been lethal.”
• Approval of the rest to beat her
– “Keep her quiet! Make that madwoman shut up. She’s not the only one here…”
– Struck again
– “Jews, look! Look at the fire! Look at the flames!” And as the train
stopped this time we saw flames rising from a tall chimney into a black
sky.”
Fair and Balanced
• It is important to understand that the majority of Germans were not
Nazis.
• Most of the concentration camps were not in Germany; this gave the
Nazi government the ability to convince the German people that the
camps that they did have were only work camps or training camps.
The idea of the reality of what was happening is something so
heinous, that the normal person could not comprehend the truth of
what was happening to the Jewish people.
• The camps in Germany were “work camps”. Why would anyone
think differently?
• March 22, 1933 - Nazis open Dachau concentration camp near
Munich, to be followed by Buchenwald near Weimar in central
Germany, Sachsenhausen near Berlin in northern Germany, and
Ravensbrück for women. These were the “work camps.”
• This era was not a time of television, internet, cable, 24-hour news.
The people only had radio and newspaper. These two media have
the ability to propagandize without question.
• The most of the free world was ignorant as well.
• Ex. We do not know what horrors may be happening 50 miles away
from our own homes, except for internet, 24-hour cable, the ability to
move about freely and quickly.
German Jews
•
•
•
•
At Wuerzburg, Germany, Jewish deportees carrying bundles and suitcases march
through town in columns behind Nazi officials riding in an open car.
The Jews of Wuerzburg were taken by police officials into the Platzscher Garten
hotel. In one room of the hotel, their luggage was inspected by Gestapo officials and
all valuables were confiscated. The luggage was then taken to a collecting area, from
where it would supposedly be taken to the deportation train. However, the deportees
never saw their luggage again.
In a second room, the deportees surrendered all their personal papers showing
ownership of securities and property. They were left only with their identification
cards, watches and wedding rings. In the next room the deportees underwent body
searches for concealed valuables. Even gold fillings were removed from their teeth.
Next, their identification cards were stamped "evakuiert" [deported].
They were then surrendered to an SS detachment until ready to leave for the railway
station. To facilitate the march through the city and the boarding of the trains, the
deportees were organized into groups led by Jewish ordners. The transport traveled
to Nuremberg, where it was attached to a larger Judentransport departing for ghettos
and concentration camps in the East, outside of Germany
DEATH
•
•
•
•
•
Death 1: (page 7) One day, Moshe the Beadle, who had been deported, comes
back to Sighet to tell the story of the extermination of the Jews by the Gestapo.
Although Moshe begs desperately to be heard, no one believes him. He tells
Elie, "'I wanted to come back to Sighet to tell you the story of my death.'"
Moshe the Beadle considers himself as already having gone through death. As
someone who has experienced death and miraculously lives, he wants to save
others from having to go through that same death.
Death 2: (pages 9- 17) Elie identifies the German soldiers by their steel helmets
with the emblem, the death's head. It is the first impression Elie has of the
German soldiers.
The Jews are not allowed to leave their houses for three days-on pain of death.
The term, "on pain of death" is used several times in the narrative to emphasize
the harsh reality of the German's threats.
As the Jews are forced to wear the yellow star, Elie's father replies, "'The
yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don't die of it....'" Elie responds, "Poor
Father! Of what then did you die?" The yellow star symbolizes the mark of
distinction that sends many Jews to their deaths. In retrospect, Wiesel feels
that his father and the Jews of Sighet conceded to their deaths by submitting
to every German decree. With each submission, they die a bit more.
As the ghettos are emptied by the deportation of the Jews, rooms that were
once bustling with activity, lay open with the people's belongings still
remaining. It is like an "open tomb" in that there is no longer any sign of life.
DEATH
• Death 3: (p. 33)The crematories serve as factories of death. The
big, fiery furnace is where those who do not make the selection are
sent. The threat of being sent to the crematory is likened to being
sent to the grave.
• As the prisoners witness the burning of babies, they begin to recite
the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. It is a prayer that the living
offer up on behalf of the dead. "Someone began to recite the
Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I do not know if it has ever
happened before, in the long history of the Jews, that people have
ever recited the prayer for the dead for themselves." The threat of
death is so imminent that the Jews recite the prayer for their own
souls.
