“Night” Study Guide
The questions below are designed to help you understand the book as you read. Read them
CAREFULLY and read them before you read the novel so that you’ll be able to look for the answers.
Answer the following questions ON YOUR OWN PAPER. Label each Book Part, and number your
answers. This is due on March 23, 2017 and will count as a TEST GRADE.
Book Part 1 (~Pages 1-20)
1. What art was Moshe the Beadle a master in?
2. How old was Elie when he got to know Moshe the Beadle?
3. What master did Elie find to guide him in cabbala?
4. What did Elie do when he prayed?
5. Where did Moshe tell Elie he would find the answers to God and other questions?
6. Why was Moshe the Beadle expelled?
7. What happened to the foreign Jews that were expelled?
8. How did people react to Moshe's stories?
9. What good news came from the Russian Front in the spring of 1944?
10. What, at this time, did people doubt about Hitler?
11. What weren't the people interested in at the time?
12. Why wouldn't Elie's father sell his business and leave?
13. Who had come into power, according to Budapest radio?
14. What had begun in Budapest?
15. How many days passed before Germans appeared in Elie's town?
16. How did German officers treat people when they moved into some of the Jewish homes?
17. What happened on the seventh day of Passover?
18. What was the penalty for leaving your house the first 3 days?
19. What did Jews have to wear after the first 3 days?
20. What did Elie's father think of the yellow star?
21. What other laws were passed restricting Jews?
22. (2 questions) What was set up in Sighet?
How many were there?
23. What general opinion was believed regarding the new living situations?
24. What news was learned at the "extraordinary meeting of the council?"
25. What did the Hungarian police start doing to hurry the Jews along?
26. What did father do when they started marching that Elie had never seen before?
27. What was the only link Elie had to the Hungarian police, even today?
28. Who were the "first faces of hell and death"?
29. Where were Elie and his family moved to?
30. Why could people come and go from the ghetto?
31. What did their old servant, Martha, beg Elie's father to do?
32. What day was Elie's family expelled?
33. How many people were put in each cattle car?
34. What "split the air" when they were finally on their way?
Book Part 2 & 3 (~pages 21-43)
35. What did Madame Schachter claim to see from the window?
36. What was the name on the train station they finally stopped at?
37. What did the people see when they arrived at the labor camp?
38. What smell was in the air when they got off the train car?
39. What was left on the train? What did Elie call them?
40. What 8 words were spoken when they met the non-commissioned SS officer?
41. What ages did the strange man tell Elie and his father to be?
42. Who waited for them in the middle of the square, a conductor's baton in hand?
43. (2 questions) What did he ask Elie?
What did Elie answer?
44. What did Elie see burning in the pit?
45. Who did Elie feel anger toward?
46. What did Elie plan on doing as they approached the burning ditch?
47. What else, besides the bodies, did Elie say the flames consumed?
48. What were the SS officers looking for when they made everyone strip?
49. What duty were the strong ones chosen for?
50. What did Elie realize in "one ultimate moment of lucidity?"
51. After changing into assigned clothes, what happened to the child Elie was?
52. Why didn't anyone raise their voices when talking amongst themselves?
53. (2 questions) What did Elie have on that others were forced to surrender?
Why weren't his noticed?
54. What odor accompanied the SS officer that arrived?
55. What was the choice the SS officer placed in the prisoners' hands?
56. What was the word that seemed to have the only real meaning in the camp?
57. What kind of the workers were the first to be ordered forward?
58. Who was put in charge of Elie's group?
59. (2 questions) What inscription was over the iron gate of Auschwitz?
What did it mean?
60. What was the gravest danger the group was told they'd already escaped?
61. When the prisoners spoke, what was the one subject they didn't discuss?
62. What was placed on each prisoner by the veterans with the medical instruments?
63. How did prisoners avoid moves to other locations?
64. (2 questions) Why was the prisoner in charge of Elie's block removed?
Who replaced him?
65. (2 questions) What did Elie cease doing?
Who did he sympathize with?
66. What was the name of the new camp Elie's group was moved to?
Book Part 4 (~pages 45 - 62)
67. What unit was it important NOT to get transferred to at the new camp?
68. Why was the head of Elie's tent especially interested in children?
69. What did the head's assistant want from Elie?
70. What was the dentist checking for during the medical examinations?
71. What were the prisoners made to do in the orchestra block?
72. What kind of music were Jewish musicians forbidden to play?
73. What kind of work was Elie's group made to do?
74. Why was Elie sent to the dentist?
75. How did Elie delay getting worked on by the dentist?
76. What happened to the dentist and why?
77. What was a stomach aware of, according to Elie?
78. What did Franek the foreman want from Elie?
79. Who did Franek take his anger out on?
80. What punishment did Elie face for "meddling?"
81. What was left unattended during the air raid?
82. What happened to the camp?
83. Who was the only victim of the bombing raid?
84. What was set up at the center of the camp a week after the bombing raid?
85. What was the sentence for stealing during an alert
86. What did someone ask during the execution of the child?
Book Part 5 (~pages 63 - 80)
87. (2 questions) What day of the year was different form the others?
Why was it different?
88. Who was Elie angry at during the gathering at the assembly?
89. During the service, Elie felt he was the accuser. Who was the accused?
90. What did Elie see when he looked into his father's face?
91. What was the debate concerning Yom Kippur over?
92. What two reasons does Elie give for not fasting?
93. What was the "fine New Year's gift" from the SS?
94. What advice did the head of Elie's block give the prisoners?
95. Who was among the SS officers during selection?
96. What did Elie do to avoid being written down during inspection?
97. What wasn't in Elie's dream of a better world?
98. What changed regarding the rations?
99. (2 questions) Who was picked out of the work group before they set off one morning?
Why them?
100. Who else was included in the group?
101. What did Elie's father give him?
102. What did Elie find back in Block 36 after the work day?
103. What did Elie believe cracked in Akiba Drumer that resulted in him being taken by selection?
104. What did Elie and his group promise Akiba?
105. What was different about Christmas and New Year's Day?
106.
107.
108.
109.
110.
111.
112.
113.
114.
What problem did Elie have in the middle of January?
What advice did Elie get from the Hungarian Jew in the hospital?
What did Elie fear when he awoke from the operation?
What rumor filled the camp two days after Elie's operation?
Why was this rumor "more solid"?
What did Elie learn would happen to the camp?
What was to happen to the patients during evacuation?
What happened to those who were left behind in the hospital?
Why did the head of Elie's block demand the block be cleaned before they left?
Book Parts 6 & 7 (~pages 81 - 98)
115. During the march, what happened to those who couldn't keep up?
116. What stopped Elie from simply lying down to end his pain?
117. What was scattered outside when Elie and his father left the shed?
118. What did Elie see was moving around as he and his father tried to rest?
119. What did Elie's father do when Elie woke him?
120. What was Rabbi Eliahou looking for when he appeared?
121. (2 questions) What side was Elie's father directed to during selection?
How did he get back?
122. How did the prisoners appease their thirst?
123. (2 questions) Why did the train stop?
How many were removed?
124. What did the German workman throw into the wagon?
125. What erupted in the train carriages after someone died?
126. (2 questions) How many prisoners had originally boarded the train?
How many got off?
Book Parts 8 & 9 (~pages 99 -109)
127. At Buchenwald, what no longer made an impression on the prisoners?
128. Why did Elie argue with his father before the showers?
129. Why hadn't Elie's father been given any food?
130. What did Elie's father sit up and urgently tell him about?
131. (2 questions) What were the Frenchman and Pole doing to Elie's father?
Why did they do it?