1. Night
Elie Wiesel
Study Guide Notes

2. Night: Genre World War II and Holocaust Autobiography
Genre (type or style of writing)
World War II and Holocaust Autobiography

3. Night Study Guide Notes
The original title Elie Wiesel gave the novel was And the World Has Remained Silent.
He wrote this book after 10 years of silence.
By the end of the Holocaust, over 6 million Jews had been killed.

4. Night: Background
Wiesel first wrote a 900-page text in Yiddish titled Un di Velt Hot Geshvign (And the World Remained Silent). The work later evolved into the much-shorter French publication La Nuit, which was then translated into English as Night.

5. Night : Tone
Tone
Eliezer’s perspective is limited to his own experience, and the tone of Night is therefore intensely personal, subjective, and intimate. Night is not meant to be an all-encompassing discourse on the experience of the Holocaust; instead, it depicts the extraordinarily personal and painful experiences of a single victim.

6. Night: Setting setting (time) · 1941–1945, during World War II
settings (place) ·
Eliezer’s story begins in
Sighet, Transylvania (now part of Romania; during Wiesel’s childhood, part of Hungary)
The book then follows his journey through several concentration camps in Europe:
Auschwitz/Birkenau (in a 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)

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

8. Night Study Guide Notes
There are five motifs to look for while reading Night:
motifs (a recurring subject, theme, or idea)
Night – pay attention to what happens at night and what that might symbolize. Remember what we learned when we talked about archetypes and what night might symbolize.
Bearing Witness – Pay attention to which characters are witnesses and to what they bear witness.

9. Night Study Guide Notes
Motifs (continued):
Father-son Relationships – Pay attention to how Elie and his father’s relationship develops; in addition, notice other father- son relationships in the book.
Loss of Faith – Notice how Elie’s faith in God changes as the book progresses. Write on your study guides where these changes occur.

10. Night Study Guide Notes
Motifs (continued):
Voice vs. Silence – Who has a voice and who chooses to remain silent? Why might Elie Wiesel title his novel what he did originally (And the World Has Remained Silent), and why did he no longer remain silent?
Click here to listen to Elie Wiesel's "A God who Remembers"

11. Night : Symbols Symbols Night Fire
Fire appears throughout Night as a symbol of the Nazis' cruel power.
Fire
Night always occurs when suffering is worst, and its presence reflects Eliezer's belief that he lives in a world without God. 11

12. Night Study Guide Notes
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?