1. and Elie Wiesel’s Night
The Holocaust
and Elie Wiesel’s Night

2. “On Wiesel’s Night” I cannot teach this book. Instead,
I drop copies on their desks,
like bombs on sleeping towns,
and let them read. So do I, again.
The stench rises from the page
and chokes my throat.
The ghosts of burning babies
haunt my eyes.
And that bouncing baton,
that pointer of Death,
stabs me in the heart
as it sends his mother
to the blackening sky.
Nothing is destroyed
the laws of science say,
only changed.
The millions transformed into
precious smoke ride the wind
to fill our lungs and hearts
with their cries.
No, I cannot teach this book.
I simply want the words
to burn their comfortable souls
and leave them scarred for life.
-- Thomas E. Thornton
English Journal (February 1990)

3. holocaust
a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life especially through fire <a nuclear holocaust>
a mass slaughter of people; especially: genocide
(Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

4. The Holocaust
The systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime in Germany between 1933 and 1945, during WWII.
(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

5. anti-Semitism The hatred of and discrimination against Jewish people
(Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

6. Adolf Hitler Catholic Born in Austria Anti-Semitic
Appointed German Chancellor in 1933
Nazi Party leader--called himself the “Führer” (ruthless, tyrannical leader)
Established a dictatorship in Germany
Implemented “The Final Solution”
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

7. tyranny & dictatorship
cruel and unfair treatment by people with power over others OR a government in which all power belongs to one person: the rule or authority of a tyrant
dictatorship:
a country ruled by a person with total authority and often in a cruel or brutal way
(Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

8. The Nazis Socialist political party in Germany, 1933-1945
Abolished democracy and took control of influential organizations
Swore allegiance to Hitler (rather than German constitution)
The SS (Schutzstaffel: Protection Squadrons):
Nazi police who took over German police
Held extreme power: brutality
Considered themselves “racial elite”
Controlled concentration camps
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

9. persecution
the cruel or unfair treatment of someone, especially because of race or religious or political beliefs
harassment or punishment in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict; specifically: to cause to suffer because of belief
(Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

10. ghetto
A quarter of a city in which Jewish people were forced to live in horrible conditions by the Nazi Regime
Separate from non-Jewish population
Located in Germany, Poland, Soviet Union
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

11. concentration camp
A prison camp used for forced-labor and extermination of “enemies of the state”
Over 20,000 camps built by the Nazi Regime
Run by corrupt SS
(US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
“Work makes freedom”
(entrance to concentration camp Auchwitz)

12. Nazi Concentration Camps
The Nazis built thousands of concentration camps. Here are only a few:
Auschwitz-Birkenau: Poland
Buchenwald: Germany
Dachau: Germany
Janowska: Ukraine
Kaiserwald: Latvia
Natzweiler-Struthof: France
Terezin: Czech Republic
Westerbork: The Netherlands
(Jewish Virtual Library)

13. Peoples Persecuted by the Nazis
Jews
Gypsies (Roma)
Slavic people
Poles
People with disabilities
Non-Aryans
Homosexuals
Political prisoners

14. “The Final Solution” The Nazis’ plan to annihilate all European Jews
Hilter’s ultimate goal to create a “master race”
Nazis killed 6 million Jews: 2/3 of Jewish population in Europe
“The Master Race”:
According to Hitler and the Nazis, the “superior” race of blond-haired, blue-eyed Germans of Nordic descent
genocide:
the deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group
(Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

15. Eliezer (“Elie”) Wiesel
“To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.”
Born in 1928 in Romania
Devoutly religious as a child
Survived concentration camps Auchwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald
Wrote first version of Night 10 years after liberation
Appointed chair of US President’s Commission on the Holocaust and helped created the American Holocaust Memorial
(University of Virginia)