Journal

1

• Journal
• Write about what you know about as
• many of the following topics.
• Adolf Hitler, Nazis, Germany, Judaism,
  Anti-Semitism, genocide, propaganda, swastika,
  star of David, Nuremburg Laws

2
Notes

• Night, by Elie Wiesel

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Meet the Author
When Elie Wiesel (1928- ) was fifteen years old,
the Jewish people in his Romanian village were
deported and imprisoned in Nazi concentration
camps. Wiesel survived his ordeal in the
concentration camps, but his parents did not. He
has spent his life giving testimony to his
experiences and speaking out against hatred
throughout the world. Ironically Wiesel was
almost killed by a taxicab only two weeks after
he moved to NYC in the mid-1950s.
4
Background
Stark monuments to Holocaust victims and
startling memorial sculptures cannot convey the
horror so many families met.
Elie Wiesel testifies to the cruelty suffered by
millions, as he recounts his own unlikely
survival.
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Background
During World War II, Nazi concentration camps
were scenes of unspeakable horror.

• Firing squads
• Gas chambers
• Medical experiments
• Slave labor
• Starvation
• Disease

Full facts about the systematic murder of Jews
and other targeted groups were not known until
the Nazis defeat. By 1945, about twelve million
people had been killed.
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Literary Focus Memoir
A memoir is a type of autobiography, an authors
written account of his or her own life. A memoir

• is more tightly focused than other autobiographies

• concentrates on a particular period, often one of
  historical importance

• varies in its intended impact

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Memoirs continued
Memoirs serve different purposes. Some may
show how historical events affect individuals
lives
make political or philosophicalpoints
set the record straight about a series of events
A memoir may have any or all of these purposes.
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Memoirs continued
Nearly everything Elie Wiesel has written or said
publicly has been a testimony intended to prevent
death camp atrocities from happening again.
In addition to bearing witness to his own
experiences, Wiesel has denounced the persecution
of

• Cambodians
• Soviet Jews
• South African blacks
• Kosovar refugees

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Setting(s)

• 1941-Spring 1944
• Sighet, Transylvania (Romania) Eliezers
  hometown
• Concentration/work camps
• Auschwitz
• Buchenwald
• Buna
• Gleiwitz

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Character Chart
Character Name Identity Importance
Elie Pious Jewish teenager from Sighet
Mr. Wiesel


You will need space for 11 characters
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Characters

• Eliezer/Elie (and his family)
• Elies father
• Moche the Beadle
• Bela Katz
• Franek
• Dr. Mengele
• Yossi and Tibi
• Akiba Drumer
• Juliek
• Rabbi Eliahou
• Zalman

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Cultural Terms to Know

• Beadle a church official
• Talmud Rabbinic writings on the practices of
  orthodox Judaism.
• Cabbala kabala study of Hebrew scripture.
• Yom Kippur Jews in observance of Jewish Holiday.
• Kaddish Jewish prayer for the dead.
• Fascist overly nationalist beliefs oppressive
  style government w/ a dictator.
• Gestapo the German secret police
• SS German police/soldier
• Kapo a Jewish prisoner appointed by Nazis as
  labor foreman.

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Literary Terms to Know

• Theme
• Irony (both verbal and dramatic)
• Plot elements
• Exposition
• Rising action
• Climax
• Falling action
• Conclusion
• Internal and external conflicts
• Symbolism

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Themes

• Father-son bonds (what psychological effects does
  a traumatic event have on family bonds?)
• Faith and the belief in a benevolent god
• Inhumanity toward other human beings (what is
  power capable of doing if a person is told or
  brought to believe that he/she is superior to
  others?)

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History

• Nazi Germany involved propaganda in order to turn
  Germans against all Jews.
• Cartoons such as this were common in Nazi
  Germany. Children were even taught in the schools
  that Jews were inferior.

16

• Hitler used many tactics to create a
• nationalist state. One tactic was an
• identifiable symbol.

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Nuremburg Laws

• Rules put in place to identify those of the
  Jewish faith.
• These rules outlined physical features and
  bloodlines to determine who was Jewish and who
  was not.

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Prejudice and Discrimination Across Cultures
Rwandan Conflict
American Slavery
Holocaust
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Genocide and Slavery
Genocide the deliberate and systematic
extermination of a national, racial, political,
or cultural group Slavery a civil relationship
whereby one person has absolute power over
another and controls his/her life, liberty, and
fortune How are the two terms related? As you
read Night, look at how Elie must face slavery
and genocide.
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American Slavery1770s 1860s
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Rwandan Conflict 1994Tutsi vs Hutu
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Inequality of People
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Turning a Blind Eye
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Elie Wiesel age 15