Transcript Night by Elie Wiesel

By Elie Wiesel
The Holocaust
• Systematic persecution of
European Jews began as soon
as the Nazis gained control of
Germany's government in 1933.
• Within two years, the party
decreed the Nuremberg Race
Laws, which deprived Jews of
German citizenship.
• In 1938, Kristallnacht, a
government-organized
campaign of street violence,
resulted in the destruction of
synagogues, businesses, and
homes in Germany, Austria, and
Czechoslovakia.
• Soon Jews would be forced to
wear the Star of David sewn to
their clothing, as we will see in
Night.
The Holocaust
• More on Kristallnacht….
Pogrom: Russian term
meaning “to wreak havoc, to
demolish violently”
- The term first was used to
refer to well-organized,
violent attacks perpetrated
against the Jewish
population in late 19th, and
early 20th cen. Russia.
- Now, pogroms is used to
refer to such violent attacks
against Jews before and
during WWII.
Adolf Hitler’s
Genocide
Hitler’s army
• Genocide: the deliberate
and systematic
extermination of a
national, racial, political,
or cultural group.
• His goal was to
exterminate all Jewish
people.
• In March of 1944, the
German army took over
Hungary, and the
holocaust reached that
region.
• The Nazis murdered over
560,000 Hungarian Jews.
The Holocaust
• Desperate after the Great
Depression, Germans embraced
Adolf Hitler's promise of riches to
those he dubbed "the master
race"—Aryans of pure German
blood.
• On September 1, 1939, Germany
invaded Poland and started
World War II.
• The German army immediately
began isolating the Jewish
population in ghettos.
• In 1942, Nazis declared "The
Final Solution," a plan to murder
all European Jews. (euphemism)
• The widespread deportation of
Jewish families from the ghettos
to concentration camps began.
Genre of Night
• While the book Night is about
Wiesel’s life, it is not
considered an autobiography,
which typically sketches out an
individual’s entire life story.
• He focuses strictly on those
confined set of specific
circumstances that have
significantly impacted his life.
• Because of this, his nonfiction
story is considered a memoir
rather than an autobiography.
Genre of Night
Memoir: a literary nonfiction genre that details a
collection of specific and moving memories
recorded by the individual who experienced
them…. (somewhat similar to an autobiography)
• Elie- narrator and protagonist of his own history.
• Why do you think Wiesel called his memoir
Night?
• Wiesel called his experiences of writing his story
“cathartic.” Why do you think he used this
word?
Preface & Forewords- both introductory
segments of a literary work.
Preface- written by the author to provide a
solid basis of credibility.
Foreword- written by what would be seen as
a ‘credible’ source in an attempt to introduce
the author to the reader & remind the
reader why they should be reading this
particular work.
Anaphora: a repetition of a word or series
of words for poetic/dramatic effect. The
repetition is typically found at the
beginning of successive clauses.
Motif: any subject, idea, concept, that is
present all throughout a literary work. (It is
almost like a ‘mini theme’)…..
Foreword of Night
1. How does Francois Mauriac feel about being
interviewed by the young Wiesel? Why might this
be?
2. What does iniquity mean as it is used on p. xviii?
3. What literary device is predominant on p. xix?
4. Why might rhetorical questions be used so
predominantly on p. xxi?
5. Why does Mauriac end his foreword with “All I
could do was embrace him and weep”?
Characters
• Eliezer - The narrator of
Night, protagonist, a
teenage boy in the 1940’s.
Dedicated to his faith in
the beginning.
• Chlomo - Eliezer’s father.
His name is only
mentioned one time
throughout the novel, and
is the only other character
that is constant until the
end. Highly regarded in
the community.
• Moshe the Beadle Eliezer’s teacher of Jewish
mysticism, Moshe is a
poor Jew who lives in
Sighet.
Elie as a young boy….
Chapter 1
• Moishe is an expert on the Kabbalah, an
area of Judaism (Jewish mysticism) Elie
has a deep interest in.
• Moishe- “awkward”, doesn’t seem to
care about what others think of him. He
is comfortable in his own skin, seems
completely sustained by his faith….
• Elie’s father thinks he is too young to
study the Kabbalah. It is the sort of area
that can only be understood by those
with greater wisdom and life
experience…..
Elie as a young boy….
It is 1941…..The memoir opens with
Moishe the Beadle, a devoutly religious,
“poorest of the poor” Jew from Elie’s
hometown of Sighet in Transylvania (This
region is now part of Romania).
Notice that people, though, don’t seem to
mind that he’s poor; he’s almost ‘invisible’,
a harmless kind of guy...
• Moishe has a profound effect on Elie’s
spirituality as a young boy of almost 13.
• Elie has two older sisters,
Hilda and Bea, and one
younger sister, Tzipora.
• Elie’s crying when he prays
reveals his tremendous
faith. He is tremendously
moved and affected by the
idea of praying to God.
Moishe helps foster Elie’s
dialogue with God.
Moishe, since he is a foreign
Jew, is taken out of Sighet
due to Nazi orders….
He tries to warn the others of
his horrible experiences, but they do need listen to
his warnings for various reasons: they believe he
actually is crazy or they are trying to protect
themselves from hearing a horrible
reality….(inciting incident)
Moishe is never the same again; he never recovers
from his experiences….