• Death 4: (p. 38)
• The SS officer who introduces them to Auschwitz is described as
having the odor of the Angel of Death. He tells the Jews that if they
do not work, they will be sent to the crematory. The idea of being
sent to the furnace becomes a firm reality.
• Elie realizes, as he settles in during the first night of camp, that he
has changed: the child in him is dead. It is the death of his old
identity-the death of his innocence.
• On the electric wires at Auschwitz, there is a sign with a caption:
"Warning. Danger of death." Elie considers it a mockery because
everywhere in the camp, there is constant danger of death.
MEMORY
• Memory 1: Although the whole of Night is a series of memories,
there are many cases where either "forgetting" or
"remembering" plays a significant role in the narrative. In the
first chapter, Moshe the Beadle and all the foreign Jews of
Sighet are expelled by the Hungarian Police. The Jews of
Sighet are troubled but soon after the deportation, the
deportees are forgotten and town life returns to normal.
• Moshe returns to Sighet and recounts the horror stories of the
Gestapo's extermination of the Jews. He tries to recall from
memory, the stories of the victims' deaths: "He went from one
Jewish house to another, telling the story of Malka, the young
girl who had taken three days to die, and of Tobias, the tailor,
who had begged to be killed before his sons....“
• The German army sets up two ghettos in Sighet. The Jews of
the "little ghetto" are deported first and just three days later,
even as they move into the previous occupants' homes, the
Jews of the big ghetto forget about them.
MEMORY
• Memory 2: During the train ride, the Jews try desperately to
silence the maddening screams of Madame Schachter. They
even go so far as to hit her. Just as the Jews are able to block
Madame Schachter out of their minds, they see the flames of
the furnace and smell the odor of burning flesh at Birkenau.
There, they are reminded of Madame Schachter's visions. (P 28)
• Memory 3: The first night of camp is forever etched into Elie's
memory. Repeatedly, he uses the phrase "never shall I forget."
Elie does not have to try to remember anything because even if
he tries to forget, the memories are eternal, forever.
• Upon arrival of Auschwitz, the SS officer in charge gives the
new prisoners an introduction to the camp. He says,
"'Remember it forever. Engrave it into your minds. You are at
Auschwitz.'" (p38)
• As the prisoners talk about God and wonder about their fate,
Elie finds that only occasionally does he think about the fates
of his mother and younger sister. The rigors of concentration
camp life have dulled his sense of memory.
TITLE “NIGHT”
• Wiesel's experiences during the holocaust, one of the darkest
periods in human history, are like a journey into a night of total
blackness. During his stay in the various concentration camps,
Wiesel witnesses and endures the worst kind of man's inhumanity to
his fellow men, as prisoners are beaten, tortured, starved, and
murdered. Darkness and evil reigned.
• When Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, he
condemned the silence and apathy of those who did not cry out and
condemn the criminal atrocities of Hitler and his dark forces.
• As a symbol, night does not merely represent physical darkness; it
also stands for the darkness of the soul. It was obvious that the
Nazis were dark and evil; but Wiesel also felt that his heart was
darkened by the evil around him. In the book, he says about himself,
"There remained only a shape that looked like man. A dark flame
had entered into my soul and devoured it.“
• Throughout the holocaust, Wiesel was living through a long "night"
of terror and torture, where he could see no light at the end of the
tunnel, only perpetual darkness.
NIGHT
• Night 1: Before the Germans arrive at Sighet, nighttime is for
Elie a time of spiritual and physical renewal. It is a time of
studying religious texts, of prayer, and of restful sleep. This
comforting sense of night is forever lost as Elie experiences
the horrible, dreadful nights of the concentration camps.
