1. Introduction to Night Needed: 2-3 sheets of paper
Something to write with
Your complete attention!

2. Quick Write Write a simple response to what I just read to you!
Things to think about…
What went through your mind as I read it
What images came to mind?
What types of feelings/thoughts did you experience as I was reading?
How do YOU feel about this topic?

3. Elie Wiesel – author of Night
Born September 30, 1928 in Sighet
Romanian-born French-Jewish novelist, political activist, and Holocaust survivor.
Author of over 40 books, the best known of which is Night, a memoir that describes his experiences during the Holocaust and his imprisonment in several concentration camps.

4. Family Background
Wiesel was born to Shlomo and Sarah Wiesel with three sisters: Hilda and Bea, who were older than he, and Tzipora, who was the youngest.
Shlomo (father) was an Orthodox Jew of Hungarian descent, and a shopkeeper who ran his own grocery store.
active and trusted within the community
had spent a few months in jail for having helped Polish Jews who escaped to Hungary in the early years of the war.
encouraged Elie him to learn Modern Hebrew and to read literature, whereas his mother encouraged him to study Torah and Kabbalah.
Wiesel has said his father represented reason, and his mother, faith.

5. Background cont.
After the war, Wiesel was placed in a French orphanage, where he learned the French language and was reunited with both his older sisters, Hilda and Bea, who had also survived the war.
In 1955, Wiesel moved to Manhattan, New York, and became a U.S. citizen.

6. His writing career
Wiesel began writing after a ten-year self-imposed vow of silence about the Holocaust.
In the U.S., Wiesel wrote over 40 books, both fiction and non-fiction, and won many literary prizes.
Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for speaking out against violence, repression, and racism.
He served as chairman for the Presidential Commission on the Holocaust from 1978 to 1986, spearheading the building of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

7. Night – Elie Wiesel genre · World War II / Holocaust autobiography
time written  · Mid-1950’s
setting (time)  · 1941–1945, during World War II
settings (place)  · Eliezer’s story begins in Sighet, Transylvania. The book then follows his journey through several concentration camps in Europe:
date of first publication  · English translation was published in 1960.
narrator  · Eliezer (a slightly fictionalized version of Elie Wiesel)
point of view  · Eliezer speaks in the first person and always relates the autobiographical events from his perspective.
tense  · Past
tone  · Eliezer’s perspective is limited to his own experience, and the tone of Night is therefore intensely personal, one-sided, and intimate.

8. Disclaimer – Do not write down
Night is not meant to be an all-encompassing discussion on the experience of the Holocaust; instead, it depicts the extraordinarily personal and painful experiences of a single victim.
You will be exposed to many disturbing ideas, thoughts, and graphics. If you are uncomfortable (or become uncomfortable) with anything we cover – please come see me!