Night Chapter 1

Pgs. 3-22

Main Characters In Chapter 1

• Elie- Narrator of the story, 14 years old at the time of transport

• Chlomo Weisel- Elie’s father, community leader

• Elie’s mother- keeps family together

• Moshe the Beadle- Religious leader, temple keeper, teaches Elie Kabala

German Rules for the Jewish People

• Couldn’t leave their residence for 3 days under penalty of death.

• Could not own gold, jewelry, or any valuables.

• Every Jew had to wear the yellow star.

• Could no longer go to restaurants, travel by rail, attend synagogue, or be on the streets after 6 pm.

Main Events

• 1942 -Moshe the Beadle is expelled from Sighet with all other foreign Jews. He survives and spreads the word about what is going to happen but nobody listens.

Main Events

• German troops appear on the streets of Sighet.

• On the 7th day of Passover, Jewish leaders are arrested.

• “The race toward death had begun”

• 2 Ghettos are created in Sighet.

• Jews are still optimistic.

Main Events

• Smaller ghetto is expelled first. (Elie was in the large ghetto)

• Within a couple days the larger ghetto is also expelled.

• The Jews are put in cattle cars and their journey begins.

Photo Gallery

Elie’s Childhood Home

Elie’s Family

Elie’s Father and Grandfather

Jewish Ghetto

Deportation Train (Cattle Car)

Night Chapter 2

Pgs. 23-28

Characters

• Mrs. Schachter- Woman on the train with her 10 year-old son, was separated from the rest of her family, was delusional

• German Officer- Orders all the Jewish people to give up any valuables they still have

Main Events

• Jewish people are transported on a cattle car to Auschwitz.

• During the journey a woman named Madame Schachter yells that she sees fire and flames. The people finally get fed up with her hallucinations and bound and gag her. When that fails to work, they start to beat her.

Main Events

• At Auschwitz, the Germans allow two men to fetch water for the rest of the people.

• The car moves on to Birkenau.• At Birkenau, the people see flames and smoke

coming from the chimneys of the concentration camp.

• The Jewish people can also smell burning flesh.

Photos

Birkenau

Birkenau

Barracks of Birkenau

Survivors Leaving Birkenau

Night Chapter 3

Pgs. 29-46

New Characters

• Dr. Mengele- SS Officer that separates who is going to the chimney and who is going to work. (Determines Life or Death)

• Stein- Relative of the Wiesel’s from Antwerp. He was separated from his wife and children and lives only for them. Elie tells him they are fine and he is happy. He later finds out the truth and is never heard from again.

Main Events

• When they get off the train, men and women are separated. This is the last time Elie ever sees his sisters and mother.

• A veteran prisoner tells Elie and his father to lie about their ages so they are not sent to the crematory. (18 and 40)

• Dr. Mengele separates people and Elie and his father make it through the first selection.

Main Events

• As Elie and his father are marching towards their barracks, they see babies being thrown into ditches filled with flames.

• Elie contemplates suicide by running into the electrical fence as he is marching toward the flames.

• Elie’s father is severely beaten by the head of their barracks because he asks to go the bathroom. Elie is upset with himself because he lets it happen.

Main Events

• Elie becomes A-7713, symbolizing that the last thing he had, his name, has been taken from him.

• Elie and his father meet up with Stein, their relative from Antwerp. Elie lies to him and says his family is still alive. Stein later finds out the truth and is never heard from again.

Main Events

• Elie begins to rebel against God for the first time. He questions why he would let this happen.

• They are at Auschwitz for three weeks and then are escorted to a new work camp, Buna.

Photos

Prisoners Sleeping

Crematorium

SS Officers

Work Will Set You Free

Night Chapter 4

Characters• Juliek- A violinist that becomes friends with Elie• Yossi and Tibbi- Friends that Elie meets at

Buna, their parents were exterminated in Birkenau

• Franek- Foreman at Buna who forces Elie to give up his gold crown by torturing his father.

• Idek the Kapo- overseer at Buna, has fits of rage and beats Elie and his father

• Alphonse- the head of the orchestra block, he is nice to the prisoners.

Main Events

• Elie arrives in Buna, a work camp that is described as bearable.

• Elie and his father are chosen for the orchestra block and they work in an electrical warehouse.

• Elie is sent to the camp dentist to get his gold crown extracted. He claims to be sick and they tell him to come back at a later date.

Main Events

• Elie comes back to the dentist and claims to be sick again and they give him a reprieve. The dentist later gets hung and Elie gets to keep his crown for now.

• Elie’s most important thing becomes feeding his stomach.

• Idek the Kapo beats Elie for no reason. A young French girl that he works next to helps him out. He sees her later in life and they reminisce about their time in Buna.

Main Events• Idek the Kapo beats Elie’s father with an

iron bar. Elie watches it happen and does nothing.

• Franek, the foreman, asks for Elie’s gold tooth. Elie refuses to give it to him so he seeks revenge on Elie’s father. Elie’s father cannot march in step so he beats him whenever he is not marching right. Elie gives into Franek and gives him the tooth.

Main Events

• Elie walks in on Idek with a girl when they are at work. Elie is severely whipped by Idek during roll call for leaving his work station.

• An air-raid attacks the camp. During the raid a man tries to reach an untended cauldron of soup and is shot.

• Prisoner morale is high because of the air-raid.

Main Events

• Elie witnesses the hanging of a youth from Warsaw.