• Night 2: Elie describes how in the ghetto, as his father was
telling stories, "Night fell," foreshadowing the news of their
deportation. The notion of "night" falling on the Jews becomes
a running theme throughout the book. There are several
instances where the phrase precedes some dreadful event. (p
12)
• Night 3: Darkness characterizes the cattle train ride to
Birkenau-Auschwitz. In the darkness, Madame Schachter goes
out of her mind and yells incessantly about the fire, flames, and
furnace. When she points and screams about the fire and
flames, the other Jews see only darkness. Darkness is also a
character of night that allows the young to flirt and people to
relieve themselves without being seen. (p 27-28)
NIGHT
• Night 4: The overwhelming sense of Elie's
experiences during the first day of camp is that it is
like a nightmare. As Elie and the other prisoners
walk past the chimneys at Birkenau, they stand
motionless, unable to comprehend the sights: "We
stayed motionless, petrified. Surely it was all a
nightmare? An unimaginable nightmare?" Elie
thinks he's dreaming. After pinching his face, in
disbelief he utters, "How could it be possible for
them to burn people, children, and for the world to
keep silent? No, none of this could be true. It was a
nightmare...." (32-33)
Night
• That first night of camp is forever etched into Elie's
mind. His entire narrative story seems like an
account of one long, endless night: "So much had
happened within such a few hours that I had lost all
sense of time. When had we left our houses? And
the ghetto? And the train? Was it only a week? One
night-one single night?" (p 37)
“Never…”
Page 35
• Psalm 150 – final prayer; ecstatic celebration of God.
Each line begins: “Hallelujah”, or “Praise God”.
Wiesel gives an inverse version, with the repetition of
“Never”- negative vs. affirmative.
• Psalm 150 praises God; Never – questions His justice.
• Faith and morality turned upside down.
• Eliezer accuses God of being corrupt.
• Eliezer claims that his faith is destroyed; yet refers to
God in the last line.
• Eliezer is struggling with his faith and his God.
• Never able to forget the horror, he is never able to
reject completely his heritage and religion.
Psychological Moral Tragedy
• Death of faith in god
• Death of faith in humankind
• God fails to act justly and save the Jews
from the Nazis
• Nazis drive the Jews to cruelty to each
other
• Morality is upside down
Shaving of Head/Tatooing
Page 35 & 42
• Jewish law contains strict regulations about
cutting one’s hair and facial hair. Razors are
not permitted, and beards and earlocks are
often considered sources of pride and
commitment to tradition. Nazi used this as a
means of humiliation and denigration of
Jewish tradition.
• Tatooing is a strict ban by Jewish law. Nazi’s
did this to dehumanize, demoralize, and strip
them of their religious traditions.
Angel of Death
• A prominent character in Jewish folk
tradition.
• Fearsome angel who would stand at the
bedside of the sick, and using his knife,
take his/her life.
• Change one’s name during extreme
illness in an attempt to fool the angel;
discard all water in the room after the
death, because the angel supposedly
washed his knife in the water.
1st Selection
• Page 29
–
–
–
–
“Men to the left! Women to the right!”
Never sees his mother and sisters again
18 and 40
Weak vs strong
• Truth
– Auschwitz/crematoria
• Revolt
– “The wind of revolt died down.” Metaphor
– Simile … “like cattle in the slaughterhouse
– Too little too late
• Dr. Mengele
– Dr. Death
– Conductor of orchestra in this play of horror
• Selection of weak and strong
– Useful for a time, or not
Rejection of God
Page 33
• Reality of the horror and no one is crying
out to the world.
• World does not care.
• God does not care.
• “Why should I sanctify His name? The
Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of
the Universe, chose to be silent. What was
there to thank Him for?”
Death March
• “We continued our march….closer and
closer to the pit.” (33)
• Simile: “We were walking slowly, as one
follows a hearse, our own funeral
procession.”
• Still faith, angry, but: “May His name be
exalted and sanctified..”
“Never…”
page 34
• 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 silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith
for ever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived
me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my
God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I
condemned to live
as long as God Himself.
Never.
Disinfection
•
•
•
•
•
Page 36
Gasoline – completely soaked in it
“fuel” – fire
Exterminate bugs
Showers – get used to this for a purpose
later
Imagery
• Page 37
– “The student of Talmud, the child I was, had
been consumed by the flames.”
– “My soul had been invaded – and devoured –
by a black flame.” (evil of Hell)
– “We were withered trees in the heart of the
desert.” (metaphor) (nothing lives) Living
dead
– “herded” – continual image of cattle
Reality
• Page 39
• “Work or crematorium…the choice is
yours.”
