Night Chapter 1-9 study guide Questions and answers.

1. Who is Moishe the Beadle?

He was poor and lived in "utter penury." He was awkward and shy. He had wide, dreamy eyes. He teaches Eliezer about Jewish mysticism.

2. How old is Elie when the story begins?

He was 12, almost 13.

3. What connection do Moishe the Beadle and Elie have?

Moishe was like a mentor to Elie. Moishe was interested in religious teachings and had Elie ask questions about religion that Elie had not thought before.

4. When all the foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet what was the initial reaction?

They say, "What do you expect? That’s war…" They were fed propaganda that the people who were removed were happy and treated well.

5. When Moishe the Beadle returns, what story does he relate? How do people react?

Moishe tells them about how babies are used for target practice and how they had to dig the graves they were to be buried in. No one believes him and tell him that he’s crazy.

6. What is the Jews’ initial reaction to the German soldiers?

They think that they’re polite.

7. What edicts did the Germans place upon the Jewish community?

• Unable to leave their residences for three days. • Unable to own gold, jewelry, or any valuables. • Forced to wear a yellow star of David • Unable to go to restaurants, travel by train, attend synagogue, being out after 6pm

8. Describe the Ghettos.

It was similar to a town aside from the barbed wire that encircles them.

9. Describe the expulsion from the ghettos.

The smaller ghetto is expelled first and Elie compares the emptied houses to open tombs. Even as the remaining Jews move from the big ghetto into the smaller ghetto, they forget about the previous occupants. Within a few days, the rest of the Jews, including Elie’s family, are deported. Packed eighty people to each cattle wagon, the last of the Jews depart Sighet.

10. What does Maria, the former maid, offer to the Wiesel family? Do they accept?

She offered to hide them, but the Wiesel family refused to hide.

Chapter 2
1. What were the conditions in the cattle car like?

The cattle cars where jam packed, laying down was not an option, not even sitting. There was also very little air, the luckiest ones found themselves near a window. It was extremely hot in the train, and everyone was very thirsty.

2. What does this quote mean, "Our eyes opened. Too late."

They realized that they should have listened to the people who tried to warn them that they should have escaped. Now it was too late and they had to accept their fate, not an easy task to do.

3. Describe Mrs. Schachter. What does she keep seeing/screaming?

Madame Schachter saw fire and flames in her vision.

4. What do the other passengers do with this information?

At first, when Madame Schachter began screaming they said she was mad, and made an attempt to calm her down. When calming her down did not succeed, a few young men forced her to sit down and then bound and gagged her. After that once she escaped, she received several blows to the head. Finally, they just decided to give up on her.

5. Why do you think they react this way?

This reveals that human nature is violence. When their very few attempts at getting her quiet without violence failed, they automatically resorted to using it. They also probably were realizing that they should have listened when other people told them they should have escaped previously.

6. When the train arrives in _______________________ what do the passengers see?

Through the windows the Jews see chimneys attached to large furnaces. There’s a smell of dying, human flesh that accompanies the horrifying sight of Birkenau.

7. Mrs. Schachter’s screaming from before can now be viewed as what literary element?

Foreshadowing

Chapter 3
1. How do Elie and his father save their lives at the initial selection?

They lie about their ages.

2. Why do the young men with knives decide not to revolt?

The older men beg the young men not to be foolish and tell them to rely on the words of the sage (wise men) that came before them.

3. What horrific site does Elie encounter being thrown in the burning ditch?

Babies being thrown into the burning pits.

4. Why does Elie thank god for mud?

It hides his new shoes from being stolen.

5. Why doesn’t Elie defend his father when he is beaten for asking where the toilets are?

He didn’t react because of the fear of being abused himself and other punishments. He was being precautious.

6. What doe ARBEIT MACHT FREI translate to?

Work makes you free.

7. What were the first human words that Elie hears since being transported?

Good Night.

8. What is Elie’s new name?

A-7713- his tattooed number.

9. Why does Akiba Drummer say all this horror is happening to them?

He says that God is testing them.

10. What new camp is Elie sent to?

Buna.

Chapter 4
1. What deal does Elie strike so he can remain with his father?

He gives away his shoes in order to stay with his father.

2. What job does Elie get? Does he enjoy the work?

He works with electrical materials and the work is not dangerous or difficult.

3. Describe Elie’s interaction with the dentist. What happens to that dentist?

Elie went to the dentist to have his gold filling removed so when he got there, he pretended to be sick so that he wouldn’t have to get it removed. The dentist then told him to come back when he was feeling better, and to not have to call him again (for him to come on his own). Elie went back later but he pretended again to get himself a few more days. The third time he went back, the dentist had been arrested and hung and Elie got to keep his filling.

