1. White County High School Patsy D Lewis, PhD
Introduction to Night
White County High School
Patsy D Lewis, PhD

2. About the Author Born September 30, 1928 in Sighet, Romania
Grew up in a small village where his life revolved around the following
Family
Religious Study
Community
God

3. About the Author
In 1944, when Elie was 15, he was deported to Auschwitz
When they arrived at the camp, he and his father were warned to lie about their ages Elie said he was 18 and his father said he was 40 instead of 50
They were sent to be slave laborers
His mother and youngest sister were sent to the gas chambers

5. About the Author
Elie and his father survived first Auschwitz and then the Buna labor camp for eight months
They endured beatings, excessive work, starvation, and other torture

6. About the Author
In the winter , Wiesel’s right knee swelled up and a doctor performed surgery on it
Two days later, the inmates were forced to go on a death march
For ten days they were forced to run, then crammed into freight cars, and sent to Buchenwald

7. About the Author
Of the 20,000 prisoners who left Buna, only 6,000 survived
When they arrived to Buchenwald, Elie’s father, Shlomo, died of dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion

8. About the Author
After the death of his father, Elie was sent to join the children’s block of Buchenwald
At the end of the war, April 6, 1945, the prisoners were told they would no longer be fed
They began evacuating the camp killing 10,000 prisoners a day

9. About the Author
After he was freed from the camp on April 11, Wiesel became sick with intestinal problems
After several days in the hospital, Wiesel wrote an outline for a book describing the Holocaust
He wasn’t ready to publicize his experience, but promised he would in ten years

11. About the Author
After Elie was released from the hospital, he had no family to return to
He went with 400 other orphan children to France
From , he moved from house to house found for him by Children’s Rescue Society

12. About the Author
By 1947, he was reunited with both of his surviving sisters, Bea and Hilda
Hilda found his picture in a newspaper
He found Bea in Antwerp

13. About the Author
In 1948, Elie enrolled in the Sorbonne University where he studied literature, philosophy, and psychology
He was extremely poor and very depressed
He considered suicide often

14. About the Author
Over time, he became involved with the Irgun, a Jewish militant organization in Palestine, and translated materials from Hebrew to Yiddish for the Irgun’s newspaper
He began working as a reporter, and in 1949, he traveled to Israel as a correspondent for the French newspaper, L’Arche
In Israel, he found a job as a Paris correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot
He traveled the world in the 1950’s
He also became involved in the argument whether Israel should accept reparations payments from West Germany

15. Turning Point
Weisel’s turning point came when he interviewed the Catholic writer, Francois Mauriac
During the interview, everything was centered around Jesus and Wiesel ended up saying the following;
"…ten years ago, not very far from here, I knew Jewish children every one of whom suffered a thousand times more, six million times more, than Christ on the cross And we don’t speak about them"
Wiesel ran out of the room, but Mauriac followed and advised Weisel to write down his experience

16. The Novel
Elie spent a year working on the 862 page manuscript he called And the World Was Silent
He gave it to his publisher who returned it as a 258 page book called Night
The book was published first in France in 1958 and then in the US in 1960
The book is autobiographical and told of his experiences during the Holocaust
It also is his personal account of his loss of religious faith

17. Elie and Oprah

18. Losing Faith
In 1955, Wiesel moved to New York as foreign correspondent for Yediot Ahronot
It was around this time that he decided to stop attending synagogue, except on the High Holidays, as a protest against what he concluded was divine injustice

19. The Accident
Crossing the street one night in July 1965, Elie was hit by a taxi and had to undergo a ten hour surgery
After recovery, he focused on his writing and published numerous books from then on out

20. The Marriage
In 1969, Elie married Marion Erster Rose, a divorced woman from Austria
She translated all of Wiesel’s subsequent books
In 1972, they had a son who they named Shlomo Elisha Wiesel, after Wiesel’s father

21. Dedication
Wiesel was outspoken about the suffering of all people, not only Jews
In the 1970s, he protested against South African apartheid
In 1980, he delivered food to starving Cambodians
In 1986, he received the Nobel Peace Prize as “a messenger to mankind,” and “a human being dedicated to humanity”
He explained his actions by saying the whole world knew what was happening in the concentration camps, but did nothing “That is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation”

22. Accomplishments
From 1972 to 1978, Wiesel was a Distinguished Professor of Judaic Studies at the City University of New York
1978, he became a Professor of Humanities at Boston University
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter asked him to head the US Holocaust Memorial Council, which he did for six years
In 1985, Wiesel was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement

23. Accomplishments
In 1988, he established his own humanitarian foundation, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, to explore the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts
In the early 1990s, he lobbied the US government on behalf of victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia
Wiesel has received numerous awards and approximately 75 honorary doctorates

24. Holocaust Museum
In 1993, Wiesel spoke at the dedication of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC
His words, which echo his life’s work, are carved in stone at the entrance to the museum:
“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness”

25. Quotes to Remember
A destruction, an annihilation that only man can provoke, only man can prevent
Hope is like peace It is not a gift from God It is a gift only we can give one another
I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead and anyone who does not remember betrays them again
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation We must always take sides Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented

26. Quotes to Remember I write to understand as much as to be understood
No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior All collective judgments are wrong Only racists make them
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference

28. Genre and Setting Genre: Memoir Setting:
Memoir: Covers the specific event in one’s life
Autobiography: Covers one’s entire life
Setting:
World War II and the Holocaust

29. Setting Locations Setting Locations: Sighet, Transylvania
Currently part of Romania, but part of Hungary in his childhood
Auschwitz/Birkenau
part of modern-day Poland that had been annexed by Germany in 1939
Buna
a camp that was part of the Auschwitz complex
Gleiwitz
also in Poland but annexed by Germany
Buchenwald Germany
childhood

30. Themes Eliezer’s Struggle to Maintain Faith in a Benevolent God
Silence
Inhumanity Toward Other Humans
The Importance of Father-Son Bonds

31. Motifs
Night: Observe what happens at night and what that might symbolize
Bearing Witness: Observe which characters are witnesses and to what they bear witness
Father-son Relationships: Observe how Elie and his father’s relationship develops; in addition, notice other father-son relationships in the book

32. Motifs Voice vs Silence: Consider the following:
Loss of Faith- Notice how Elie’s faith in God changes as the book progresses
Voice vs Silence: Consider the following:
Who has a voice?
Who chooses to remain silent?
Why might Elie Wiesel title his novel what he did originally, And the World Has Remained Silent?
Why did he no longer remain silent?

33. Symbols
Night: Night always occurs when suffering is worst, and its presence reflects Eliezer's belief that he lives in a world without God
Fire: Fire appears throughout Night as a symbol of the Nazis' cruel power

34. Things to Consider
In Poland, 90% of the approximately 3,000,000 Jews were murdered in the Holocaust
As you read, look for times that Wiesel mentions the people in surrounding towns
There are several groups who contributed to the Holocaust, persecutors and by-standers included
Be prepared to discuss: Why are by-standers just as important as the persecutors?