• The Pipel of the Dutch Overkapo is tortured and hanged. He is a younger boy and that has a major effect on the prisoners. It takes him nearly 30 minutes to die because he is too light to be hung.

Factory in Buna

Buna Factories

Gallows being viewed by Americans

Night Chapter 5

New Characters

• Akiba Drumer- A fellow prisoner with a deep solemn voice, he sings Hasidic melodies at Birkenau. Deeply religious, he is optimistic that their imprisonment will not last long. As time passes, he loses faith.

• Jewish Doctor- A doctor that operates on Elie's foot. He promises Elie that he will walk again.

Main Events

• The Jewish New Year passes and Elie reminisces about how it used to be an important time in his life. He continues to lose faith in God.

• The Jews debate on whether to fast on Yom Kippur, Elie decides not to. His father tells him not to and he also is rebelling against God.

Main Events

• Elie is separated from his father and now works in the construction block.

• Another selection is coming and the head of Elie’s block tells him to run and not walk to Doctor Mengele. Elie is worried about his father not passing selection.

• After the selection, Elie runs to find his father and they share the good news that they have both passed.

Main Events

• The men who were selected are told to remain in camp and not go to work.

• Elie’s father has made a mistake and didn’t realize his number was written down and he was selected.

• Elie worries all day at work that he may never see his father again. When he returns from work he learns that his father passed the second selection.

Main Events

• Akiba Drumer loses his faith and becomes a victim of the selection.

• Elie’s foot starts to swell and he learns that he is going to have an operation.

• While Elie is in the hospital, he learns that the camp is going to be evacuated. Elie and his father decide to leave with the evacuation in fear of being killed in the hospital.

Main Events

• Elie learns that the people who stayed in the hospital were saved by the Russian army.

Photos

Dr. Mengele

Aerial shot of Buna

Night Chapter 6

New Characters

• Zalman- Falls out of rank during the evacuation because of stomach cramps. He is trampled to death by the others evacuating.

• Rabbi Elihou- beloved by everyone and his son desserts him during evacuation

Main Events

• The evacuation to Gleiwitz begins.• Any person that falls out of line is shot by an SS

Officer.• Zalman has stomach cramps and is trampled to

death.• After covering a distance of over 20 Km, the

prisoners are allowed to rest.• Elie and his father watch over each other to

make sure they don’t fall asleep in the snow.

Main Events

• Elie’s father tells him, “People who fall asleep in the snow, fall asleep forever.”

• Rabbi Elihou asks if anyone has seen his son. Elie realizes that his son deserted his father in fear of his own death.

• Elie prays to God that he never does what the Rabbi’s son did and dessert his father.

Main Events

• The prisoners arrive at Gleiwitz and are piled on top of each other in a barrack. Elie and his friend Juliek nearly smother to death under the pile of bodies.

• Elie hears Juliek playing his violin. He is playing Beethoven, which has been outlawed because he is a German composer.

Main Events

• When Elie awakes from a nap, he finds Juliek dead and his violin crushed.

• After three long days in Gleiwitz with no food or water, Elie learns there will be another selection.

• His father is selected but Elie manages to cause a commotion and his father switches lines.

Main Events

• The Jews are packed into cattle cars 100 to a car. The Jewish people had become so skinny that 100 bodies could fit instead of the 80 that were piled in the train at the beginning of the story.

Photos

The Town of Gleiwitz

Artwork of Roll Call at Gleiwitz

Barracks Covered in Snow

Night Chapter 7

Characters

• Meir- Killed his father over a piece of bread• Meir Katz- A friend of Elie's father, he is one

of the strongest in the camp. Elie's father calls for Meir's help when Elie is choked during the night. Near the end of the trip to Buchenwald, Meir starts to lose hope and tells Elie's father that he cannot make it. He dies as they arrive at Buchenwald.

Main Events

• Two prisoners try to throw Elie’s father out of the train, but Elie is able to revive him.

• Germans begin to throw bread into the cattle cars and are amused how the Jews will kill each other over it.

• A boy named Meir kills his father over a piece of bread. Then Meir is killed by others trying to get the bread from him.

Main Events

• A stranger on the train tries to strangle Elie, but his father and Meir Katz save him.

• Meir Katz begins to lose hope and quickly dies.

• Only 12 of the original 100 on Elie’s car survive the long journey to Buchenwald. Elie and his father are among the 12.

Night Chapter 8

Main Events

• At Buchenwald, Elie’s father begins to lose hope.

• Elie begins to question whether he is better off without his father, but he quickly feels terrible for thinking those thoughts.

• Elie’s father suffers from dysentery and begins to hallucinate.

Main Events

• Elie’s father yell for water and an officer delivers a severe blow to his head.

• Elie’s father is barely breathing and he is taken sometime during the night.

• Elie feels guilty that he sheds no tears over his fathers death.

Night Chapter 9

Main Events

• The Germans decide to liquidate Buchenwald because the front is drawing nearer.

• On April 10th, the resistance successfully takes control of Buchenwald.

• That night, American tanks arrive!

• The first thing the free men do is eat.

Main Events

• When Elie returns home, he suffers from food poisoning and nearly dies.

• The story ends with Elie looking in the mirror. He didn’t recognize the face looking back at him.

Buchenwald Crematoria

American Soldiers at the Liberation of Buchenwald

Young Survivors of Buchenwald