Night
Study Guide - Student Edition
Section One
Vocabulary
anti-Semitic: marked by hatred of or discrimination against Jews
beadle: Jewish a religious official
billeted: housed
cattle cars: train cars used to carry livestock or freight
comprehend: to understand
conflagration: a fire, a blaze
death’s-head emblem: (Totenkopf in German) an emblem consisting of a skull and mandible of a
skeleton with two crossed femur bones underneath used by German forces
throughout history including the Nazi SS
decree: to issue a ruling or proclamation
deportees: deported or exiled people
emigration: the leaving of one’s country to settle elsewhere
err: to make a mistake
expulsion: eviction
familial: relating to the family
Fascists: members of a nationalistic, oppressive, and dictatorial political party
fraught with peril: marked by danger
Gestapo: Nazi secret police
ghetto: a part of a city where a certain group of disenfranchised people are made to live
Hasidic: belonging to a branch of Orthodox Judaism
henceforth: from this point forward
hostile: unfriendly, antagonistic
insinuated: suggested indirectly, implied
jubilant: joyful
Kabbalah: the practice of Jewish mysticism
liquidated: made empty; done away with
Maimonides: twelfth-century Jewish philosopher, scholar, and physician
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molten: melted
Passover: the eight-day Jewish festival that commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from
slavery in ancient Egypt
penury: extreme poverty
prolonged: sustained
Red Army: Russian armed forces in World War II
rendering: causing to become
rescinded: taken back, canceled, made void
Rosh Hashanah: the festival of the Jewish New Year
Sabbath: a religious day of rest and reflection
Shavuot: the Jewish holiday that celebrates God’s giving the Torah to the Jewish people
Shekhinah: physical manifestations of God in the Jewish tradition
shtibl: Yiddish a house of prayer
sublime: magnificent
synagogue: a Jewish house of worship
Talmud: the text of mainstream Judaism comprised of rabbinic discussions and logical argument
collected over hundreds of years
waiflike: delicate, fragile
wielding: brandishing, holding up or out
Zohar: the mystical texts of the Kabbalah
1. Describe the first person the reader is introduced to as the story opens.
2. Why is Moishe the Beadle important to the narrator?
3. How does Wiesel describe his father? What do his parents do for work?
4. How does Moishe the Beadle explain “true dialogue” to Eliezer? How might this explanation be
significant to the text and to the theme of finding meaning?
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5. Why does Moishe the Beadle leave Sighet? When he returns, what does he explain happened? How
and why does he return to Sighet?
6. How has Moishe the Beadle changed?
7. How do the people of Sighet respond to Moishe the Beadle’s stories?
8. What are some of the reasons the citizens of Sighet do not believe they are in danger, despite evidence to the contrary? What happens to change their minds?
9. Characterize the author’s tone in this passage: “The Germans were already in our town, the Fascists were already in power, the verdict was already out—and the Jews of Sighet were still smiling.”
What is the effect on the reader?
10. How do the Germans treat the Jews of Sighet when they first arrive, and how do their actions work
to perpetuate the willful disbelief of some Jews that the Germans mean them harm?
11. Which events begin the “race toward death”?
12. What is Elie’s father’s reaction when he is consulted for his opinion on how dire things are for the
community? What does the author mean by saying, “(Poor father! Of what then did you die?)”
13. The author writes that being herded into ghettos was considered “a good thing” by the Jews of
Sighet: “We would no longer have to look at all those hostile faces, endure those hate-filled stares.”
Why would they feel that way?
14. The author describes a “sunny spring day” when people “strolled seemingly carefree,” children
playing games and studying the Talmud. His description ends with the terse sentence, “Night fell.”
What happens when night falls? What meanings does “night” carry here?
15. Who knocks at the family’s window and for what reason?
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16. What does Elie see that makes the expulsion of the Jews seem “like a page torn from a book, a
historical novel, perhaps, dealing with the captivity in Babylon or the Spanish Inquisition”?
17. Identify the literary devices in this passage, and explain their effect: “Open rooms everywhere.
Gaping doors and windows looked out into the void. It all belonged to everyone since it no longer
belonged to anyone. It was there for the taking. An open tomb.” Also, what does, “A summer sun”
following this bleak passage both emphasize and imply?
