1. night
By: Elie Wiesel

2. Discussion focus Elie Wiesel’s WebQuest Mein Kampf
Heil Hiitler: Confessions of a Hitler Youth
Reading # 1: Facing History Selections
One Survivor Remembers
Holocaust ID Cards
Nutrition as a Weapon
One Day Calorie Tally

3. A Walk through Auschwitz
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4. McDonald’s nutrition facts

5. Jews move into the Kovno ghetto

6. This is where prisoners selected for slave labor were processed.

7. View of the kitchen barracks, the electrified fence, and the gate at the main camp of Auschwitz "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work makes one free).

8. Prisoner’s orchestra Concert

9. Forced Labor

10. Roll Call – sometimes took over 12 hours

11. Crematory

12. The central questions
What is the relationship between our stories and our identity? To what extent are we all witnesses of history and messengers to humanity?
And yet, I still wonder: Have I used the right words?” – Elie Wiesel
In retrospect I must confess that I do not know, or no longer know, what I wanted to achieve with my words. I only know that without this testimony, my life as a writer—or my life, period— would not have become what it is: that of a witness who believes he has a moral obligation to try and prevent his enemy from enjoying one last victory by allowing his crimes to be erased from human memory.

13. Short summary
Night is a terse, terrifying account of the experiences of a young Jewish boy at Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp.
The book opens in 1941 in his hometown of Sighet, a small isolated community tucked away in the mountains of Transylvania, then under Hungarian rule.
Eliezer, the narrator, begins with a description of Jewish life in the town.
He also draws a vivid picture of himself and his family. He focuses in particular on his fascination with his religion, particularly the mystical aspects of his faith.

14. Short summary cont.
In 1941, Europe is in its third year of war. By this time it has become more and more dangerous to be a European Jew.
Yet, despite the news from other countries, the Jews of Sighet refuse to believe that they are at risk.
People prefer to be optimistic. Their optimism lingers even after German soldiers enter the town in the spring of 1944, force the Jews into ghettos, and, eventually, into cattle cars for deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.

15. Critical responses to the memoir
Night was Elie Wiesel’s first book. It was written 10 years after he was liberated from Buchenwald, in Yiddish (900 pages long).
The original title was: And the World Remained Silent.
Robert McAfee Brown, a professor of theology, has called Night the one book by Wiesel “that most cries out not to be touched, interpreted, synthesized. It must be encountered first hand.”
Did not attract many readers when it was first published in 1955.

16. About the author
Born in 1928 in the Jewish sector of Sighet, Transylvania.
Father, Shlomo was a shopkeeper who was deeply involved in the Jewish community.
Mother was well-educated and wanted her son to become a rabbi.
Elie immersed himself in religious studies and had dreams of becoming a scholar.

17. About the author cont.
After the war Elie was sent to France with 400 other child refugees.
At the boarder the children were asked if they wanted to become French citizens, Elie who did not understand the language did not answer and therefore remained stateless until when he became an American citizen.
In France Elie studied French, Jewish studies, and took classes in philosophy and literature.
Supported himself by tutoring Yiddish, Hebrew and the Bible.

18. About the author cont.
He eventually became a reporter who wrote articles in French, Yiddish, Hebrew and English (learned in India).
On one assignment in 1954, he met the French Catholic writer François Mauriac who not only urged the young reporter to write about his experiences but also helped him find a publisher (Mauriac wrote the foreword for Night).

19. About the author cont. Has written over 35 books.
Lives in New York City with his wife Marion and his son Elisha.
He is a Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and University Professor at Boston University.
Over the years, he has received many awards for his work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States Congressional Gold Medal, the French Legion of Honor, and, in 1986, the Nobel Peace Prize.

20. Roots of anti-Semitism
Scholars are still debating why the Jews were singled out for destruction. But historians have traced negative feelings towards the Jews back 2,000 years to the Romans and the beginning of Christianity.
After the Romans conquered Palestine (a Jewish state at the time), they demanded that the Jews obey Roman laws and pray to Roman gods.