1943 was a reasonably ‘good’ year for the Wiesels.
The people of Sighet still fail to understand the depth
of the threat that is fast approaching. Life is anything
but “normal.”
“Annihilate
an entire people?...By what means? …Of
course we had heard of the Fascists, but it was all in
the abstract.” (not based in reality)- reflects their denial.
1944-
Red Army (Soviets) make strides against Hitler.
“Optimism
soon revived.” – personification &
situational irony: a great contrast between what
actually happens and what is expected or appropriate.
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As begun during Kristallnacht, the Jews of Sighet
notice their rights slipping away as edicts are issued.
(an official order typically issued by the gov’t)
Mr. and Mrs. Wiesel both seem to be in a sort of
shock…
Life is anything but “normal.”
Ghettos functioned as part of a larger apparatus:
complex state-sponsored system designed for the
purposes of control. Jews are not very
frightened of the Germans since they are kind at
first (strategic).
Anaphora- “No more fear. No more anguish.”
“Ghetto was ruled by neither German or Jew; it was ruled
by delusion.”

“Night fell.” – ‘Night’ is repeated as a
metaphor for the emotional darkness and
great sadness that envelopes Elie and his
family. (Also a motif, powerful imagery….)

Stern: “The story that he had interrupted
would remain unfinished.”- foreshadowing
of the separation that was soon to occur.

Chlomo knows the transports to the camps
are about to begin. The ghettos will be
emptied; the citizens will innocently board
train cars to be sent to the death camps.

Phylacteries- Jewish term- leather pouches or boxes worn
on the body containing Old Testament passages. They are
considered sacred objects or like relics.

Notice Elie’s description of the “pitiful relics” and “valuable
objects” all over the ghettos…..Elie still has his phylacteries.

Chief Rabbi was presumably forced to shave his beard.
The face of Mrs. Wiesel is like a “mask”- her emotions have
become deadened…(Or have they?....)

Elie: “Oh God, Master of the Universe!”- apostrophe,
personification & kenning- Notice his faith is still intact

Conflagration- destructive fire (foreshadowing of
/allusion to the fires in the death camps)
Chapter 2

Notice the inhumane conditions the people are forced to
tolerate during the transports: they are so cramped they
cannot lie down, are without anything to drink, and are
extremely hot, are referred to as “dogs.”

Gestapo: If anyone escapes, those remaining would be
shot.

Mrs. Schachter- her hysteria is a foreshadowing
(prediction/hint) of what awaits them. They beat her
mercilessly as she screams repeatedly about “fire.” She
currently is with her son. She never recovered from being
separated from her husband and two sons. She knows
what awaits them. (How is she like Moishe?)
“The separation had totally shattered her.”
Chapter 2

Their great ignorance: they do not know what
is happening at Auschwitz. Also, who does
Elie refer to as “strange-looking creatures”?
Why do you think he does this? Who are these
people?