• Gypsy – chance to be cruel to someone
• Father beaten – son does nothing
– Guilt
– Forgiven by father
Irony
• Page 41
– “It was spring. The sun was shining.”
– “Warning of Death”
– “The fragrances of spring were in the air”
– “Work makes you free.”
– “These were the showers, a compulsory
routine.”
Page 42-45
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•
•
•
•
Spoiled child
Branding
Lied to protect relative from pain
Humanity does not get reward
“God is testing us.”
March to Buna
Vocabulary
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lagerkapo
Oberkapo
Pipel
Kaddish
-
head of camp
overseer
young apprentice or assistant
in Judaism, an Aramaic prayer that
glorifies God and asks for the speedy
coming of His kingdom on Earth.
Crucible a vessel of a very refractory material
(as porcelain) used for melting a
substance that requires a high degree
of heat.
Din – disagreeable music tones
Dysentery – bacterial disease from malnutrition
Dregs – most undesirable part of wine; left over;
unwanted
Vocabulary
• Rosh Hashanah • Zionism
-
• Nyilas
-
• Shavuot
-
• Phylacteries -
(Hebrew, “beginning of the year”), Jewish
New Year. Usually celebrated in September.
Movement to unite the Jewish people of the
Diaspora (exile) and settle them in Palestine
Hungarian for Arrow Cross, a fascist antisemitic party which assumed power in late
1944 and assisted the SS in deportations of
Jews
Jewish holiday. It is celebrated in the late
spring
called tefillin in Hebrew, consist of two
black leather boxes that are attached to
leather ties; the boxes contain passages
from Scripture written on parchment
• Kapo
• Blockalteste -
director; leader of the group
Block leader
• Appelplatz • Lageralteste -
the place for roll call
a prisoner who was in charge of the other
prisoners
• Shtibl
• Penury
• Kabbalah
-
• Maimonides • Zohar
-
• Glaicia
-
• Gestapo
-
• Kolomay
–
Vocabulary
a house changed into synagogue
severe poverty
body of mystical teachings of rabbinical
origin, often based on an obscure
interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Jewish philosopher and physician, born in
Córdoba, Spain
Jewish mystical text commenting on Torah:
a 13th-century Jewish mystical text that is
the primary text of Kabbalistic writings
region of central Europe in southeast
Poland and western Ukraine
Secret State Police, common designation of
the terrorist political police of the Nazi
regime in Germany
City in Glaicia
Buna
• Shoes
• Gold tooth – trip to the dentist; pretends to be ill;
dentist hanged
• “you…you…you” choosing cattle at a marketplace
• Juliek – violinist – beauty of music – illegal
• SURVIVAL – p 52 = “a famished stomach” loss of
humanity
• Idek – Kapo; mad; cruel – p 54 his father = simile =
angry at his father (upside down morality – break
down of humanity )
• Franek –Pole - greedy- Father is the way to the tooth.
• Idek = publicly whips Elie into unconsiousness
Page 59
•
•
•
•
•
“Two cauldrons of soup!”
Desire overcomes fear of death
Irony = shepherd – ss
Soup – lambs – wolves = inmates
Irony = inmate “snakelike”
Page 61
• Gallows
– Young boy from Warsaw
– Stands in defiance
•
•
•
•
•
Lack of humanity
“I’m hungry”
Appreciation for food
Page 63 – different
Metaphor – p. 64 “…three black ravens”
– Pipel = hated; not this one; angelic
– To hang a child was a problem (ironic)
– Page 65 = “where is God?”
– Food tastes like corpses
Loss of Faith through the hanging of the Pipel
• God has been murdered
• A just God must not exist in a world where
a young child is hanged.
• Lowest point of Elie’s faith
• Death of his innocence with death of the
child
• Loses his faith, morals, values
• Fear – lose connection with his father in
order to survive (p.63)
Elie as the Accuser
•
•
•
•
•
P. 66 – 67
“What are You, my God?...
