1. Night by Elie Wiesel

2. What do you know about the book?

3. ❖ Term coined after WWII as a direct result of how some nationalities and ethnic groups, particularly Jews, were mistreated during the war. ❖ Greek root ➢ genos meaning race, nation, or tribe ❖ Latin suffix ➢ cide meaning killing Genocide

4. ❖ The intention of genocide is the annihilation of a race or ethnic group ❖ Usually desired as a solution to a problem ❖ Night is a story about the worst genocide in modern history

5. What do you know about it? Holocaust

6. ❖ Word stems from a Greek root meaning burnt whole ❖ Destruction or slaughter on a mass scale ❖ Refers to the destruction of six million European Jews (and almost six million non- Jews) during 1933-1945 *Background reading

7. About Elie Wiesel ❖ Born on September 20, 1928, in Sighet, Transylvania. ❖ His parents owned and operated a store, and his mother was also a teacher. ❖ He credits his maternal grandfather with his love of storytelling. ❖ During the years when he was studying so seriously, he thought it was a waste of time to read novels. ❖ Just after Passover in 1944, when Wiesel was 15, the Nazis sent all of the Jews in Sighet to the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. ❖ He and his father were later transferred to Buchenwald. ❖ He was 16 when the war ended and he was released.

8. About Elie Wiesel ❖ Soon after his release from the concentration camps, Wiesel realized that he had a duty as a survivor to let others know what had happened. ❖ Wiesel's first book, And the World Has Remained Silent, was published in Yiddish in 1956. The abridged, autobiographical version, Night, was published in Paris in 1958. Since then it has been translated into eighteen languages and is his best-known work. ❖ He married another Holocaust survivor, Marion Erster Rose, in New York in 1969. ❖ Wiesel has received numerous awards and honors. ➢ In 1986 alone he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Freedom Cup Award from the Women's League for Israel, the Jacob Javits Humanitarian Award of the UJA Young Leadership, and the Medal of Liberty. ❖ He continues to write and speak for peace and the humanitarian treatment of all peoples.

9. Why do you think are we reading Night?

10. Why are we reading Night? Additional answers... ❖ To learn about the human potential for evil and to guard against it ❖ To see that the seeds of prejudice, racism, and undue nationalism (excessive superiority) do not ripen within the present day world’s society

11. Terms/People to Know ❖ Nazi - or National Socialism, is a set of political beliefs associated with the Nazi Party of Germany. It started in the 1920s. The Party gained power in 1933, starting the Third Reich. They lasted in Germany until 1945, at the end of World War II. ❖ Fascist - a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism. ❖ Anti-Semitic - prejudice against, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews as a national, ethnic, religious, or racial group. A person who holds such positions is called an "antisemite". ❖ Aryan race - the pure Germanic race, used by the Nazis to suggest a superior, non- Jewish Caucasian typified by height, blond hair, blue eyes ❖ Kristallnacht - Also known as “The Night of the Broken Glass.” On this night, November 9, 1938, almost 200 synagogues were destroyed, over 8,000 Jewish shops were sacked and looted, and tens of thousands of Jews were removed to concentration camps.

12. Terms/People to Know ❖ Euthanasia - the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. Nazi euphemism for the deliberate killings of institutionalized physically, mentally, and emotionally handicapped people. The euthanasia program began in 1939, with German non-Jews as the first victims. The program was later extended to Jews. ❖ SS - “Schutz-Staffel” (literally defense echelon - level or rank), established in 1929 as Hitler’s blackshirted bodyguards. ❖ The Final Solution - the plan devised in 1941 to speed up the system of killing Jews and “undesirables”. The previous method of shooting and burying the dead was too “costly and inefficient.” This final method used an efficient system of gas chambers and crematories to kill the Jews. Six of these death camps were built and often were kept working around the clock, killing thousands per day ❖ Adolf Hitler - “The Fuhrer,” dictator of Germany; a tyrant who obtains power by appealing to the emotions and prejudices of the masses

13. Terms/People to Know ❖ Heinrich Himmler - the head of SS ❖ Adolf Eichmann - devised the plan for the Final Solution ❖ Rudolf Hess - the commander of Auschwitz ❖ Dr. Mengele - “The Angel of Death,” a doctor who performed brutal, unnecessary experiments and operations upon prisoners ❖ Third Reich - the Third Republic of Germany which began with Hitler’s rule in 1933 and ended with his defeat in 1945 ❖ Gestapo - the secret police organized in 1933 to uncover and undermine political opposition ❖ Dachau - a concentration camp used as a model for the death camps ❖ Theresienstadt - the “model” concentration camp used to deceive the visiting International Red Cross ❖ Auschwitz - the largest death camp, located in Poland ❖ Selection - term used when the SS forced prisoners to line up for inspection and decided which prisoners could live and which would be killed