Events
The place where all Jews (including Elie and his family) were forced to live before being sent to concentration camps
What is the Ghetto?
He tutors Elie.
What is Moshe the Beadle?
Elie Wiesel's Night shows that it can diminish and even fail when faced with unspeakable horror and suffering.
What is faith?
Elie manages to stay with him for the duration of their incarceration.
Who is Elie's father?
“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
Elie Wiesel.
It occurs at the beginning of the book in the preface. It is significant because Wiesel tells readers from the beginning that his purpose in writing Night is to always remember those that died in the Holocaust.
The reason Elie is sent to the infirmary.
What is an infected foot?
This necessity of life is the thoughts of most prisoners and their bellies and leads many of the oppressed to turn on each other.
What is food?
His warnings are ignored near the beginning of the story.
Who is Moshe the Beadle?
"Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never."
This passage, from Night’s third chapter, occurs just after Elie and his father realize they have survived the first selection at Birkenau. It is perhaps Night’s most famous passage. Elie reflects upon his horrendous first night in the concentration camp and its lasting effect on his life, he introduces the theme of his spiritual crisis and his loss of faith in God.
Elie's religious realization on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.
What is lost his faith in God?
This instinct compels some of the prisoners to fight even their own family members for food and other resources.
What is survival?
He is the doctor of Auschwitz, famous for his "selections" and horrific experiments.
Who is Dr. Mengele?
“One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself in the mirror on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.”
Elie says this after looking at himself in the mirror after leaving Auschwitz. He is thin and near death. So much so that he barely recognizes himself. The image is so striking that Elie has never forgotten it and continues to fight against oppression.
What Mrs. Schacter hallucinates.
What is a large fire?
Why do you think Elie Wiesel wrote Night?
What is to never forget the horrors of the Holocaust.
He is the cruel Kapo who whips Elie.
Who is Idek?
"My God, Lord of the Universe, give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done."
Elie says this after Rabbi Eliahou's son had deserted him and left him to survive on his own. The quote epitomizes the father, son theme in the novel. Many children were forced to choose between their survival or caring for their parents. This is another horror of genocide.
What happens to the sick prisoners who stay behind in the infirmary when the camp is evacuated?
What is liberated?
Who does Elie begin to turn on throughout the Holocaust?
His own father and God
Many prisoners face this inner-conflict in their struggle to survive in such dehumanizing and horrible conditions.
What is civility vs. savagery.
The violinist who plays one last concert before dying.
Who is Juliek?
“They are committing the greatest indignity human beings can inflict on one another: telling people who have suffered excruciating pain and loss that their pain and loss were illusions.”
Elie's Jewish doctor who operates on his foot. The doctor is firmly believes in Hitler, despite the atrocities he was committed. Hitler has always followed through on his plans to end the Jews.