Benediction…
Anaphora …cynical
“the melody was stifled in his throat.” difficulty
keeping the faith
• Accuser vs accused
• Anaphora – “You..” God is the betrayer
– Powerful; stranger; observer; no longer believed
Yom Kippur
• Fast?
• Metaphor – “locked in hell”
• Open defiance of God’s laws
– Falls into the abyss of despair
Selection
• Rosh Hashanah
– Pass before God for judgment
– Irony
• Nazis = God
• They decide who lives and who dies
• RUN!!! Do not show weakness
Pavlov’s Theory
• Page 73
• “The bell….The bell….a universe without a
bell.”
• Selection – father gives him his knife and spoon.
• Page 76-77: Akiba Drumer – lost his faith, will to
fight, to live; no hope=total despair= death of the
soul
• Forgot to say Kaddish = loss of faith = betrayal
of humankind
Theme of Faith
• From the beginning, Elie Wiesel's work details the threshold of
his adult awareness of Judaism, its history, and its significance
to the devout.
• His emotional response to stories of past persecution
contributes to his faith, which he values as a belief system rich
with tradition and unique in its philosophy.
• A divisive issue between young Elie and Chlomo is the study of
supernatural lore, a division of Judaic wisdom that lies outside
the realm of Chlomo's common sense.
• To Chlomo, the good Jew attends services, prays, rears a
family according to biblical dictates, celebrates religious
festivals, and reaches out to the needy, whatever their faith.
Theme of Faith
• From age twelve onward, Elie deviates from his
father's path by remaining in the synagogue after the
others leave and conducting with Moshe the Beadle
an intense questioning of the truths within a small
segment of mystic lore.
• The emotional gravity of Elie's study unites with the
early adolescent desire for obsession, particularly of
a topic as entrancing as the history of the Spanish
Inquisition or the Babylonian Captivity.
• It comes as no surprise that Elie's personal test jars
his youthful faith with demands and temptations to
doubt because he lacks experience with evil.
Theme of Faith
•
•
•
•
•
When Moshe returns from his own testing in the Galician forest, his
story seems incredible to Sighet's Jews, including Elie.
Later, the test of faith that undermines Elie's belief in a merciful God is
the first night at Birkenau and the immolation of infants in a fiery
trench.
The internal battlefield of Elie's conscience gives him no peace as
atrocities become commonplace, including hangings before breakfast.
The extreme realism of Elie's test of faith at Auschwitz portrays in
miniature the widespread question of suffering that afflicts Europe's
Jews during an era when no one is safe and no one can count on
tomorrow.
Although Elie omits fasting and forgets to say Kaddish for Akiba
Drumer, the fact that Elie incubates the book for a decade and writes
an original text of 800 pages proves that the explanation of faith and
undeserved suffering is a subject that a teenage boy is poorly
equipped to tackle.
Hospital Stay
•
•
•
•
•
•
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•
Pages 78-80
Must have surgery on his foot.
Trust in the Doctor? – German – Hyppocratic Oath
Red Army is advancing
All patients will remain in the hospital.
Inmates will be evacuated to another camp.
Metaphor: “beehive of activity”
“I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He
alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the
Jewish people.”
Irony
• “faceless patient”
– No chance of survival
– Bomb the camp
– Kill all of us
– Eliezer chooses to leave in pain
– They were saved by the Red Army (page 82)
Leaving Buna
page 83
• Anaphora:
• “The last night…the last night…the last
night…”
• Hope still alive: Russians on their
way…soon
• Imagery: “Poor clowns…”
• Death march: “…the bell…death
knell…funeral…”
Inner Strength…still
• “..we were running…like automatons…like
a machine.”
• Wiesel’s faith: saw too much suffering to
break from his past and reject his heritage.
He kept his faith in God throughout.
• Elie’s faith: struggled, but although he
rejects God, he never totally rejected his
faith.
Personification of Death
• Page 86
• “just a few more meters…..a small red
flame..a shot…Death enveloped me, it
suffocated me….”
• Love for his father keeps him alive and
strong to continue. “I had no right to let
myself die.”
Master vs God
• Page 87-89
• “We were the masters of nature, the
masters of the world….”
• God is no longer the Master of the
world…the prisoners are now the
masters…godless worldview…survival is
the only goal..morality is meaningless.
