Thinking Marks for Night

You’ll complete this each day individually while you read the novel independently. There are days where we work collaboratively, but only after you’ve demonstrated you

understand the work as an individual.

Wiesel writes that Moishe the Beadle had “mastered the art of rendering himself insignificant, invisible.” What sort of connotation does this suggest about Wiesel’s friend? Why might this be important to Moishe being able to stay alive?

Moishe asks Wiesel why he prays. Why is Wiesel “troubled” and “ill at ease” when he realizes that he doesn’t know of a reason?

Moishe reveals what the Gestapo did to the deportees of Sighet. What emotional response is Wiesel attempting to elicit from the readers?

Blue = Pages 3-8; Purple = Pages 13-18 (“Thus passed the year 1943.”)

Wiesel reveals that the people of Sighet believed that the Germans would not “come this far” for “strategic reasons, for political reasons.” Why do the people of Sighet refuse to believe that what is happening throughout Europe will happen to them? Think of a logical reason, pretend as if this is 1943-1944!

Wiesel believes that they were “ruled by neither German nor Jew” but by “delusion/illusion.” What does he mean by this?

A friend came to warn Wiesel’s family to leave. They might still have been able to flee. How does this impact the audience to know this?

Blue: Pages 8-14 ; Purple = 18-24 (“There was nobody outside.”)

Wiesel watches as his townspeople pass him with his belongings. What specific words and/or phrases does Wiesel use in order to elicit an emotion from the audience?

Wiesel says that they “waited impatiently to be taken away.” Why /How is this an unexpected phrase from this Holocaust survivor?

Wiesel refers to the Hungarian police as “the first faces of hell and death.” Is his anger justified? Explain your answer.

Blue = Pages 14-20;Purple = Pages 24-29 (“Oh God… have mercy on us.”)

Wiesel talks about the stars being “sparks of immense conflagration that was consuming us (B)/the stars were only sparks of fire which devoured us (P).” Conflagration means “uncontrollable fire.” In knowing this definition, what does Wiesel mean by this metaphor of stars devouring people?

Wiesel says that two Gestapo officers were smiling as everything had gone well. What impact is made on the reader when realizing the Gestapo were happy about this transportation process?

Wiesel talks about Mrs. Schachter. After much time, “she no longer saw” the people in the train. What does this mean?

Blue = Pages 21-27;Purple = Pages 29 – 35(“Nobody had ever heard that name.”)

They arrive in Birkenau. Wiesel says it smelled of “burning flesh,” but does not go into detail. Despite the ambiguity, is this effective in still impacting the reader? How/why?

Upon arrival to Birkenau, Elie and his father are told to change their ages. Why is the man so angry when neither Elie or his father seems to understand why their ages must change?

You ended with the repetition of the word “Never.” Explain how the repetition creates a solemn tone about what Wiesel vows to never forget.

Blue: Pages 27-34;Purple: Pages 35 - 43 (“Never.”)

Wiesel experiences many emotions: being numb, sad, unsure of anything. Is this realistic considering Wiesel’s situation? Explain.

You realize that everything he has discussed only occurred in a single night. Why does he use the word “dream” instead of “nightmare”?

The man who welcomes Wiesel in his father to Auschwitz says that your options are to work or to “go straight to the chimney.” What is the purpose to saying “chimney” instead of “die”?

Blue= Pages 34-39 Purple = Pages 43 – 48(“His cheek still bore the red mark of the hand.”)

The sign “arbeit Macht Frei” means “work makes you free.” How is this a cruel message to all Holocaust victims?

Wiesel receives a tattoo (A-7713). How does using letters and numbers dehumanize the victims?

Akiba Drummer talks of God and Satan. Why is Akiba Drummer clinging to his faith so much? Would this inspire others?

Blue = Pages 40-46 Purple = Pages 48 – 54 (“The iron gate closed behind us.”)

Wiesel had a chance to give away his shoes to be with his father. He refused, but later had them taken away. Do you feel like he regrets this decision? Explain your answer.

Akiba Drummer predicts a day of Redemption. Look at Wiesel’s words, they seen distant. Why does he not say this with more hope?

Wiesel learns that the dentist was stealing the gold teeth. He feels no pity for the dentist, but is rather “pleased with what was happening to him.” Is Wiesel “pleased” because he was able to keep his tooth or because he was angry at the dentist? Explain.

Blue = Pages 47-52 Purple= Pages 55 – 60 (“The stomach alone was measuring time.”)

Following the war, Wiesel found the brown haired woman who spoke to him. She was Jewish, but the Germans did not know. Why would she risk her life talking to Elie? What does this say about her character?

Wiesel gave up his tooth to Franek. But, two weeks later he was transferred and “lost [his] crown for nothing.” What tone does Elie use when retelling this story? Explain your answer.

