1. 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.

2. 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.”

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

4. 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.

5. 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.

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

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

8. 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.

9. Motifs The Motifs for this novel are:
A recurring subject, object or idea, that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
The Motifs for this novel are:
Night- This time of day means different things to the author throughout the story.
Eyes- Used to characterize and show
how circumstances change people.

10. Themes revolve around the following topics:
Death- emotional and physical
Faith- struggle to believe in God, in humanity and in ones self.
Human Dignity in the face of inhumane cruelty
Self-preservation vs. family

11. The Ghetto
Comes from an Italian term to denote the Jewish banker’s neighborhood in Venice in the 14th century. It had a positive connotation.
The term fell out of usage in the 1700’s.
Adolph Hitler used the word ghetto to describe the segregated neighborhoods he imposed upon the Jewish people, where they were confined until being sent to the concentration camps.
America started using the term after WWII for the segregated urban neighborhoods of the African Americans.

12. In many ways, The Holocaust was, ‘to imagine the unimaginable’.
A Nazi about to shoot the last Jew left alive in Vinica, Ukraine.
In many ways, The Holocaust was, ‘to imagine the unimaginable’.
There were first hand accounts and other indicators along the way, but no one could believe the horror, even after they saw or experienced it.
Children subjected to medical experiments in Auschwitz.

13. Genocide
Geno-
cide
Geno – from the Greek word genos, which means birth, race, of a similar kind
-Cide – from the French word cida, which means to cut, kill

14. Genocide Today Africa Racial prejudice and genocide
Darfur region of Sudan Africa 2007
Rwanda , Africa
1994
Racial
prejudice and genocide
are still prevalent in the world.

15. Genocide Today Tibet
Tibetans gunned down by Chinese
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” Elie Wiesel
Sign on top of a Himalayan pass
Where Tibetans try to cross into India

16. Other Countries Suffering from Genocide
Armenia
Bosnia

17. Essential questions…
How does Elie Wiesel convey the inhumanity and humanity associated with the Holocaust in the novel Night? What is his purpose in writing Night?
What is the significance in remembering past genocides or crimes against humanity?
What social responsibility do we have to prevent future crimes against humanity? 17