• Personification of Death
• “All around me…dance of
death…something in me rebelled against
that death…”
Father/Son Relationship
Rabbi Eliahu and his son – page 91
Elie and his father – page 91
Although angry with God, still prays…calls
God “Master of the Universe.”
Death So Close
• Page 94-95
– Almost trampled
– Juliek – violin “little corpse”
– Page 96-97
• Imagery: eating snow off each other’s backs
• 100 men to a car…so skinny
– Page 98-99
•
•
•
•
“cemetery covered with snow”
Lack of humanity – strip dead bodies for clothes
Father
“naked orphans without a tomb”
Animals in the Zoo
• Page 100-101
• “dozens of starving men … worker
watched with great interest…”
• Modern society … coins tossed to the poor
• “Beasts of prey….ready to kill for a crust
of bread.”
• Father and son kill for a crust of bread
Buchenwald
• 100 began…12 came out
– Death personified through argument with
father. Page 105
• Guilt- page 106-107
– Relief when father is gone
– Shares his bread grudgingly
– Father begins to die; dysentery
– Page 112- January 28, 1945; father dies
– “Free at last” – should he feel guilty?
Page 113-115
• Liberation
– Liquidation of inmates
– Thousands marched out daily
– SS escape
– American tank enters April 10, 1945
– “From the depths of the mirror…the look inhis
eyes…has never left me.”
DEATH
•
Death 5: As Elie witnesses the hanging of the young pipel, he feels
that it is his God who is hanging on the gallows. Elie identifies with the
death of the young pipel because he undergoes a similar slow, painful,
spiritual death.
•
Death 6: The selection process determines who will live and who will
die. Dr. Mengele, the notorious SS officer, is the person who heads the
selection. He moves his baton to the right or to the left, depending on
the health of the prisoners. Dr. Mengele is like the Angel of Death. He
is the messenger of death.
As the prisoners prepare for the evacuation of Buna, the bell rings. It
signals the start of the winter march. The sight of the prisoners setting
out in the winter is likened to a burial procession. The prisoners
realize that many of them will not make in through the march alive.
•
•
Death 7: On the winter march, the prisoners who cannot keep up are
either shot by the SS officers or trampled upon by the others. The
winter march is a march to their deaths. As Elie sees his friend Zalman
fall behind, he begins to think about his painful foot: "Death wrapped
itself around me till I was stifled. It stuck to me. I felt I could touch
it."The presence of his father is the only motivation that keeps him
going.
DEATH
• Death 8: On the train ride, dead corpses are thrown overboard
onto the snow. "Twenty bodies were thrown out of our wagon.
Then the train resumed its journey, leaving behind it a few
hundred naked dead, deprived of burial, in the deep snow of a
field in Poland." By this time, Elie is indifferent to death.
• As the Jews on the train feel that the end is near, they all begin
to wail like animals that are about to die. The cries are a primal,
instinctive, and reactionary response to death. Many die like
animals, without the dignity accorded to human beings.
• Death 9: At Buchenwald, Elie's father struggles with dysentery.
Elie tries to revive his father's spirit, but it is of no use. Elie's
father is taken away during the night. Elie feels guilty that he
cannot find the tears to weep. Concentration camp existence
has robbed him of the proper response to his father's death.
Elie is emotionally dead.
• Death 10: In his Holocaust experience, Elie undergoes near
physical, spiritual, and emotional death. It is graphically
reflected in the mirror as he sees the image of a corpse staring
back at him.
FAITH
• From the time of his childhood, Elie was extremely interested in
Judaism and studied the Talmud and the Kabbala. He regularly
attended services at the synagogue, prayed to his God, and
wept over the history of the Jews. His father was also very
religious.
• In the concentration camps, religion helps the prisoners to
endure. They regularly pray to God for mercy and help. The
Jews still fast during holy days, even though they are starving
to death. It seems that nothing can shake their faith. Elie's faith,
however, gets shaken to the core.
