Chapters 3 & 4 8th Grade

One way an author has to effectively emphasize a point is through selective repetition of a word or phrase. What phrase does Wiesel employ to highlight the horror of his first night in the concentration camp?

"Never shall I forget..."

When some of the younger men wanted to rush the guards, even if they died in the effort, what did the older people counsel?

"You must never lose faith...that's the teaching of our sages."

Who did Elie meet after several days at the camp?

A man named Stein, from Antwerp, who was related by marriage to Elie's father, introduced himself to Elie and his father.

Stein continued to visit the Wiesels, but suddenly they no longer saw him again. What happened to Stein?

A transport had arrived at the camp from Antwerp. Stein finally learned the truth about his family. Although Wiesel does not tell the reader exactly what happened, it can be assumed that Stein's family, like all the others, were either deported to a concentration camp, had died of disease or starvation, or had been killed.

What did Elie witness while he was standing in line? What was his reaction to what he saw?

A truck pulled up to a burning pit and emptied its load of little children into the flames. It was such a horrific sight that he wondered if it was a nightmare and how the world could keep silent.

. Who cleaned the blood from Elie and soothed him with kind words? What was unusual about her?

A young French girl who also worked in the factory helped him. Although she was French, she spoke to Elie in near-perfect German.

How did the new camp appear to Elie?

Buna looked as if an epidemic had hit it; it was empty and dead.

The next day, the prisoners underwent a last step in their admission process. What was it?

Each man's left arm was engraved with his prison number, and each man was now known by that number only. All individuality, family history, and humanity had been stripped from the men.

Finally, Elie and his father were moved from their barracks. Where were they taken?

Elie and his father were transferred to the I.G. Farben forced labor camp known as Buna.

Why did Elie's unit have to go to the warehouse on a Sunday, even though they were not required to work?

Elie discovered that the Kapo, Idek, was having sex with a young Polish girl in the warehouse.

How did Elie respond to Stein's request for information?

Elie lied. He told Stein that his wife and children were well.

How did Elie try to stop the beatings? Was he successful?

For two weeks, he tried to teach his father to march in step, but the beatings continued.

What did Elie finally do? What was the irony in all of this?

He agreed to allow Franek to have the tooth. Two weeks later, Franek was transferred to another camp; Elie had given up his gold tooth for nothing.

Elie tells of meeting this same woman many years later in Paris. What important question did he ask her, and what was her reply?

He asked if she was Jewish. She replied that she was, but that when she was a laborer in the factory, she had forged papers that said she was an Aryan. She had to maintain that identity to save her life.

What else did Idek do to the Wiesels? How did Elie respond?

He beat Elie's father with an iron bar because he was moving too slowly. Elie was angry, not at Idek, but at his father for not knowing how to avoid Idek's wrath. This was yet another way in which the Nazis dehumanized the Jews.

How did the foreman get revenge on Elie and his father for refusing to give up the gold tooth?

He began beating Elie's father every day because the older man could not learn to march in step.

What did Elie revolt against?

He did not believe that he should bless the name of the Lord. Elie believed he had nothing to be thankful for in Auschwitz and that he could not pray to a God who would allow this to happen.

What was Elie's first impression of Auschwitz?

He felt it was better than Birkenau since the buildings were made of concrete rather than wood, and there were even small gardens on the grounds.

What was unusual about the prisoner in charge of their barracks?

He spoke to the prisoners under his control as human beings, the first time since they had arrived at the camp.

How did Elie avoid having his tooth pulled?

He told the dentist he was ill and had a temperature. The dentist told Elie to return in a week when he was feeling better.

Why was Elie so pleased about saving his gold crown?

He told the dentist he was still ill and again avoided having the tooth pulled. He felt that the crown might save him in hard times.

What did Franek, the Polish foreman, want from Elie? What was Elie's response?

He wanted Elie's gold tooth. Elie refused to give it up and said he would have to ask his father, who also refused.

What did Stein want?

He wanted to know if the Wiesels had any news of his own family.

Why was the prisoner in charge of their block replaced? Find the ironic statement on page 41.

He was too humane; a much more savage guard was put in his place. The irony is that now that there is a new guard, Wiesel claims that, "the good days were over."

Why was a prisoner shot during an Allied air raid on the prison camp?

He was trying to steal soup that had been left unattended.

List the things that Wiesel says he shall never forget.

He will remember: "the night, that smoke"; "the little faces of the children"; "those flames that consumed my faith forever"; "that nocturnal silence which deprived me...of the desire to live"; "those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust."

