3. How did Wiesel realize his wish to study the Cabbala? a. Curious about it, asked questions, found a teacher

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1 Chapter 1 1. Who is Moshe the Beadle? What does Wiesel tell the reader of Moshe? a. Poor, foreign Jew b. Teacher, church office c. People were fond of him because he stayed to himself d. Awkward e. Trained Elie in the teachings of Kaballah 2. How does Wiesel describe himself as a boy of 12? How does he describe his father? a. Deeply observant, studied a lot, unsentimental, helped others, didn t display his feelings 3. How did Wiesel realize his wish to study the Cabbala? a. Curious about it, asked questions, found a teacher 4. What happened to Moshe? What story did Moshe tell when he returned? a. Taken away by the Hungarian government. Dug trenches then watched the Nazis shoot the Jews. 5. How was Moshe able to escape? How had Moshe changed as a result of his experience? a. Survived with a wound, left for dead. b. No joy in his eyes, no longer sang, no longer mentioned God 6. How did other people in the village react to Moshe s story? Why do you suppose they reacted this way? a. They didn t believe him. They didn t want to believe something so horrible. 7. What was bitterly ironic about the comments that Wiesel s father made regarding the wearing of the yellow star? a. He said the yellow stars weren t lethal. Lethal means deadly. The stars didn t kill them, but the stars were symbols of WHY they would be killed. 8. Despite all that happened, Wiesel tells us that people still remained optimistic about their future. How can you explain this optimism? a. People didn t believe it was as bad as it was. They were hopeful for things to get better. 9. A memoir a story of ones life told by the person similar to an autobiography. Describe the tone of this memoir, and speculate on why Wiesel chooses to this tone. a. He s very serious and reflective because he wants other people to hear what he has to say and learn from his experiences. Chapter 2 1. After several days of travel, what did the prisoners finally realize? a. This was very bad. And this was not going to end well. 2. What happened to Madame Schâchter, and what did she do? a. She lost her mind. Hallucinated fire. Yelled and screamed in her hallucinations. 3. How did this affect those in the cattle car with her?

2 a. They hit her. Yelled at her. Doing anything to make her stop. 4. When the prisoners were finally unloaded from the train, where were they? What was significant about the time? a. Auschwitz, then taken to Birkenau (inside of Auschwitz) b. Midnight. Dark can t see where they are or what it s like. Chapter 3-1. Immediately after the Jews were unloaded from the train, what do the German officers do? Divide/separate the men from the women 2. The men were then marched before Dr. Josef Mengele. What did he do? What was his purpose? Divided the men by their age and physical condition, sent them right or left 3. What did another prisoner say would happen to Elie s group? poor devils you are headed to the crematory 4. What did Elie witness while he was standing in the line? What was his reaction to what he saw? Babies being burned in a ditch of fire 5. One way an author has to effectively emphasize a point is through selective repetition of a word or phrase. What phrase does Wiesel employ to highlight the horror of his first night in the concentration camp? never shall I forget 6. What was Eli s first impression of Auschwitz? It was better than Birkenau. Cement buildings instead of wooden buildings. 7. The next day, the prisoners underwent a last step of their admission process. What was it? Tattooed prison identification numbers on their arms 8. Since the prisoner in charge of their block was kind, and since there was no work to be done, Elie and his father tried to avoid being transported anywhere else. How were they able to avoid being transported? Sign up as an unskilled worker 9. Stein continued to visit the Wiesels, but suddenly they no longer saw him again. What happened to Stein? He found out his family s fate and gave up. We can infer that he was killed because Elie never saw him again.

3 10. How did some religious Jews see their troubles? How did Elie feel about God? God was testing them. Or that had turned his back on them. Questioning their faith. Stopped praying. Doubted God s justice, but not his existence. Chapter 4-1. How did the new camp appear to Elie? Empty and dead. Nothing was there. No one was around. 2. After several days, Elie and his father were assigned to a work detail. What were they to do? What potential problems were there in this job? Counted small electrical parts. Boring. They could be easily replaced. 3. How did Elie avoid having his tooth pulled? He pretended to be sick for multiple days. 4. Why was Elie so please about saving his gold crown? It could be useful to him later. To get food or longer to live. 5. Who cleaned the blood from Elie and soothed him with kind words? What was unusual about her? The French girl. 6. Elie tells of meeting this same woman many years later in Paris. What important question did he ask her, and what was her reply? He met her again years later and found out she had fake papers and was able to pretend to be German. Why did you help? She basically says that she helped because she could. 7. What did Franek, the Polish foreman, want from Elie? What was Elie s response? His crown. Needs to ask his father. The foreman threatens him. 8. How did the foreman get revenge on Elie and his father for refusing to give up the gold tooth? Gave it to him in exchange for his niceness- and gets some extra food as a result 9. All of the Kapos were also prisoners, and most were Jewish. Are you surprised about how cruel and greedy they were? Should be. Shows how selfish people become in a crisis.

