Night Chapter 1.

What was the setting and the year for the first section of the book? What was the world condition at the time?

The setting was 1941 in the town of Sighet in Romania (Transylvania). The time it took place was when WW2 was in progress and the Germans were taking over, a lot of conflict/tension. News that they were fine and Germans weren't going to invade (hopeful that they weren't coming) but when it was false they got scared.

What are some incidents that suggest or foreshadow the coming danger to the Sighet Jews? Why doesn't the community believe it is a danger?

When Moshe the Beadle came back and told everyone that the Germans were coming to get them and the stories that he told what happened to him when he was gone no one believed him and they thought he went mad. Rumors that were going around. They had limited information so they didn't think it was actually happening or they didn't want to believe it.

Even though it was 1944, and the Nazi extermination of the Jews had begun years earlier, the Sighet Jews had very few facts about it. Do you think it is possible in today's world for a community to know so little, to be so unprepared? Explain.

Yes, because they could be so far out of town and not many other people would talk to them and they would be excluded from the rest of the world. Some places are so far out from the rest of the world, one part of the world could be plotting against them with the rest of the world but that one place wouldn't know about it. When government spreads rumors they could be false to make a place think this is happening when something else is happening.

How did Wiesel say he felt about the Hungarian Police?

Eli Wiesel hated the Hungarian Police because they were his first oppressors.

Describe Eli Wiesel's father. What was his occupation?

Eli Wiesel's father was a cultured and unsentimental man, he didn't really show his emotions, he showed great help to others more than his own family, and he had a very high place with the Jewish community in Sighet. People came to him to discuss open and private matters. Eli Wiesel's father worked at a shop with his wife and two of his oldest daughters, but Eli Wiesel wasn't allowed to work with his father because his father wanted him to go to school instead.

What are the conditions on the Jews' train journey? How do the Jews react to Madame Schachter's behavior? What does this reveal about human nature?

It was very cramped, the air was very musty, it was very hot inside the train, only two buckets of water for the whole ride, no fresh air, and it took a days to get to its destinations. Madame Schachter's was a lady and she was very broken because her two sons and her husband were shipped off with the men in the other direction. When she yelled the first few they just yelled at her to shut up but later on they tied her up and beat her when she yelled about seeing fire in the distance even though nobody else could see it. They beat her in front of her son ad he watched in shock without being able to do anything. Humans commonly resort to violence and people can be very impatient against each other.

Who was Martha? What happened when she visited the Wiesel family in the ghetto?

Martha was the Wiesels housemaid and when she visited the Wiesel family in the ghetto she offered to hide them but the Wiesels refused to hide. Now a ghetto is a small run down section of the urban inner cities, then the ghetto was when certain people were forced to move somewhere and they called it a ghetto.

Why was Moshe the beadle important to Eli Wiesel?

Moshe the Beadle was important to Eli Wiesel because he became his master for cabbala and thy developed a really close friendship and they got together a lot and studied.

Describe Moshe the Beadle.

Moshe the Beadle worked at the Hasidic synagogue, he was very poor and lived humbly, he was good at making his presence seem invisible, he was awkward, Moshe the Beadle had a talent for making people smile even though he was timid, and he didn't speak a lot. Moshe the beadle was a foreigner, he was the caretaker of the synagogue, and he was Jewish.