By Elie Wiesel
Adolf Hitler s Genocide Hitler; his 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 The evil that Elie Wiesel witnessed is known as the Holocaust, a mass murder meticulously planned and executed by Nazi Germany. 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 attack, resulted in the destruction of synagogues, businesses, and homes in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Soon Jews were forced to wear the Star of David sewn to their clothing.
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. The widespread deportation of Jewish families from the ghettos to concentration camps began.
The Holocaust Throughout the 1930s and '40s, Nazis established thousands of concentration camps in Eastern Europe. In a small Polish town stands one of the most notorious and massive camps Auschwitz. The complex spans 6,720 acres almost half the size of Manhattan. Auschwitz consisted of three large subcamps: Auschwitz I, the torture center; Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, the point of arrival and main death factory; and Buna, the work camp.
The Holocaust In the beginning, prisoners were executed, starved or worked to death. Soon a faster method of killing evolved, allowing Nazis to murder thousands of people at a time gas chambers. Auschwitz was the Holocaust's most productive death camp. Seventy-five percent of those who arrived were immediately sent to the gas chambers, mostly women and children; the remaining were deemed fit to become slave laborers.
The Holocaust Based on declassified war-time intelligence reports, the Allies likely knew about the Nazis' plans to destroy Europe's Jews as early as the summer of 1942. Nearly 5 million more Jews would be killed before the camps were finally liberated in 1945.
Auschwitz fence posts encompass a quotation from Elie Wiesel's book Night in the third floor tower room of the permanent exhibition at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Courtesy: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum NEVER SHALL I FORGET THAT NIGHT, THE FIRST NIGHT IN CAMP
About the Author Elie Wiesel Born on September 30, 1928, in Sighet, a small town in Transylvania Elie and his family were sent to the holocaust in May, 1944, where he was separated from his mother and sisters. He and his father remained together throughout their experience. Wiesel s message of peace has inspired many
About the Author Elie Wiesel In 1940, Romania became part of Hungary, an area that was soon invaded by the Nazis. Elie had two older sisters and one younger sister. His family was Jewish, and Elie studied Hebrew and the Hassidic sect of Judaism.
About the Author Elie Wiesel Elie survived and was liberated on April 11, 1945. After the war, Elie spent the next ten years living and studying in France, refusing to write anything about his experiences in the concentration camp.
Elie Wiesel s strong connection with the Jewish Community Elie Wiesel s Novel, Night His father was involved with the community Wiesel studied the Torah (1 st five books in the Old Testament) Wiesel studied the Talmud (oral law) and the Cabbala Wiesel s book was published in 3 different languages and as part of a trilogy with Dawn and Day; containing more detail of his experience
Genre of Night While the book Night is about Wiesel s life, it is not necessarily considered an autobiography He changes facts to make his characters different, making this a fictional story. Because of this, his story is considered more of a memoir than an actual novel. Wiesel now lives in New England as an American citizen. Malnutrition and starvation were common in the concentration camps
With the encouragement of Francois Mauriac, Eliezer Wiesel broke his silence on the horror of the Holocaust to produce an 800 page memoir entitled, Un di Velt Hot Geshvign, in 1956. That cathartic story was reworked over two years and became the slim 1958 novella La Nuit which became Night in 1960. Wiesel's novel revealed the Holocaust in stark, evocative, detail.
Background of Novel: This story is about Elie Wiesel, a young teenage, Jewish boy who is a survivor of the holocaust. The story takes place in Sighet, Transylvania, Hungary, and Auschwitz, Germany in 1944-1945 The German troops invade his hometown, force all of the Jews to load up on a train and travel to Auschwitz. Elie as a young boy; passengers load onto the trains
Night begins in 1941 in a Hasidic Community in the town of Sighet, Transylvania. There we meet a devout young boy named Eliezer who is so fascinated by his own culture and religion that he wishes to study Jewish cabbala. His father, however, says he must master the Talmud before he can move on to the mystical side of the Jewish faith. Moshe the Beadle indulges the boy until the reality of World War II reaches them. The fascists come to power in Romania and foreign Jews are deported; Moshe with them. Some days later, he makes it back to town and tells them what happened. All the people presumed deported were shot. Sighet Synagogue
That was only the beginning, the dusk of the coming night. Within a matter of paragraphs, officers of the Nazi SS corps have arrived and the family is broken up and sent to Birkenau. The metaphorical night only gets darker as Eliezer struggles to survive in the brutality and degradation of the camps. The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don t die of it Elie Wiesel s father
Background They first arrive in Birkenau where Eliezer and his father are separated from his mother and sisters, never to see them again. They have to endure selections (where the German troops select those who will go to the furnace and die, and those who will go to the barracks and work). The many barbed wires and barracks of a concentration camp
I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes were open and I was aloneterribly alone in a world without God and without man. Elie Wiesel's House
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.