18. How is the sun referenced when it’s Elie’s family’s turn to travel to the smaller ghetto before
transport, the last of the community to be deported?
19. What does Elie see that he has never seen before?
20. What remains the link between Elie and the Hungarian police who forced them to move? What do
the Hungarian police finally embody?
21. What do the last of the Jews think about those who have already been deported, in whose homes
they are now staying?
22. What is the second opportunity Elie’s family has to escape? Why do they not take it?
23. Explain how this passage explores the theme of night and uses “night” in a metaphorical sense:
Night. No one was praying for the night to pass quickly. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one
day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes.
24. Describe the conditions of the Jews’ transport.
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Section Two
Vocabulary
abyss: a void, a chasm
economize: to scrimp, to save
hermetically sealed: closed off in an airtight manner
inhibitions: reservations about engaging in certain behavior
intolerable: unbearable
irrevocably: permanently
lethal: deadly
pious: devout, religious
suffocating: smothering
wretched: horrible, vile
1. What are the conditions inside the cattle car?
2. What do they realize “too late” when they arrive in Kaschau?
3. Explain what Wiesel means in this passage: “The doors clanked shut. We had fallen into the trap,
up to our necks. The doors were nailed, the way back irrevocably cut off. The world had become a
hermetically sealed cattle car.”
4. Who is Mrs. Schächter? Describe her behavior in the cattle car. Why does it seem “as though she
were possessed by an evil spirit?” What theme does Mrs. Schächter’s behavior develop?
5. As Mrs. Schächter continues to behave irrationally, what action do the others take? Why do they
behave this way toward her?
6. At what destination does the train first stop? What are the Jews told about why they are stopping,
and how does the news make them feel?
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7. The last time Mrs. Schächter screams there is a fire, what do the others in the car see and smell?
How does the grim confirmation of her visions speak to the theme of madness?
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Section Three
Vocabulary
antechamber: an entrance
ascertain: to determine
baton: a stick
Blockälteste: German a block leader
colic: indigestion
colossus: a giant
crematorium: an oven built to incinerate bodies
Dr. Mengele: a doctor and SS officer known as the “Angel of Death” who helped select those destined
to die and also performed cruel and bizarre medical experiments on the prisoners
eluded: escaped from
garb: clothing
harangued: berated, lectured
imperative: critical, necessary
invectives: attacks, curses
Kapo: a concentration camp prisoner designated as a supervisor by the SS
lucidity: clarity
monocle: a corrective lens worn outside of one eye
nocturnal: night-time
notorious: well-known for disreputable acts
petrified: immobilized by fear
raus: German out, off
rebbe: a Jewish spiritual leader or rabbi, especially of a Hasidic sect
Sonder-Kommando: German translated as “special squad”; refers to a Jewish work unit or group in
the death camps
SS: abbreviation for an officer in the Schutzstaffel, an elite guard unit under Hitler and the Nazi Party
responsible for carrying out war crimes during World War II
tumult: chaos
veritable: actual, true
vigor: strength
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1. As the Jews exit the train, what is left behind in the wagon with their precious belongings?
2. What is the consequence of the “eight simple, short words” spoken to them as they enter the
camp? What are the words?
3. Two inmates approach the group of men and speak to them. What does the first inmate say, and
what is his intent? What does the second inmate say, and why is he so angry?
4. Why don’t the younger, armed men rush the guards when they learn the reason for the
crematorium?
5. What does Elie answer when asked his age and occupation? Why does he lie? What does Dr.
Mengele do after questioning Elie and his father? Is this is a good sign?
6. Why does Wiesel as the author insert a parenthetical comment into the narrative saying, “(Is it any
wonder that ever since then, sleep tends to elude me?)”
7. Why does Elie pinch himself to see if he is dreaming?
8. What is Kaddish, and why are people reciting it? What is different about their recitation?
9. What meanings does the term “Angel of Death” carry as Elie faces his first selection?
10. Elie writes, “Never shall I forget that night”; he then recalls his first night in the camps. What will
Elie never forget that turned his “life into one long night seven times sealed”? What is different about
this passage in terms of style? What purpose does it serve in the narrative?
11. What are the Jewish men made to do when they reach the barracks? For what reason?
12. How does Elie describe the Jews after he encounters the rebbe’s brother, Yehiel?
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13. Describe what is happening to the notion of time for Elie.