4 10. Why was a prisoner shot during an Allied air raid on the prison camp? He tried to get extra soup. 11. Why were the prisoners happy about the air raid even though they might have been killed by bombs? Meant that the Allies were getting closer to helping them. 12. One day, the prisoners were told that soup would not be disturbed until after roll call. Why was this? They forced the prisoners to watch an execution. 13. What other public execution does Wiesel write about? Why was this execution particularly cruel? It was a little boy who suffered before he died- and everyone was forced to watch him suffer. Chapter 5 1. During Yom Kippur, what did the prisoners debate? Whether or not they should fast (because that was the custom, BUT they were starving.) 2. What gift did the Germans have for the prisoners for the New Year? They started selection of the Jews for the crematoriums based on how weak/sick/old the people were. 3. When Elie s number was not written down for selection what joke did his friend make? That they couldn t have written it down because he was running too fast. 4. What did the head of the block tell everyone after the selection process was over? Why did he say this? He told them that nothing will happen to them, and they will just spend their lives being worried. He mainly said it because the Jews questioned him, and he didn t like that. 5. Several days later though, some of the prisoners were told that they were not to report to work but would instead stay in camp. Who were these prisoners? They had been selected by Dr. Mengele (Dr. Death) 6. What was to become of these men? They were going to be killed in the crematorium. 7. What did Elie s father give to Elie, and what did Elie ironically call it?

5 Knife and spoon. He called it an inheritance. This is ironic because an inheritance is usually a good thing of great value, and this is a fairly worthless knife and spoon. 8. When winter came to the camp, what happened to Elie? He gets some sort of infection in his foot. He has to have surgery, and he worries about his foot being amputated, but it wasn t. 9. Two days after Elie s operation, what rumor began circulating around the camp? Why was this good news for the prisoners? That the Red Army (the Russians) were nearing the camp. This meant that the war would end and the prisoners would be freed (or liberated) from these camps. 10. Why did Elie s hospital neighbor refuse to be fooled? He said that they would never be rescued because Hitler s goal was to always kill ALL of the Jews, and Hitler wasn t going to give up just because the Russians were closing in. 11. What became of those people who stayed behind in the hospital? They were actually liberated (freed) by the Russians even though every anticipated that they d be killed. Chapter 6 1. As the prisoners ran through the night, what orders were the S.S. guards under? Shoot anyone that couldn t keep up. 2. Although Elie felt that he could have easily given up and died, why did he run on? Because his father was next to him, and he couldn t leave him. 3. Some time later, Elie was awakened by his father. Why would he not let Elie sleep? His dad was afraid that if he fell asleep, he would never wake up. 4. What agreement did Elie and his father reach? To take turns resting to make sure the other stays alive and safe. 5. The second night s march is different from the first in what ways? People were dying all over the place even though they were getting closer to a destination. 6. When the prisoners finally reached their destination of Gleiwitz, a new danger rose. What was it? No food, no water, stayed in their barracks all the time. They could tell the front of the war was getting closer to them, but they couldn t do anything about it.

6 7. After three days, what happened? Another selection, and then everyone leftover went into a cattle car. 8. How did some of the prisoners try to distance themselves from the grim reality of their existence? By focusing on anything else- like the violin or eating the snow. Chapter 7 1. After the transport train stopped in the middle of a field, what orders were given? To throw all the dead bodies out of the train. 2. How did the prisoners respond? How did Elie save his father s life? They were glad to have more room. People thought Elie s dad was dead and wanted to throw him out, but Elie fought them to say he was alive. 3. At one stop, a workman tossed in a piece of bread. What happened? How can you account for the prisoner s actions? People fought each other TO THE DEATH for the bread. They were CRAZY with hunger- truly starving- so they stopped caring about life of other people because their hunger was so strong. 4. Throughout this chapter, how does Elie view the average German civilian? He thinks they are just clueless about what s really happening almost CHOOSING to ignore the suffering of the Jews since it s not them. 5. What scene did Elie witness? At the end of this scene why do you suppose Elie tells us that he was fifteen? He saw people kill others for a piece of bread. He saw a bunch of bodies stacked on top of each other all around him. He mentioned his age because it s so much more troubling to think about a person of his age dealing with something so horrific. Chapter 8-1. After they arrived, the prisoners were supposed to shower. What did Elie s father want to do? Sit down and rest, wanted to be left behind 2. The next day when Elie went to search of his father, what was his fleeting hope? He thought maybe he was dead, and felt relief of not having to worry about his father anymore. It would let him focus on his own survival, rather than worrying about his father as well. 3. Weakened further by dysentery, the father could not get out of his bunk? What further injury did some of the inmates do him? They beat him up. Because he was so weak, he would have to use the bathroom in his bed (which would obviously stink and make things even worse.)

7 4. What advice did the block leader give Elie? Give up on your dad, worry about yourself. 5. After lying ill for over a week, what finally happened to Elie s father? He was taken away. We assume to the crematorium- or maybe he was shot- or maybe he died in his sleep and the Nazis just took his body away. Chapter 9 1. How long was Elie s stay at Buchenwald? What were his thoughts during this time? Jan 29- April 11 Nothing mattered Spent his days alone, only concerned with eating 2. How did the prisoners know that the end of war was near? What did the prisoners think was going to happen to them? Asking the prisoners to gather together Hitler was going to keep his promise. Which means that he was going to succeed in killing all the Jews 3. What did the Germans decide to do with the prisoners? Killed them. Starved them. Moved them. 4. What happened to Elie after liberation? He got sick and wasn t sure if he would survive (after surviving ALL THAT TIME!) 5. What does that last line of this book suggest? When Elie sees his own eyes, he sees death because of all he has faced and seen in the last years. He is sure that seeing that kind of death will stay with him forever which is why it was so important to tell his story: his life was forever changed.