4. Why does Elie feel anger towards his father?

He thinks that his father should work harder to avoid the wrath of their.

5. Who takes Elie’s crown? Was it worth it?

Franek takes his crown but he is transferred two weeks later so it was not worth it.

6. Why is Elie beaten?

He sees Idek having intimate relations with an inmate.

7. Why is an inmate shot during a raid?

He tries to sneak out to get soup.

8. How is the young pipel described? What happens to him?

A young and beautiful boy, which was rare to see in the camps. He was hung in front of the prisoners.

9. Why does Elie think the soup tasted of corpses that night?

The pipel was just a child and it took him quite some time to die. During which everyone had to watch him suffer.

Chapter 5
1. Why didn’t Elie fast during Yom Kippur?

His decision was that he was going to rebel against God and his religion. He was not going to fast/ He made that decision because he though, "Why should I thank you when you haven’t done anything to get us out of this mess." His father also forbade him to.

2. What is selection intended to find?

Sick and weak people who can be sent to their death.

3. Who are Tibi and Yossi?

Tibi and Yossi are two young brothers who become good friends with Eliezer at Buna.

4. What does Elie think could have saved Akiba Drumer?

If he could have kept his faith in God he could have considered the suffering a divine test.

5. What promise do Elie and the men break to Drumer?

They promise to say Kaddish in three days…they forget.

6. What illness befalls Elie?

His foot begins to swell so bad it might have to be amputated.

7. Elie and his father have to make a choice to leave the infirmary or stay. What do they choose? Looking back would they have made the same choice?

The patients who stayed in the hospital were evacuated safely by Russian troops two days after the others left for another camp. "After the war, I learned the fate of those who had remained in the infirmary. They were, quite simply, liberated by the Russians two days after the evacuation." They would have stayed instead of going.

8. What was Elie’s "inheritance" from his father? Why was his father giving it to him?

His inheritance was a knife and a spoon from his father. His father gave those items to him because they where all he had left, besides his son (Elie)

Chapter 6
1. What happened to anyone who could not keep up with the march?

The Jews were on a forced march and were shot down by the SS if they were to slow down or stop.

2. How did Zalman die?

He gets stomach cramps and is trampled to death

3. What horrible realization did Elie come to concerning Rabbi Eliahou and his son? How did Elie respond to this?

There was a man and his son in this running march. The son abandoned his father when it looked as though his father, Rabbi Eliahou, would not make it. Elie watched that and desperately hopes that he wouldn’t be like the Rabbi’s son. He realizes that he and his father might be put into the same situation.

4. What was Juliek’s last act?

There was a stampede of people entering the camp, and both Elie and Juliek got trampled in the process. Neither of the boys could breathe very well, and Juliek was worried that his violin may break. When Juliek frees himself, he begins to play his violin for the dead, and those in the process of dying.

5. How did Elie help his father when the selection was made?

He keeps him awake and alert.

Chapter 7
1. How did Elie again help his father when they were on the train?

They were throwing the dead off the train and tried to do the same to his father. He convinced them he was still alive.

2. Describe the scene Elie witnessed between a father and son.

The father gets ahold of a piece of bread and his son begins to beat him for it and eventually kills him.

3. How many got out of the wagon? Where had they arrived?

100 started….12 remained.

4. What happens when a worker throws a piece of bread into the wagon?

A worker throws a piece of bread into the train and it starts chaos and fights and murders.

5. What similar spectacle does Elie witness years later?

A woman throws money to children and finds it amusing.

6. What happens to Elie on the third night of their journey in the train?

Someone tries to strangle him but he is saved by Meir Katz.

Chapter 8
1. Explain how the father/son roles had been reversed in the case of Elie and his father?

His father has been the one keeping him alive all this time and now Elie must take on the role of leader and protector.

2. Why was Elie’s father being beaten?

For his ration and He could not relieve himself outside anymore and does it right in the bunks.

3. What did Elie think of the advice given to him by the head of the block?

The head of the block says that Elie should be taking his father’s rations of food. He does not follow the advice, but he thinks about it for a second, which makes him feel guilty.

4. What happened on January 29, 1945?

Elie’s father is taken away during the night, dead.

5. Why does Elie not weep?

He was out of tears, and deep down he felt relieved.

Chapter 9
1. Why does Elie not describe the next four months of his life?

Life no longer mattered.

2. What occurred on April 5, 1945?

Elie’s camp is liberated.

3. What did the prisoners do when they were freed?

They fall on the food and rations like animals.

4. What did Elie dream of after freedom?

Bread.

5. When Elie looks at himself in the mirror at the end of the book what does he see?

A corpse.

6. Why has that look never left him?

The horrors that he has witnessed will never be forgotten.