“The smell of burning flesh” overpowers them
as they arrive at Birkenau, part of the
Auschwitz complex.

The only thing that quiets Mrs. Schachter is the
stopping of the train. Why might this be?

It is around “midnight.”

Chapter 3
Elie feels pressure to lie about his age and occupation to the SS
officer since only those who are young and useful will escape
selection. He is separated forever from his mother and Tzipora.

The prisoners want to fight for their lives, but they are unable to
do so under constant threat of death: “We can’t let them kill us
like that, like cattle in a slaughterhouse.”

Dr. Mengele- “Angel of Death”- kenning- among the worst of
the SS officers- famous for his horrible medical experimentation
upon the inmates.

Elie is scarred by the sight of babies thrown into the flames…

“Never shall I forget those flames”- anaphora- his faith is forever
changed by what happened….
Characters
• Dr. Josef Mengele the historically infamous
Dr. Mengele was the
cruel doctor who
presided over the
selection of arrivals at
Auschwitz/Birkenau.
• Idek - Eliezer’s Kapo
(Nazi police officer at
Buna, the work camp)
Dr. Josef Mengele was
appropriately nicknamed “the
Angel of Death” by inmates at
Auschwitz
Chapter 3
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Kaddish- Jewish prayer of mourning for the dead…
Elie’s changes both physically and spiritually: he is
tattooed, made to wear a uniform, his head is shaved,
and forced to endure his various beatings and others’
suffering, esp his father’s….
Bela Katz- prisoner who is forced to throw his own
father into the furnace
Who are Kapos?.....
The Gypsy beats Elie’s father, Chlomo.
The inscription on the gates of Auschwitz: Arbeit Macht
Frei- “Work Makes You Free”- irony and propaganda
“Never shall I forget those flames”- anaphora- his faith
is forever changed by what happened….
Auschwitz
Chapter 3
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The prisoners are given rations: black coffee, stale
bread, soup. At first, Elie does not wish to eat, but
then he wishes to eat to avoid starvation.
A-7713: Elie’s tattoo- he is stripped of his identity
literally and figuratively….He is no longer thought of
as a person.
Stein- an old relative of the Weisels. He is looking
for his wife and young sons. To protect Stein, Elie
lies and say he knows they are ok.
Stein: “We never saw him again. He had been given
the news. The real news.” verbal irony- Elie is
referring to Stein’s death…
Akiba Drumer: a fellow prisoner whose faith seems
to be rock solid: “We have no right to despair..”
Chapter 4
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At the end of Ch. 3, Elie and his father are
moved from Birkenau to Buna. Both camps
were part of the Auschwitz complex in
present-day Poland.
Young boys became targets of sexual abuse
at the hands of lead Nazi officers. Notice how
the “tent leader” and “head of the camp” are
portrayed very negatively….
Kommandos: work blocks or camps
Elie wishes to hold onto his shoes despite
being offered more rations. (“They were all I
had left.”) They are later taken from him
anyway….
Chapter 4
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Medical examinations determine who is fit to
work and who will be sent to the
crematorium. Dentists would check for gold
crowns and eventually extract them.
Juliek, a Polish prisoner and gifted violinist,
is forbidden to play German music
(Beethoven).
Franek- cruel Polish foreman, Kapo
Elie pretends to be ill to save his gold crown.
Note the irony surrounding the Jewish
dentist: he is hung for keeping the gold
crowns he extracted from the Nazis….
Chapter 4
Idek- Kapo in charge of Elie’s work crew- prone
to random and violent fits of madness, beats Elie
and his father with an iron bar for virtually no
reason
 FLASHFORWARD- literary device in which the
story shifts forward in time. It reveals important
parts of the story that are yet to occur.
 During the flashforward, Elie discusses meeting
the Jewish Frenchwoman who had helped him
after Idek had beaten him the first time. He
learns during the flashforward that she was
Jewish.