14. Who addresses the Jews as though they were “a pack of leprous dogs clinging to life,” and what
does he say to them? What word is the only word that still carries “real meaning” in Auschwitz?
15. For what does Elie have remorse related to his father?
16. What is inscribed above the gate leading to Auschwitz? How is the phrase darkly ironic?
17. What are the first “human words” that Elie hears at the camp, and who says them?
18. What is tattooed on Elie’s arm, and what is its purpose?
19. Why does Elie lie to Stein? What does Elie tell him? What is the outcome of Elie’s efforts?
20. How do the Germans who are not soldiers react to the prisoners being marched to Buna?
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Study Guide - Student Edition
Section Four
Vocabulary
altruistic: selfless
Appelplatz: German a place to assemble for roll call in the concentration camps
Aryan: belonging to a subgroup of non-Jewish, Caucasian people of European descent
cauldrons: large, heavy cooking pots
conscientious: careful, thorough
copulate: to have sex
dissipated: lessened
epidemic: a widespread occurrence of infectious disease in a community
famished: extremely hungry
gallows: a structure from which a person is hanged
gaping: hanging open
ghastly: awful
imprudent: unwise, foolish
infirmary: a ward or barrack where the sick are kept and treated
Lagerälteste: German the head of the work camp
manacled: handcuffed
Meister: German mister
merchandise: products for sale
pipel: slang a young male prisoner in the camps kept by a commander for sex
pittance: a tiny amount
quarantine: to isolate and keep apart from a group
ration: a measured portion
swine: a pig
thrash: to beat
untenable: unsustainable
wizened: wrinkled
writhed: squirmed, struggled
Zionist: a Jewish nationalist and advocate for a Jewish homeland
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1. How is the German tent leader described? What mood does the description evoke?
2. Who is compared to “cattle” and “merchandise”?
3. How are Elie and his father “lucky” in the work detail they are given?
4. What common dream do Elie, Tibi, and Yossi share?
5. Why is Elie sent to the dentist? What does the dentist do to his mouth? What becomes of the
dentist?
6. What secret does Elie suspect related to the French woman in the camp that is verified in a Metro
station in Paris many years after the war?
7. Explain how this passage employs metaphors to describe Elie’s physical condition: “The bread, the
soup—those were my entire life. I was nothing but a body. Perhaps even less: a famished stomach.
The stomach alone was measuring time.” What meaning is achieved through the metaphors?
8. Describe and explain Elie’s reaction when his father is beaten by Idek.
9. What prompts Elie’s receiving a whipping? What is the purpose of the whipping?
10. Describe what happens when the sirens go off in camp. What do the “hundreds of eyes” look at?
How does the scene that follows illustrate the theme of insanity?
11. When the camp is being bombed, Elie first thinks gleefully of the German factory going up in
flames, but after the inmates learn the “depot was not touched,” they go “cheerfully” to clear the
ruins. Why is Elie happy? How does this reflect the Jews’ attitude toward revenge while in the camps?
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12. Elie says of one evening that “the soup tasted better than ever” and of another that “the soup
tasted of corpses.” Describe the events underlying each of Elie’s assertions, and explain the different
effects they have on him.
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Section Five
Vocabulary
agitated: worked up
benediction: a blessing
chinks: cracks, weak places
crucible: center of combat or other extreme activity
deluded: fooled
dysentery: an infection of the intestines causing fever and diarrhea
emaciated: extremely thin and malnourished, gaunt
glacial: incredibly cold, frigid
grandeur: splendor
inflection: nuance
knell: the tolling of a bell
lament: to cry, to mourn
masquerade: a costume ball
Muselman: slang the camp inmates’ word for an extremely weak or frail inmate
officiating: leading the proceedings
prophecies: predictions
spunk: spirit
stricken: tormented
1. Characterize Eliezer’s faith and his feelings toward God as Rosh Hashanah comes to a close. Compare his feelings at that time with the manner in which he celebrated Rosh Hashanah in the past.
2. Surprisingly, who feels the same sense of defeat and emptiness that Elie does on Rosh Hashanah?
3. What is Elie’s “symbol of rebellion, of protest against [God]”?
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4. What is the “beautiful present” the SS gives the Jews for the new year? What literary device does
Wiesel employ in describing it? What gift does the Blockälteste actually give the inmates?
