Night by Elie Wiesel

• In your notebook, a new entry: Focus Questions for Night– Make a list of two or three event’s that

can happen suddenly and unexpectedly change a person’s life. Discuss the possible effects and emotional reactions you and others might have to each of these events.

NightWrite and Talk

GenocideHolocaust

Crimes against humanity

What do these terms mean to you? What do you already know about the Holocaust? What do you

want to know?

By Elie Wiesel

“The Holocaust is a central event in many people’s lives, but it has also become a

metaphor for our century. There cannot be an end to speaking and writing about it.”

-Aharon Appelfeld

Genocide

Geno – from the Greek word genos, which means birth, race, of a similar kind

Geno-cide

-Cide--word-forming element meaning "killer," from French -cide, from Latin -cida "cutter, killer, slayer,"

Civ & Lit - Miller/Hinrichs

Essential question…

• How does Elie Wiesel convey the inhumanity and humanity associated with the Holocaust in the novel Night?

What is the difference between a memoir and an autobiography?

• An autobiography contains facts and events that really happened.

• Facts are not altered or changed.

• A memoir is based on facts and events that really happened.

• Some of the facts are changed to make the writing more literary.

The novel begins in Sighet, Transylvania.

During the early years of World War II, Sighet remained relatively

unaffected by the war. The 15,000 Jews in Sighet believed that they

would be safe from the persecution that Jews in Germany and Poland

suffered.

Elie Wiesel’s Night…

In 1944, however, Elie and all the

other Jews in town were rounded up in cattle cars and

deported to concentration

camps in Poland.

He was 14.

Night continued…

Civ & Lit - Miller/Hinrichs

They were sent to

Auschwitz and Buna--

concentration camps.

Night continued…

Roll call in Buchenwald, February 1941

Civ & Lit - Miller/Hinrichs

After surviving the Nazi concentration camps, Wiesel vowed never to write about his horrific

experiences.

He eventually changed his mind and wrote

Night in 1955. Wiesel won the Nobel Prize in

1986

Night continued…

Civ & Lit - Miller/Hinrichs

Night unit overview• Reading Night by Elie Wiesel• Significant Sentences Charts• Answer prompts and study guide

questions with evidence from the text• Work in pairs and groups to discuss

sentences, questions, etc. • Chapter vocabulary and quizzes from

Night• Write personal student reflections