Elie tells the story of when he found Idek with a girl. Idek punishes Elie publicly because “an ordinary inmate does not have the right to mix into other people’s affairs.” What can you infer from Idek’s threat?

Blue = Pages 52-58;Purple = Pages 60 – 66(“I nodded, once, ten times, endlessly….”)

Wiesel and the other victims are “filled with joy” from the air raid. Why are they not afraid of the possible repercussions once the air raid is done?

Wiesel watched the pipel (the young boy) suffer as the fall did not break his neck, and he slowly strangulated himself from the gallows. At other executions, the inmates rejoice. After this execution, they are sad and deeply affected. Some men question where God is, others say God was with the boy when he died. Why was it difficult for some to hold onto their faith? What message is sent by others who fought to believe no matter what?

Blue = Pages 58-65 Purple = Pages 66 – 72 (“…the soup tasted of corpses.”)

Wiesel is angry at God and at people still clinging to his faith. This is a notable difference from what he was like at the beginning to now. Is his anger justified? Should he be more focused on protecting his faith, too?

Wiesel can’t bring himself to offer a benediction towards God. What words or phrases does Wiesel use that are deeply angry, wounded, and unforgiving?

On the Day of Atonement, Wiesel ate bread for his father. Afterwards, he “felt a great void opening.” While he is angry at God, this was the first time he acted against God. What does the “void” symbolize for Wiesel?

Blue = Pages 66-72;Purple = Pages 73 – 79(“Some were silently weeping.”)

Wiesel dreams of “a universe without a bell.” Is this a tone of hope? Explain what words/phrases support your answer.

Elie’s father gives Elie a knife and spoon. Elie refers to it as his “inheritance.” What emotional impact is created when the reader infers that Elie believes that his father will not pass selection?

Elie says that Akiba Drummer “lost all incentive to fight and opened the door to death.” What does this mean? Explain.

Blue = Pages72-77;Purple = Pages 79-83 (… “We forgot to say Kaddish.”)

Elie is hospitalized. What emotional reaction is developed when he says “I had forgotten that people slept in sheets”?

Another Holocaust victim in the hospital says that he has “more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.” What is Wiesel’s purpose in keeping this statement in the novel?

The reader learns that if Elie and his father had simply stayed in the infirmary, they would have been liberated two days later. Elie uses only two sentences to make this point. Why is this deeply effective and impacting for the reader?

Blue = Pages77-84;Purple = Pages 83-90 (“So we were men after all?”)

Wiesel is in the middle of a 35-mile death march. He starts to think of the idea of dying. To repeats the phrase “To no longer…” What emotional impact is created with these three words repeated in succession?

Wiesel wonders if Rabbi Eliahu’s son ran faster to “free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival.” Wiesel says a prayer that he wants the strength to “pass the test” of never leaving his father for such a reason. How does this “test of strength” act as a form of foreshadowing his father’s death?

(Hint: Remember the prologue!)

Blue = Pages 85-94;Purple = Pages 90-100 (“I succeeded in a digging a hole in that wall of dead people…”

Wiesel reveals that to survive Holocaust victims would eat snow in order to ingest water. What does this say about a human’s need to survive? Explain your answer.

When the “grave robbers” came through the train, they nearly took Elie’s father. His father was in the process of dying from the cold. Who is more responsible for keeping the other alive the longest: Elie or his father? Explain.

On the train, the men fight for food. Throughout the novel, the men have been dehumanized and treated like animals. Why would the worker stare with interest when they are responsible for these actions?

Blue = Pages 94-100;Purple = Pages 100-106(“The worker watched the spectacle with great interest.”)

A son kills his father for food. Then, the son is killed for the same food. Whose death is more impactful on the reader: the father or the son? Explain.

One hundred men were on the wagon, but only twelve made it to Buchenwald. Wiesel spends the majority of the novel not being highly descriptive. Why is he so directly accurate in this scenario? What is his goal?

Elie fights his father about sleeping and the cold, but his father just wants to sleep. What can you infer about his father’s physical and mental will?

Blue =Pages 100-107;Purple= Pages 106-112(“Just like Rabi Eliahu’s son, I had not passed the test.”)

Wiesel’s father asks others to have pity on him. The only person who shows pity though is Elie. What can you infer about many of the Holocaust victims will to survive?

“He had called out to me and I had not answered.” What can you infer about Wiesel’s feelings on the matter of his father’s death? Explain what words and phrases support your answer.

Once liberated, the “first act as free men” was to eat. Never once did the victims think of revenge. How does this support the goal of the novel? How does this teach the 21st audience about the need to be compassionate?

Blue = Pages 107-115;Puple= Pages 112-119 (“The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.”)