Themes & Motifs
Definitions
What About Elie?
Similes & Metaphors
Key Characters
100

Name the theme that fits these topics: Elie and his father, Rabbi Eliahou and his son

What is family vs. self 

100
Mass murder; murder on a large scale
What is Holocaust?
100

Elie's mentor at the beginning of the book. 

Who is Moishe the Beadle?

100
Define simile
What is comparing two unlike things using "like" or "as"?
100

Identify 3 groups of people Hitler targeted in the Holocaust.

What is: Jewish people, disabled people, mentally ill people, LGBTQ, communists, and gypsies.

200

This is the event Elie witnesses when he first arrives in the camps which causes him to question his faith in God.

What is the murder/burning of babies?

200
A preconceived or biased opinion, often held against someone (ex. the dislike of Jews)
What is a prejudice?
200

This is Elie's new name.

What is A-7713?

200
Define metaphor.
What is comparing two unlike things without using "like" or "as"?
200

Describe what happened to Madame Schachter on the train

What is: she was beaten and tied up for screaming that she saw fire?

300

Explain how Elie's relationship with his father changes over time and provide a specific example of what his relationship was like before the Holocaust and after.

What is they become closer as they fight to survive. Examples will vary.

300
Hatred against Jews
What is anti-Semitism?
300

This is how Elie keeps his gold tooth at first. 

What is: he says he's sick and has to ask his father for permission; eventually the dentist is killed.

300
Using this quote, identify whether or not it is a simile or metaphor and then list what two things are being compared. “Here came the Rabbi…His mere presence among the deportees added a touch of unreality to the scene. It was like page torn from some storybook, from some historical novel about the captivity of Babylon or the Spanish Inquisition (Wiesel 14).”
What is "simile"? The two things are the Rabbi's presence and a page from a storybook.
300
Akiba Drumer's final request is that Elie and his father say the Kaddish for him. What is the Kaddish and what happens 3 days after Akiba is dead?
What is the prayer for the dead? 3 days after he dies, they forget to pray for him.
400

Why does Elie feel "free" when his father passes away? How does he feel about thinking this?

What is: Elie is free from the burden of having to worry about his father's well-being. He feels guilty about these thoughts. 

400
Deliberately killing a large group of people, especially a particular ethnic group or nation
What is genocide?
400

After being liberated, Elie says this is the most important thing. Explain why it is more important than revenge.

What is food? Food is more important than revenge because Elie and the prisoners have been starved for so long, it's the only thing they can think of. They are in basic survival mode.

400
Using this quote, identify whether or not it is a simile or metaphor and then list what two things are being compared. “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me (Wiesel 109).”
What is "metaphor"? It's comparing Elie to a corpse.
400

Identify who the pipel was and explain how his death affected the prisoners.

What is: he was a young servant for one of the commanders; he is hanged for refusing to give up the members of the resistance. His death affected the prisoners because they saw how brutal the SS could be by forcing them to watch a young child die slowly. 

500

Explain how Elie's faith in himself changes throughout the memoir. Provide a specific example.

What is Elie begins to trust himself more and rely on himself for his and his father's survival. Examples will vary.

500
Explain how the sign hanging over the entrance to Auschwitz stating "Work is liberty" is an example of irony.
What is because liberty means freedom and they will not be given freedom for working.
500

List the order in which Elie visited the following places: Buna, the ghetto, Buchenwald, Birkenau, Auschwitz

What is: the ghetto, Birkenau, Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald?

500
Using this quote, identify whether or not it is a simile or metaphor and then list what two things are being compared. “Wailing, groaning, cries of distress hurled into the wind and the snow. The contagion spread to the other carriages. Hundreds of cries rose up simultaneously" (Wiesel 97).”
What is "Metaphor"? It compares cries of distress and contagion.
500

Explain how the following statement is ironic: "I've got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He's the only one who's kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people."

The Jews felt like God had abandoned them, but Hitler and his promise of killing the Jews was ever-present in their lives and was keeping his promises--even though they were bad promises.

M
e
n
u