The house in Sighet where Wiesel was born photographed in 2007.
The image depicts a deserted street in Sighet's Jewish getto, after the Jews were deported from it to be exterminated at Auschwitz, in May 1944 just three weeks before the Normandy invasion.
Birkenau
Auschwitz
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.
"When I come here, I'm not really alone. I'm with you but I'm not only with you," Professor Wiesel tells Oprah. "They are around us.... I think of them all the time, but here even more so." A case filled with empty Zyklon B cans is a haunting reminder of the poisonous gas used by the Nazis for killing prisoners on a massive scale. Mountains of shoes serve as somber evidence of Nazi war crimes. Each pair tells a story of a human being who once lived elegant shoes, poor shoes, dancing shoes, children's shoes. The families arrived in Auschwitz with their most treasured possessions packed into suitcases. On the outside of each case, the unsuspecting owners wrote their names and dates of birth believing their things would be returned.
Background Problems and Conflict Wiesel encounters many obstacles, mentally, physically, and spiritually, that he must endure. He is forced to witness murders, is malnourished, and is constantly doubting his once confident faith. The entire story is based on his experience there.
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 whole novel, and is the only other character that is constant. Highly regarded in the community. Moshe the Beadle - Eliezer s teacher of Jewish mysticism, Moshe is a poor Jew who lives in Sighet.
Characters Madame Schächter - A Jewish woman from Sighet who is deported with the rest of the community, and goes crazy. Juliek - A young musician who Eliezer meets in Auschwitz. Tibi and Yosi - Two brothers who Eliezer becomes friends with.
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 Angle of Death by inmates at Auschwitz
Symbols Themes Fire Night Eliezer s struggle to maintain faith in a benevolent God Silence Inhumanity toward other humans The importance of Father- Son bonds
Rhetorical Devices Wiesel s use of language helps emphasize the meaning, action, and tone of the sections.
Rhetorical Devices Rhetorical Questions: Rhetorical questions are asked to achieve a purpose other than finding the answer to the question. 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. 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.
Rhetorical Devices Sentence variety Pay attention to the sentence structures that Wiesel uses in the narration. At some points in the memoir the sentences are long, and in some passages the sentences are only one word. Wiesel varies the sentences length, structure, and order in order to parallel action in the passage or to help establish a tone.
Rhetorical Devices Understatement Wiesel uses understatement throughout Night to help the reader visualize the events in the memoir. Because many people are familiar with the details of the Holocaust, Wiesel understands that it would be difficult to adequately describe the true nature of what happened. Instead, he lets the silence between the words serve as the true meaning.
Figurative language Wiesel uses figurative language throughout the memoir to amplify the images that the narration already creates.
Figurative language Simile 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 Metaphor Metaphors can be recognized by finding the two ideas that are being compared. For example, as the prisoners are first being transported from Sighet, they come face to face with the men who will be guarding them. Eliezer uses the following metaphor to describe the men. Strange-looking creatures, dressed in striped jackets and black pants, jumped into the wagon. (p. 28) The image of the strange-looking creatures is meant to describe the men who come into the train to brutalize the prisoners. They are not really creatures, but Wiesel s image illustrates their animalistic brutality.
Figurative language Personification Personification is used to give human qualities to animals or objects. A glacial wind was enveloping us. (p. 36) The stomach alone was measuring time. (p. 52) Jealousy devoured us, consumed us. (p. 59)
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 Foreshadowing 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. (p. 24)
Motifs Throughout Night, Wiesel repeats literary devices and images that help to develop the memoir s major themes. Notice 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.
Summary Write a 3-5 sentence summary of what you learned about Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust, and Night.