Chapter 4
Franek beats Elie’s father Chlomo mercilessly so
that Elie will give him his gold crown. Elie’s gold
crown is extracted with the help of a rusty spoon.
Franek is later transferred to another camp.
 Elie catches Idek engaging in sexual relations
with a female prisoner. Idek has Elie beaten
publicly with a whip for ‘spying.’
 A man is shot for trying to steal a ration of soup
during the Allied air raid.
 The camp at Buna is being bombed; prisoners
must dispose of it.

Chapter 4

Juliek whispers to Elie before the hanging of a
young boy for theft: “This ceremony, will it be
over soon? I’m hungry…”
 Notice how desperate and even inhuman the
prisoners had become. Elie himself had said
that bread and food became his “entire life.”
 Oberkapo- popular head overseer, is tortured
and transferred to Auschwitz for sabotage during
an air raid. The young pipel (described as an
“angel”) who had helped him is hung publicly.
 During this hanging, many are weeping,
including some Nazi officers. The boy is so light
that the hanging takes a long time. “For God’s
sake, where is God?” (Elie: the gallows)
Chapter 5
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Chapter opens with prisoners gathering in
prayer for Rosh Hashanah.
Elie’s faith continues to deteriorate- refers to
himself as a “former mystic”, does not fast on
Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish yearsymbolic of his rebellion against God
“Achtung!”- German for attention, instills fear in
the prisoners…
Elie constantly begins to fear that his father will
not pass the selection process
Elie avoids selection only by running fast to
prove he is fit, active, healthy….
Chapter 5
Elie’s “inheritance”:- a knife and a spoon. He
sobs, showing how much he has been degraded
and how much he fears his father’s death…
 Akiba Drumer, previously so faithful, struggles
with his faith, but it is still present somewhat.
 Notice that the inmates do not say the Kaddish
for him as Akiba had requested. They forget,
are too concerned with survival….

Chapter 5
Elie’s right foot begins to swell for unknown
causes in the infirmary (hospital).
 His neighbor, suffering from dysentery, fears
Hitler’s forces greatly, warns Elie that he should
must leave the infirmary to avoid selection.
(What would selection mean?...)
 Elie’s operation goes well; his leg does not have
to be amputated after all…..
 Rhetorical questions throughout the narration
make the reader think, heighten the mood, add
drama and tension….

Quick Review of Key Literary Terms
The plot of most literary works can be
broken down into parts:
1.EXPOSITION:
Introduction of setting and characters
2. INCITING INCIDENT:
Turning point, or key event that introduces
a conflict, drives plot forward
3. RISING ACTION/COMPLICATION
4. CLIMAX: moment of highest tension
5. FALLING ACTION/DENOUEMENT
6. RESOLUTION: Conflicts resolved
Diagramming the Plot….
1.EXPOSITION:
Audience is introduced to Elie, his family, Moishe
2. INCITING INCIDENT/EXCITING FORCE:
Moishe tries to warn the Jews of Sighet about what had
happened to him and the threat that was coming….
3. RISING ACTION/COMPLICATION:
Begins later in Chapter 1 when the Germans first arrive in
Elie’s community….
4. CLIMAX- occurs when the Jews are running from Buna,
and Elie’s father is on the brink of death.
5. FALLING ACTION/DENOUEMENT: American forces
come to Buchenwald to free the prisoners….
6. RESOLUTION is achieved: Elie is at last “free”- looks
into the mirror…
Chapter 5
3 Types of irony
 Verbal Irony: a statement in which a character
says one things but means something else. It is
typically intentional, is similar to sarcasm.
“A royal feast going to waste!” (Elie on the soup..)
 Dramatic Irony: the reader knows more than
the audience…
 Situational Irony: what actually happens is not
what one would expect or what would be
appropriate.
“After the war, I learned the fate of those who had
remained at the infirmary. They were,….liberated
by the Russians…”
Chapter 6
What are the Jews typically referred to as
all throughout the memoir?
 As subhuman, as animals, “dogs,…swine,
pigs”- powerful imagery, also a MOTIF
 Other motifs: religion, religious
traditions, and especially the use of the
word “NIGHT.”
 (Certainly food, too, of course).