When Elie realized that he and his father may be burned, what plan did he devise?

He would run to the electric fence and die by electrocution; this, he felt, would be preferable to being burned alive.

Why did Elie berate himself so severely?

His father had been struck right in front of him, and Elie only looked on and did and said nothing.

How did Idek punish Elie for spying on him?

Idek whipped Elie 25 times.

What happened to Elie one day at the factory?

Idek, the Kapo, had one of his fits and beat Elie senseless for no reason.

Another method of emphasis is through the use of imagery. What images are used frequently throughout Night.

Images of night and darkness occur frequently throughout the book. These are symbolic of the darkness of despair, the night of the human spirit. There can be no light in the face of such overwhelming horror.

All of the Kapos were also prisoners, and most were Jewish, Are you surprised about how cruel and greedy they were?

In a hellish situation, people will frequently use positions of power to make others suffer. It does not matter what backgrounds, common religion, or previous associations were. The strong will take advantage of the weak.

One day, the prisoners were told that soup would not be distributed until after roll call. Why was this?

The Nazis wanted the prisoners to witness the execution of a man accused of stealing during the air raid alert. The execution was to serve as a warning and an example.

Why was this execution particularly cruel?

The boy, who did not weigh very much, did not die right away and suffered for more than half an hour.

What other public execution does Wiesel write about.

The camp was also made to witness the hanging of a young boy who "had the face of a sad angel."

Why was Elie called to the dentist?

The dentist wanted to extract Elie's gold tooth.

As part of their medical examinations, prisoners were examined by a dentist. What was he looking for?

The dentist was looking for prisoners with gold teeth. The teeth were pulled; the gold was removed from the tooth and stockpiled by the Nazis.

What finally happened to the dentist and why?

The dentist's surgery was closed, and he was thrown into prison to be hanged because it was said he had been stealing the gold from prisoners' teeth.

What potential problems were there in this job?

The job itself was easy and not dangerous. The problem was with Idek, the Kapo, who was subject to bouts of madness, which caused him to act irrationally and beat the prisoners.

Where were Elie and his father marched to?

They made the 2-mile march from Birkenau, which acted as a reception/processing center, to the main concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Since the prisoner in charge of their block was kind, and since there was no work to be done, Elie and his father tried to avoid being transported anywhere else. How were they able to avoid being transported?

They never listed themselves as skilled workers since unskilled laborers were being saved for the end.

How did some religious Jews see their troubles? How did Elie feel about God?

They said God was testing them. Elie says that he does not deny God's existence, but does doubt His justice.

Immediately after the Jews were unloaded from the train, what do the German officers do?

They separated the men and women into two groups.

Elie and his father are spared from the flames. What happened to them next in the course of their processing at Auschwitz?

They were marched to the barracks, ordered to strip, then dragged off to the barber, where all the hair was shaved from their bodies. Hours later and still naked, the prisoners were run outdoors to a new barracks. They were disinfected, then showered, and finally issued poorly fitting clothes.

What did another prisoner say would happen to Elie's group?

They were told that their group would be sent to the crematory and burned to death.

After several days, Elie and his father were assigned to a work detail. What were they to do?

They worked in a warehouse for electrical equipment.

Why were the prisoners happy about the air raid even though they might have been killed by bombs?

To the prisoners, it signaled the beginning of the end of the war. This was real evidence that the Germans were being defeated by the Allied forces.

The men were then marched before Dr. Josef Mengele. What did he do? What was his purpose?

Using a conductor's baton, he separated the men into two groups by assessing their physical condition and by asking such questions as age, occupation, and overall health; the purpose was to separate those who could work from those who could not.

The scene of Wiesel and his father approaching the inferno is particularly vivid. How is such artistry achieved?

Wiesel varies the pacing throughout the book in order to emphasize certain points. Here, the pacing is quickened by use of short sentence fragments, "Ten steps still. Eight. Seven." At the same time, tension is dramatically heightened as the time of this brief episode is expanded and broken down into a moment-by-moment experience. The reader races ahead to see what will happen.

This marked the end of Elie's first night at Auschwitz. What natural sign marked the beginning of the next day? What does Elie tells us of the change in himself?

With the morning star, he became a completely different person as a result of everything that had happened to him and that he had seen. He was empty; his soul had been devoured by "a dark flame" of hatred and revenge; his belief in God had been stripped from him, and he was no longer an innocent child.