21. Roots of anti-Semitism cont.
When Jews refused to do so, they were labeled “stubborn,” “clannish,” and “hostile.”
As pressure to accept Roman culture mounted, Jews searched desperately for a way to maintain their religious identity. Some urged open rebellion against Rome. Others, including Jesus, argued for peace.
Eventually Jesus’s disciples separated themselves from Judaism, forming Christianity.
As a result, each came to regard the other as not only different but also suspicious, even dangerous.
As a small minority in Europe, Jews were particularly vulnerable to attacks by the Christian majority.

22. Race and anti-Semitism
Until the 1800s the term race referred to people who shared nationality.
In the 1800s race referred to a genetic heritage. People began to rank races, and took great pride in being Aryan.
In the 1900s the idea of a “racial enemy” began to be discussed.

23. The rise of hitler
Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor (Prime Minister) of Germany in 1933.
He replaced a democratic government with a dictatorship based on “race” and terror.
He created laws that stripped Jews of citizenship and made it a crime for Christians to have contacts with them.
After conquering a country Hitler sent the Jewish community to Ghettos and than Death Camps.

24. Memoir vs autobiography
Night is classified as a memoir.
Memoir: based on what you remember.
Autobiography: Requires research and complete accuracy.
Wiesel does not intend Night to be a comprehensive view of the Holocaust.
Rather he relates to the reader the horrible things that he experienced.
And uses these events to explore various themes.

25. Biographical vs. historical approach to writing
Writers are looking at the world through “lenses.”
Writers live in particular times and places.
Each writer brings to a work a family background, an educational background, a work background, etc.
Biographical Approach
Means that you use the writer’s life experiences to analyze and respond to a text.
A writers personal experiences and even prejudices can be reflected in the work.
Historical Approach
Means that you use the time period in which a text was written to analyze and respond to the work.

26. characterization Major or Minor Round of Flat Dynamic or Static
Direct Characterization vs. Indirect Characterization
*FOCUS ON ELIE WIESEL AND HOW THE CHANGES IN HIS CHARACTER AND MOTIVATION ARE USED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEME.

27. parallelism
the state of being similar or of corresponding in some way.
War
The Jewish Calendar
Events of the Novel

28. conflicts Man vs. Man Man vs. Self Man vs. Nature Man vs. Society
*ANALYZE HOW THE CONFLICTS AFFECT WIESEL’S CHARACTER AND MOTIVATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEME.

29. Major themes Relationships Man and Son Man and God Lies and Deceit
Identity
Mortality
Freedom and Confinement
Violence
Race
Faith
Inhumanity
Silence
Suffering and Survival

30. Point of view First Person Point of View 15-16 Years Old
Written 10 years after liberation.
How might the memoir be different if written immediately after the Holocaust?

31. genre Coming of Age Autobiographical Jewish Literature Memoir
Death and Survival

32. Tone Somber/Subtle – No attempt to lighten the mood. Mournful Honest
NOT Angry or Hateful

33. Writing style Stark, personal, sparse. Short, choppy sentences.
Lack of detail is a way for the narrator to remove himself.
“Beyond Words.”

34. Literary techniques Symbolism Night, Flames, Corpse Imagery Metaphors
Juxtaposition
Similes
Syntax – word choice/word order
Ellipses – the ommission of one or more words from a sentence.
Personification
Foreshadowing

35. Understatement
While Elie Wiesel does use figurative languages and rhetorical features throughout the memoir, he lets the events speak for themselves.
He does very little to add to the brutality and terror that he witnessed.

36. Motifs – how do these support the theme?
Night and Light
Jewish Traditions and Holidays
Animal Imagery

37. Didactic stories
Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive.
Allegories
Apologues: a moral fable
Parables: a simple story used to teach a moral or spiritual lesson.
Fables

38. archetypes Universal Characters.
Classifying symbolic or traditional roles and analyzing how characters are connected within a tale.

39. setting Transylvania Town of Sighet. Jewish Ghetto in Sighet.
Cattle Car
Concentration Camps
Birkenau, Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald
Each move results in more losses of personal freedom and more dehumanization and an increase in violence.