Chapter 6
Zalman: Polish boy who is trampled to
death during the death march
 Elie: “Death enveloped me.”
Strong personification
 Jews run for at days….
 “One died because one had to . No point
in making trouble.”- understatement
All throughout, Elie uses words very
minimally to make a more powerful
statement. Understatement is a signature
characteristic of modern prose.

Chapter 6

Theme: importance of father-son bonds
 Rabbi Eliahu’s son intentionally lost his father
during the death march, wanted to be rid of him
 Elie: “Oh God, Master of the Universe!” Give me
the strength never to do what RE’s son has
done!”…Sons abandoned their fathers w/out a
tear….”
 Juliek’s last act- plays a Beethoven concertoloaded w/ symbolism
Chapter 7
Euphemism- literary practice of using a milder
or less abrasive form of a negative description
instead of its original, unsympathetic form.
 Euphemisms substitute unpleasant and severe
words with more ‘genteel’ ones in order to mask
harshness…The use of euphemisms is
sometimes manipulated to lend a touch of
exaggeration or irony in prose.
 The label “Final Solution” is a sanitized
substitute for the systematic, gov’t-sponsored
murder of millions of innocents….

Chapter 7

Theme: importance of father-son bonds
continues- Elie protects his father’s dying body
in the cattle car, prevents him from being buried
half-alive
 Prisoners who serve as “gravediggers”euphemism- emphasize how degraded they
have all become, survival mode at its most
dramatic…
 Prisoners are “ready to kill for a crust of bread.”
 Flashforward: Elie cannot bear the sight of the
Frenchwoman throwing coins into a fountain and
watching the kids fight over it; the sight reminds
him of the prisoners fighting over the food.
Chapter 7
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On their way to Buchenwald in Germany, an
unidentified man begs his son not to kill him over
a crust of bread. The son kills the father for the
bread, and then the son, too, is killed.
Elie on the above incident: “I was sixteen.”
Understatement- why?
A stranger strangles Elie for no reason, most
likely due to insanity- shows again how they are
almost not human anymore….
Meir Katz- once so physically and mentally
strong- cannot protect Elie….
Chapter ends with their arrival at Buchenwald.
Chapter 8

Elie begins to become like a father to his own
weakened father, Shlomo, who suffers from
dysentery.
 Elie on his father: “He had already chosen
Death…”
-Personification and Foreshadowing
 Elie compares his father to a child and a
“wounded animal.” He compares himself to
Rabbi Eliahu’s son. Why?
 At this point, how are Elie and his father like Mrs.
Schachter and her son?
Chapter 8

Elie listens to the advice of the head of the
block: save yourself! Elie does decide to give his
father soup, but he can only tolerate water. Elie
feels guilty- and conflicted- about viewing his
Shlomo as a burden…
 On January 29, 1945, Elie wakes up to find that
his father has died.
 Elie on his father’s death: “Free at last!”
 Why are these words in his consciousness?
Chapter 9

April 5: SS guards order Jews to gather to
prepare for liquidation and evacuation of the
camp…
 Elie’s first thoughts as a free man- food
 After the death of Shlomo, “nothing mattered.”
 “From the depth of the mirror, a corpse was
contemplating me.”
Personification
Chapter 9

Elie refers to himself in the third person.
It’s almost as though the person in the
mirror is a stranger to him. He cannot
recognize himself- highly symbolic.
The entrance gate to Auschwitz bears the
German words, Arbeit Macht Frei. “Work
makes you free,” Professor Wiesel
translates. “And that is the first ironic
statement ever made here.”
Symbols
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Themes
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Fire
Night
Eliezer’s struggle to maintain
faith in a benevolent God
Silence
Inhumanity toward other
humans
The importance of FatherSon bonds
Rhetorical Devices
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Rhetorical Questions:
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The speaker may want to encourage reflection in the reader.
For example, when Eliezer sees the babies being thrown into the
fire, he asks a series of questions.
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“Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men,
women, and children were being burned and that the world kept
silent?” (p. 32)
Eliezer does not expect an answer to these questions.
He wants the reader to think about what his or her reaction might
have been in seeing the same thing.
Figurative language