5. What object in the camp symbolizes regulation, power, and tyranny to Elie? Why?
6. Why does Elie call the spoon and knife his father gives him his “inheritance”? What does Elie do
with them?
7. On what does Elie blame the death of Akiba Drumer? What effect does Drumer’s death have on the
rest of the inmates?
8. Why does Elie have to go to the infirmary? How does the doctor treat him while he is there? What
is the outcome?
9. Prophets and prophecy are a motif in the book. What does Elie say about false prophets and their
words? Who does his neighbor in the infirmary say has kept every promise he’s made to the Jews?
10. What choice is Elie given regarding the infirmary? What decision does he make? What does he
learn became of the prisoners who stayed in the infirmary when the camp was evacuated?
11. What do the prisoners in Elie’s barrack do before leaving the camp to show there “lived men and
not pigs”?
12. “At six o’clock the bell rang. The death knell. The funeral.” What procession is being referenced in
this passage? Why does Wiesel compare it to a funeral?
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Section Six
Vocabulary
automatons: robots, machines
disheveled: rumpled, out of order
faltering: stumbling
poignant: touching, emotional
1. What do the soldiers do to prisoners that cannot sustain the pace during the march?
2. Previously, Elie describes himself as a non-thinking body, reduced to a stomach. Now he says he
hates his body and that he “couldn’t help thinking that there were two of” them, he and his body.
Why does Elie now identify with his mind instead of his body?
3. As he marches, how does Elie begin to feel about death? What keeps him from breaking rank and
allowing the soldiers to shoot him?
4. When they are finally allowed to stop marching, why won’t Elie’s father allow him to go to sleep?
5. What is Rabbi Eliahu’s situation with his son? What question does it raise for Elie?
How does it mirror Elie’s relationship with his own father? How does Elie respond?
6. How does the author personify death and the cold?
7. Why does Elie describe Juliek’s crushed violin as “an eerily poignant little corpse”? What does the
violin symbolize? What does the music of the violin represent?
8. How do Elie and his father evade yet another selection before they are to be marched into the
center of Germany?
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9. What do the prisoners do that amuses the SS?
10. What happens to the prisoners at the end of the section?
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Section Seven
Vocabulary
apathy: indifference
decaying: rotting, breaking down
dregs: residue
ensued: began
grimace: a pained facial expression, a frown
spectacle: an unusual event or sight
1. What happens to cause Elie to say “there was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight”?
2. Why does Elie strike his father?
3. Describe the conditions of the prisoners on the train. What is the motivation of those who throw
bread into the car? What effect does the bread have on the prisoners?
4. What point does Wiesel make by saying “I was sixteen” after Wiesel describes a father being killed
by his son for a scrap of bread, and the son being killed for the same bread by strangers. He then
writes, “I was sixteen.” What point is he making? What is the effect of “I was sixteen”?
5. Why is it significant that Meir Katz loses hope?
6. Describe the prisoners’ condition when they arrive at Buchenwald. Who is alive?
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Section Eight
Vocabulary
curtly: rudely, brusquely
feeble: weak
jostle: to push, to shove
plaintive: pleading
prostrate: lying flat face down
1. Describe the shift in the relationship between Elie and his father when they arrive at Buchenwald.
What is his father’s condition? What does Elie realize about his father?
2. What occurs to Elie in the morning that makes him instantly ashamed? What does Elie do for his
father, and how does he do it? What test does Elie ultimately not pass?
3. When the doctor will not help his sick father, what does Elie do? Why?
4. What advice does the Blockälteste give Elie? Why might the author include that advice as part of the
story?
5. How does Elie’s father die, and what is Elie’s part in it? What is his father’s last word?
6. What might be the reasons Elie does not weep for his father?
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Section Nine
Vocabulary
idleness: inactivity
provisions: supplies; stored food
1. How long is Elie at Buchenwald? How does he describe his life while he is there?
2. Who takes control of the camp before the Americans arrive? What occurs at that time?
3. What do the prisoners do when they are free? What don’t they do?
4. Whom does Elie see “contemplating” him in the hospital? What never leaves Elie?
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