Night

List all things that you associate with the word, “Night.”

Try to make a long list, think of everything you can.

What do we know?

About the Holocaust?

About Adolf Hitler?

About the Jewish religion?

Nonfiction Unit

What is nonfiction?

Nonfiction

Writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about real people, places, ideas or events. MUST be true.

Biography & Autobiography

Biography- A form of nonfiction in which a writer tells the life story of another person.

Autobiography- A form of nonfiction in which a writer tells his or her own life story.

Memoir

Though the story is written in narrative form, it is not a novel Memoir: brief autobiographical work in which

the author recounts events he has witnessed and introduces people he has known

In Night, published in 1960, Wiesel tries to find some explanation for the events he witnessed.

Night: Think-Ink-Pair-ShareWhen you see something that’s wrong, do you just stand by?

Or do you act to try and stop it?

Night: IntroductionElie Wiesel’s memoir Night describes a horrible time in the twentieth century, when too many people looked away from a terrible wrong.

Night: Introduction

In 1941, Eliezer was a twelve-year-old boy who lived with his father, mother, and three sisters in a small village, Sighet near the border of Romania and Hungary.

Night: Introduction

Eliezer was a religious Jewish boy who welcomed nightfall as a time for prayer and who thought of becoming a rabbi.

Night: IntroductionBut when Nazis took over Eliezer’s Jewish community,

his family was first sent to live in a ghetto and then taken to Auschwitz, one of the most infamous concentration camps.

Night: IntroductionEliezer and his father were separated from Eliezer’s mother and sisters.

He would never see his mother or his youngest sister, Tzipora, again.

Night: Introduction

Inside the camp, Eliezer will witness horrible acts of cruelty and suffer in terrible ways.

How will he survive?

Can his religious faith endure the atrocities he witnesses?

What message does he bring to the world from such horror?

Night: BackgroundIn Night, Elie Wiesel shares his story of the Holocaust, the name given to the persecution and murder of millions of Jews and others during World War II.

Holocaust comes from a Greek word that means “a burnt offering.”

World War II

Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan

Allies: USA, Great Britain, Russia

Adolf Hitler

How did he gain power? Germany is left in ruin after WWI Hitler helps a disillusioned country back into

economic health Convinces his followers that the German

hardships were the fault of Jewish people

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.

Germany began World War II when it invaded Poland in 1939.

Night: Background

German forces conquered most of Europe in the next two years.

Night: BackgroundWiesel’s story begins in Romania (now Hungary) in 1941 and ends in 1945. When Germans took over this area, local Jews were persecuted.

They were forced to wear yellow stars and to live in ghettos, and were then sent to concentration camps.

Night: BackgroundAuschwitz, where Wiesel was sent, was the largest camp.

Jews from all over Europe arrived almost daily at Auschwitz.

Night: BackgroundNazis also targeted other groups:

• Gypsies

• non-Jewish Polish intellectual and religious leaders

• Communists

• Russians

• Jehovah’s Witnesses

NIGHT: BACKGROUNDWorld War II ended in Europe in 1945 with the surrender of German forces to the Allied forces.

More than six million Jews had been killed in the Holocaust.

Night: BackgroundBetween 1945 and 1946, the Allies tried twenty-two major war criminals for their crimes against humanity.

In later years Israeli agents worked to capture and bring to justice Nazis who had escaped the war trials.

Judaism

Dates back 4,000 years Shares many ideas with Christianity and Islam –

all 3 religions were originated in the middle east Hebrew Bible is what Christians call the Old

Testament Important Holidays:

Rosh Hashanah Yam Kippur Passover

Jewish Terminology Torah- Torah is typically translated "law," but it also

means something like "instructions" or "directions." For these five books are rules or directions for Jewish life and worship.

Talmud- The is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. – For the Rabbi’s

Kabbalah- a particular study of Judaism that studies the mystical aspects of the religion.

Jewish Holidays

Rosh Hashanah- Jewish New Year. On Rosh Hashanah, Jews all over the world gather in synagogues to celebrate the day HaShem(God) created Adam and Khavah (Eve), the first humans. Happens in September.

Yom Kippur- holiest day of the year. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services.

Night: Discussion StartersDiscuss (1)

The German soldiers followed orders to persecute and murder Jews. Many people were bystanders who let the actions unfold without doing anything.

• What is the danger of blindly following the orders of others?

• Why do you think some people stand by and do nothing to help others in need?

Night: Discussion StartersDiscuss (2)What other genocides—attempts to kill large numbers of a group of people—have you heard or read about?

• Did people ignore these genocides or try to stop them?

• What do you think makes people hate members of another group?

Difficult Vocabulary – Chapters 1 and 2

Compatriots – fellow countrymen Edict – law, official statement Expound – to set forth in detail Firmament – the heavens, sky Hermetically – airtight Pestilential – filled with disease Phylacteries – small boxes containing scripture Pillage – to rob with violence Premonition – anticipation of a negative event Truncheon – police officers stick