Simile
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Be certain not to miss the “like” or “as” when reading the
descriptions.
For example, when Eliezer describes Mrs. Schachter on the
train he states: “…she looked like a withered tree in a field of
wheat.” (p. 25)
The image shows a woman who stands alone among the
people who surround her.
She is already dead, as indicated by the word withered.
Figurative language
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Personification
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Personification is used to give human qualities to
animals or objects.
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“A glacial wind was enveloping us.”
“The stomach alone was measuring time.”
“Jealousy devoured us, consumed us.”
Figurative language

Irony

Verbal irony is when someone says one thing and
means another; dramatic irony is when the reader
knows something that the character does not know;
situational irony is the discrepancy between the
expected results and the actual results.

For example, when Eliezer goes to meet the dentist, the
dentist has a mouth of “yellow, rotten teeth.” (p. 51)
 The irony is that a dentist should have mouth of perfect teeth.

Another example of irony is the inscription that is on the
iron gate at Auschwitz: “Work makes you free.”
Figurative Language
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Foreshadowing
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Foreshadowing is a literary device that is used when the
speaker gives hints about what is going to happen later in the
plot.
There are various examples of foreshadowing in Night, but they
are very subtle.
The reader often recognizes them after reading further in the
text.
One of the clearest examples of foreshadowing is Mrs.
Schächter’s vision of the fires before the prisoners reach the
camps.
Motifs
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Throughout Night, Wiesel repeats literary devices and
images that help to develop the memoir’s major
themes.
Notice
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how night and light are used throughout the text;
how the Jewish traditions and holidays help to pace the
memoir; and
how animal imagery is used to explore the dehumanization of
the Jews.
The image depicts a deserted
street in Sighet's Jewish
ghetto.
…just three weeks before the
Normandy invasion.
The house in
Sighet where
Wiesel was
born…
photographed in 2007.
Elie Wiesel on his Surviving Family
Elie: …When I was still in Buchenwald, I studied the lists of
survivors, and my sisters' names were not there. That's why I
went to France— otherwise I would have gone back to my
hometown of Sighet. In France, a clerk in an office at the
orphanage told me that he had talked with my sister, who was
looking for me. "That's impossible!" I told him. "How would she
even know I am in France?" But he insisted that she'd told
him that she would be waiting for me in Paris the next day. I
didn't sleep that night. The next day, I went to Paris—and
there was my older sister! After our liberation, she had gotten
engaged and gone to France, because she thought I was
dead too. Then one day she opened the paper and saw my
picture [a journalist had come to the orphanage to take
pictures and write a story]. If it hadn't been for that, it may
have been years before we met. My other sister had gone
back to our hometown after our release, thinking that I might
be there. It took almost a year [after meeting my other sister]
for us to meet again.
Elie Wiesel on his Surviving Family
Oprah: After living through such an atrocity, was it possible for you
to be normal again—to go on with your life?
Elie: What is abnormal is that I am normal. That I survived the
Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write, to
have toast and tea and live my life—that is what is abnormal.
Oprah: How did what you experienced affect the way you reared
your son?
Elie: I let my son choose the moment when we would speak about
what happened to me. I didn't want to impose—I let him develop his
own curiosity. When I traveled, I often took him with me [so he could
see what my work was about]. And one day he came to me and said
he wanted to go back with me [to my hometown and the camps].
Recognition…
• Wiesel has lived his life speaking out
against all forms of racism and
violence.
• In 1985 he was awarded the
Congressional Medal of Freedom and,
in 1986, the Nobel Prize for Peace.
• He is partially responsible
for the United States
Holocaust Memorial
Museum in
Washington D.C.
U.S. President Barack
Obama presents the
2009 National
Humanities Medal to
Holocaust survivor Elie
Wiesel in the East
Room of the White
House on February 25,
2010.