• Sickened by the torture he must see and endure, Elie questions
if God really exists. He refuses to pray on the eve of the Jewish
New Year and will not fast during the time of atonement. Elie's
faith, however, is not permanently shattered. When he sees a
son robbing from his father, he prays to God that he may never
desert his father. The prayer is answered, for even when his
father becomes a burden, Elie stays by his side and cares for
him.
FAITH
• Faith 1: Elie is a deeply religious boy whose favorite activities
are studying the Talmud and spending time at the Temple with
his spiritual mentor, Moshe the Beadle. At an early age, Elie has
a naïve, yet strong faith in God.
• Faith 2: Many of the prisoners try to cope with their situation by
talking of God. Akiba Drumer, a devout Jew with a deep solemn
voice, sings Hasidic melodies and talks about God testing the
Jews. Elie, however, ceases pray. He identifies with the biblical
character Job, who questions God when misfortunes come
upon him. Similarly, Elie begins to doubt God's absolute
justice.
• Faith 3: As Elie witnesses the hanging of the young pipel, he
feels that it is his God who is hanging on the gallows. Elie
identifies with the death of the young pipel because he
undergoes a similar slow, painful spiritual death. The death of
the pipel is related to the death of his faith in God.
FAITH
• Faith 4: On the Jewish New Year, Elie feels a strong
rebellion against God. He becomes the accuser and
God the accused. But in his rebellion against his
faith in God, he also feels alone and empty.
• The Jews debate whether they should fast for Yom
Kippur. As an act of obedience to his father and also
as an act of rebellion against God, Elie swallows his
food. In the camps, his physical needs become more
important than his faith.
• Faith 5: Even the most devout, religious Jews begin
to lose faith. Akiba Drumer does not make the
selection when "cracks" begin to form in his faith. A
rabbi from Poland, who always recites the Talmud
from memory, concludes that God is no longer with
them. For some, losing their faith in God is akin to
losing their will to live.
FAITH
• Faith 6: As Elie recuperates in the hospital after his foot
surgery, a faceless neighbor tells him that he has more faith in
Hitler than in anyone else because he's the only one who's kept
his promises to the Jewish people. This is a direct attack on
those who have clung to their faith in God. The ultimate insult
is that even Hitler is an object worthier of faith than is God.
• Faith 7: Recalling the actions of Rabbi Eliahou's son, Elie prays
to the God he no longer believes in, that he have the strength to
never do what the rabbi's son had done in abandoning his
father. Rabbi Eliahou's search for his son rekindles in Elie a
sense of hope and faith. Elie feels that at the very least, he
should be faithful to his father to the end.
• From an early age, Elie Wiesel has a tremendous love for
religion, wanting to study the Cabbala and Talmud. When he is
first imprisoned, it is his faith that helps him survive. Like most
of the Jews, he prays regularly for an end to the persecution
and strength to survive. His faith, however, is shaken when he
sees the depth of the atrocities committed against his fellow
Jews. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, he finds that he cannot
even pray, questioning if God exists amongst such cruelty to
mankind. In the end, his faith returns and helps him deal with
his experiences.
MEMORY
• Memory 4: At Buna, Elie is beaten by Idek the Kapo and a young
French girl comes to his aid and tells him to keep his anger and
hatred for another day. Years later, Elie Wiesel recalls running into
her in Paris. They reminisce about the days in the concentration
camp. Such memories are hard to forget.
• Memory 5: After the prisoners go through the selection process, they
forget about it until a few days later when the head of the barracks
reads off the numbers of those selected. Although the prisoners
forget, Dr. Mengele, the one who makes the selections, does not
forget.
• Akiba Drumer, sensing that his death is near, makes Elie and others
promise to remember him when he is taken away by praying the
Kaddish. Due to the harsh treatment they receive, after only three
days since Akiba Drumer is taken away, Elie and the others forget to
pray the Kaddish for him.
MEMORY
• Memory 6: During the train ride in the dead of winter, the
prisoners forget about everything-death, fatigue, and their
physical needs. The unbearable sufferings that the prisoners
undergo desensitize their senses-they are able to block
everything from their minds.
• Elie remembers that Rabbi Eliahou's son had tried to abandon
his father during the winter march. That memory makes him
pray to a God that he no longer believes in, to give him the
strength not to do what the rabbi's son had done.
