1. Socratic Seminar: Pre-Reading Qs:
What causes individuals to hate certain groups of people?
 What are the consequences of simply standing by when something bad is occurring instead of acting?
Is it possible to have world peace? Is it possible for one individual to impact the world for the better?
Do you believe a second Holocaust is possible in today’s world?

2. Bellwork: In your notebook
Agree/Disagree + Explain why:
Educated, cultured people are more likely to do good for their society.
Religion will be the anchor when all else fails.
Evil is done by bad people who have no consciences.
When civilization has been stripped away, man cannot function.

3. An Introduction to Night
By Elie Weisel
“Never shall I forget that first night in camp,
which has turned my life into one long night.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.”

4. Background Written in the mid-1950s by elie Wiesel after 10 years of silence Published in 1958 in Yiddish Published in 1960 in English

5. Brief Biography of Elie Wiesel
Wiesel was born in Sighet, Transylvania, on September 30, 1928 (Sighet has long been claimed by both Hungary and Romania and, in the 20th century, has changed hands repeatedly, a hostage to the fortunes of war)
His parents, Shlomo and Sarah, were Orthodox Jews who owned a grocery store. His father was a well respected and admired community leader.
He had two older sisters, Hilda and Bea, and a younger sister, Tsiporah.

6. Brief Biography of Elie Wiesel
When he was three years old, Wiesel began attending a Jewish school where he learned Hebrew and studied the Torah.
He also spent time talking with Moshe, a Hasidic caretaker in his synagogue who taught Wiesel about the mysteries of Judaism.
Elie was 15 years old when the Nazis deported him and his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

7. Important Jewish Texts
Eliezer, like Elie Wiesel,
studied the Torah and
the Talmud.
A page of the
Talmud
The Torah

8. Hasidic Jews (like Moshe the beadle)
A Hasidic Jew
Praying at the
Western Wall
in Jerusalem
Hasidic children

9. The Holocaust A Human Genocide
1939 – Hitler starts invading Europe and starts his ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ campaign.
1941 – 1st concentration camp is opened.
1945 – war ends and camps are dispersed.
By the time WWII is over, almost 2/3 of the Jewish people in Europe lost their lives, around 6,000,000.
The average life span at a concentration camp was 4 months.