Night background ppt

Night

By: Elie Wiesel

“The only way to stop the next holocaust… is to remember the last one. If the Jews were singled out then, in the next one we are all the victims.”

Basic Background• Setting: story begins in Sighet, Transylvania (now

part of Romania) and follows him to concentration camps in Europe (Auschwitz/Birkenau – modern day Poland) & Germany

• Genre: Non-fiction; Holocaust autobiography• Type of Work: Memoir (narrative composed

from personal experience)• Author: Elie Wiesel• Time Period: 1941-1945 (during WWII)• Point of View: First Person (used primarily for

autobiographies, personal essays, or memoirs using “I” and “we”)

• Tone: Personal, intimate, bitterness, serious, honest, somber

• Conflicts: External conflicts between Jews and their Nazi

oppressors; between Jews and the harsh winter climate; among Jews about how to respond to brutality and terror.

Internal conflicts in the narrator’s mind about his response to the dehumanization at the hands of the Nazis (including his loss of religious faith) and about how he should behave toward his father.

Time & Place-Night takes place in Europe (Romania, Poland, and Germany) during WW II (1939-1945)-This war, sparked by German aggression, had its roots in the ending of an earlier war. With

Germany’s defeat in WWI, the nation was left with a broken gov., a severely limited military, shattered industry and transportation, and an economy sinking under the strain of war debts.

-As a result of this, most Germans were humiliated and demoralized-The Nazi party (in German Nazi stands for National Socialist German Workers Party) came to

power in late 1920s. The party aimed to restore German pride.

Adolf Hitler• Adolf Hitler, the party leader, spoke at

rallies of Germany’s long military tradition, its national character, and its entitlement to greatness. To explain Germany’s fallen state, Hitler blamed the Jews and others he said were not “true” Germans.

• Hitler’s treatment of Jews was more than a political strategy – he was an anti-Semite (hater of Jews)

• He viewed Jews as an inferior race (when in fact Judaism is not a race, it is a religion)

• Soon after he took over, he took away German Jew’s citizenship and right to work, barred Jews from public schools and gathering places, made it so they could no longer marry non-Jews, and he attacked their homes and businesses frequently.

Hitler cont.• He defined Jews as those with at

least one Jewish grandparent, whether or not they observed their religion

• He later targeted not just Jews but Gypsies, handicapped people, homosexuals, and people that did not agree with his political views

• The people he “targeted” were imprisoned in ghettos (where they were often starved) or murdered

• By the end of the war, he had 6 MILLION Jews killed

Where does this memoir fit into all of this?

• In 1938, Hitler began invading lands around Germany• In 1941, Night begins• In 1942, Hitler controlled most of Europe• As WWII progressed, Elie’s father helped Jews escape from Poland • He and his father were sent to concentration camps at Auschwitz and at Buna (Poland)• He was freed in April 1945, when he was SIXTEEN YEARS OLD!• After all of this, he published his horrifying tale in several autobiographies (one being

Night)

Why discuss this?• “Look, it’s important to bear

witness. Important to tell your story… you cannot imagine what it meant spending a night of death among death” – Wiesel

• “Sometimes we must interfere… wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment- become the center of the universe.”-Wiesel

• If you don’t study history, you are bound to repeat it!

Literary Devices to look for

• FlashbacksEx: "The same faint voice, the same cry I had heard

somewhere before" p.93• SimilesEx: “Tears like drops of wax” pg. 5 “The news spread through Sighet like wildfire" p.7• ImageryEx: "I listened as the inmate's voice rose; it was powerful yet

broken, amid the weeping, the sobbing, the sighing of the entire "congregation”” p. 67.

• Foreshadowing

Main CharactersEliezer- Eliezer, other wise known as Elie, is the main character in the novel Night. He was

15 years old about to turn sixteen when he was taken to the concentration camps. His main devotion was towards his father, Shlomo. He always takes into consideration everything about his father, making the struggle throughout this journey impossible for Elie. He is very interested in Jewish mysticism, and his religious faith evolves during his time in concentration camps.

Shlomo (Eliezer's Father)- Shlomo is very respected by all other Jews, and is a very known leader in the community of Sighet. Schlomo and his son, Elie, form an even stronger connection as time goes by in the different concentration camps. Unfortunately, he dies at the end of the story after many years in different camps.

Moshe the Beadle- Moshe the Beadle is a man who works at the Hasidic synagogue in Sighet. He teaches Elie different cultural studies such as the cabbala. In the cabbala, he teaches him that it is more important to ask God the right questions than to try to find the right answers. Previously, Moche is deported to a Nazi concentration camps because he was a foreigner. He then managed to escape and tries to warn the townspeople of the horrors of the Holocaust. As planned, nobody listened to him and thought he was crazy.

Anticipation Guide

Copy the following statements-Revenge is a justifiable emotion.-Lying is justifiable when it’s for the right reasons.-Some people are just better than others.-Never give up.-Love can change a person for the better.-Forgiveness is the only way to happiness.***Please write one or two sentences defending and

supporting your opinions with specific examples from your own or other people’s experiences. ***

Winfrey & Wiesel

• http://www.schooltube.com/video/7d5afe2a261101d87e45/