• Memory 7: Elie cannot forget the smile his father shows him
even in the midst of his suffering. "I shall always remember that
smile. From which world did it come?" Elie asks. These
seemingly minor, death-defying gestures are particularly
memorable.
MEMORY
• Memory 8: Elie finds it hard to forget the last concert Juliek
gives to an audience of dying men. The memory of the last
concert is heightened by the lasting images of Juliek's dead
body and his smashed violin. And whenever Elie Wiesel hears
Beethoven's concerto, he remembers the face of his friend,
Juliek, and his last concert.
• Memory 9: When he awakes from his sleep, Elie remembers
that he has a father. Sleep and fatigue had gotten the better of
him; the survival of his body overcomes him to the point of
forgetting about his father.
• At Elie's father's death, there are no prayers, no candles lit to
his memory, no tears. In the depth of his memory, Elie admits
feeling a sense of relief in not having to worry about his father
anymore. He feels free from his father's physical presence, but
not from the memory of his father, which remains with him
forever.
NIGHT
• Night 5: The impression of "last nights" anchors the
timeframe of Elie's narrative. There are numerous
instances of last nights: the last night at home; the last
night in the ghetto; the last night on the train; the last
night at Buna.
• Night 6: "Night" carries with it the notion of uncertainty
and fear. Short of representing death, night becomes an
imagery of the unknown. As Elie and the other prisoners
prepare to leave Buna, there is a greater fear of what is to
come: "The gates of the camp opened. It seemed that an
even darker night was waiting for us on the other side."
• Night 7: One night, on the winter trek to Buchenwald, Elie
is almost strangled to death by an unknown attacker. Elie
does not know the reason for the attack. Night brings out
the worst dangers.
• The nights become bleaker as the narrative progresses.
Thus, Elie detests the "long nights" of the winter: "We
were all going to die here. All limits had been passed. No
one had any strength left. And again the night would be
long."
MAN’S INHUMANITY TO MAN
• Deportations begin. The Jews are herded into cattle cars and sent to
concentration camps, where they are forced to do hard labor, are
beaten and tortured, are denied food and water, and are often killed
by burning, hanging, shooting, starving, freezing, or beating. Even
the babies and small children are thrown into pits of fire since they
serve no purpose to the Nazis.
• Because of the torture they must witness and endure, the prisoners
become animalistic. When they are made to march, if a fellow
prisoner falls, he is often trampled to death. When food is thrown at
them, the prisoners kill each other to gain a bite of bread. In their
search for survival, sons turn against their fathers; even Elie has
fleeting thoughts of being rid of Mr. Wiesel.
• Through most of the book, however, Elie tries to help his father, who
is repeatedly tortured. He shows him how to march properly so he
will not be persecuted by the Nazi guards; he nurses him after he is
beaten by a guard; he saves him from being thrown off the train as a
corpse; he gets him up and to Buchenwald after he falls amongst
the corpses; and he takes care of him after his skull is cracked for
pleading for water. In the end, Mr. Wiesel is taken to the
crematorium and thrown into the fire, probably while he is still
breathing.
MAN’S INHUMANITY TO MAN
• The major theme of the book is the horror that results
from extreme prejudice. Because Hitler hated Jewish
people, he caused them to be imprisoned, tortured,
and murdered.
• The book records the horrendous experiences of Elie
Wiesel, the Jewish author, during Hitler's reign of
terror. He is arrested, imprisoned in a concentration
camp, and tortured.
• Although he escapes death, he is totally devastated by
the things he must endure and witness during the
holocaust.
• The book is a recording of man's inhumanity to man at
its worst.
• The persecution begins when the Germans occupy
Sighet. Soon Jews are made to wear yellow stars to
identify themselves; in addition, Jewish shops are
closed and Jewish homes are seized, forcing the
families to live in the ghetto.
Eternal Flame
• All Jewish temples have a light that is always
on. It references the Eternal Flame that was
kept burning in the First Temple. Represents
the eternal watchfulness and providence of
God over His people.
• Night – flame and fire represent Nazi power
and cruelty. Reflects Eliezer’s loss of faith.
Symbolizes the evil in the world rather than
God’s benevolence.