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Genocide Literature and Research Unit – Night Section

Essential Questions: How can we demonstrate cultural appreciation through the study of literature of real-world events? How can we use reading strategies to improve comprehension? How do we analyze an author’s purpose, audience, and context? How can we identify and analyze literary features within a text? How can we find relevant primary sources to compare literature? How can we produce writing that is engaging and grammatically correct?

Language Objectives: Use different types of sentences. Avoid boring writing. Format writing effectively. Edit for subject-verb agreement, tense, pronoun-antecedent agreement, misplaced modifiers, and complete

sentences. Properly use spelling and punctuation.

During Reading Assignments Possible Points

Points Awarded

Section 1 reading questions 5

Characterization of Elie 10

Sections 2-3 reading questions 5

Biography Poems 10


Dehumanization Assignment 10


Visual Analysis and Explanation 10

Sections 6-9 reading questions 5

Theme response 10

During Reading Total 75

After Reading Assignments Possible Points

Points Awarded

Remember product 5

Understand Product 5

Apply product 10

Analyze product 10

Evaluate product 20

Create product 20

After Reading Total 70

This should help you to keep track of your grades for this portion of the unit. If you have not been doing or turning in work, you need to start.

Section 1 reading questions

1. Characterization is the process by which an author reveals a character’s personality – can be determined by what the character thinks, says, does, looks like, or what other characters say about them. Using the information at the beginning of this chapter, characterize Moshe the Beadle.

2. At the beginning of the book, what is most important to young Elie?

3. Name the other children in Elie Wiesel’s family.

4. Describe the relationship between Elie and Moshe the Beadle.

5. What does Moshe’s story foreshadow?

6. Irony is the difference between what happens and what is expected to happen. What is ironic about the people’s refusal to believe Moshe?

7. If you were Moshe, would you have done as he did, telling others of what you saw? Why/why not?

8. What events gave the people of Sighet less reason to believe Moshe?

9. Describe the ghettos.

10. Why are the people in Sighet reacting as they did to being placed in the ghettos? Consider this quote: “We should no longer have before our eyes those hostile faces, those hate-laden stares. Our fear and anguish were at and end. We were living among Jews, among brothers…”

11. “Night fell.” This is used literally and figuratively throughout the story. What meanings could the word have?

12. How is “the shadows” used symbolically to refer to the people at the meeting before deportation?

13. Who tried to warn the Wiesels of danger? How does he do it?

14. Find two similes used in the chapter. Include the page numbers of where they are located.

15. Why does Wiesel use specific imagery to describe his little sister as they are leaving the ghetto?

16. How do the following members of Elie’s family react to the move to the little ghetto?Father:Mother:Sister (Tzipora):

17. Describe how Elie and the others are loaded onto the train.

Section 1 Assignment: Describe Elie as he is characterized in this chapter. What is his personality? What does he value (what is most important to him)? Why? What relationship does he have with his father? (200 words)

Respond to the prompt: one word per box; hyphenates equal one word, not two; punctuation marks are not words.


1. Describe the conditions on the train.

2. How many people were in the wagon? What would happen if someone was found missing?

3. What does Madame Schachter’s vision foreshadow?

4. Where does the train finally stop?

5. What do they smell when they stop?


1. What do the words “Men to the left, Women to the right” mean for Elie and his family?

2. What was the one thought Elie had concerning his father?

3. Why did Elie and his father lie about their ages?

4. Who is Dr. Mengele? Describe him.

5. How does Elie react when he hears the Kaddish? Why does he react this way?

6. Parallelism is the repetition of a specific word or phrase which adds emphasis to a literary work. Elie “never shall forget” seven things – what are they?

7. What does Elie say is true equality?

8. What does Bela Katz have to do?

9. How long has it been since leaving the ghetto?

10. Why didn’t Elie defend his father when the gypsy deportee struck him?

11. Where are Elie and his father sent after Birkenau?

12. What is ironic about the following: “…we saw the barbed wire of another camp. An iron door with this inscription over it: ‘Work is liberty!’ Auschwitz.”

13. What is Elie’s first impression of Auschwitz?

14. According to the young Pole, what is the “gravest danger”?

15. What advice does the young Pole give to the new prisoners?

16. Why does Elie refuse to eat his soup?

17. Why does Elie feel that the SS Officer was lying about Auschwitz? What are his first impressions?

18. Why does Elie lie to his cousin about Reizel and the children? Would you want to know the truth? Why or why not?

19. How long were Elie and his father at Auschwitz? Name the new camp for Elie and his father. Sections 2-3 Assignment: Biography Poems – Character vs. Self

You will write two biographical poems: one about yourself and one about a character from Night. You must describe the personality, emotions, or actions of the character featured in your poem. Include 11 lines and follow this pattern:

Line 1: Your character’s first name

Line 2: Four words that describe your character

Example from To Kill a Mockingbird:

ScoutTomboy, brave, intelligent, loving

Line 3: Brother or sister of... (Or mother, friend, relative, etc.)

Line 4: Lover of...(three ideas or people)

Line 5: Who feels...(three ideas)

Line 6: Who needs...(three ideas)

Line 7: Who gives...(three ideas)

Line 8: Who fears...(three ideas)

Line 9: Who would like to see...

Line 10: Resident of…

Line 11: His or her last name

Sister of JemLover of justice, chewing gum, reading, and Alabama summersWho feels outrage when her dad is maligned, happiness when school

is over, and fright on a dark Halloween night.Who needs her dad's acceptance, Jem's loyalty, and Dill's admirationWho gives friendship easily, black eyes to cousins, and sassy words to

CalpurniaWho fears Boo's dark house, owls in the night, and giving her open

palms to the teacherWho would like to see all mockingbirds sing freely whether they are

creatures of flight, shy neighbors, or kind handymenResident of Maycomb, AlabamaFinch

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Bio Poem for You:

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1. Which labor unit was the best?

2. In what ways is Buna different from Auschwitz-Birkenau?

3. In order for Elie and his father to stay together what did he have to give up?

4. During medical examination, what was the doctor looking for?

5. How is Alphonse different from most of the other Kapos? Why do you think this was the case?

6. What was Elie’s camp number?

7. Why did the secretary of the block send for Elie?

8. Elie felt ill at ease when he noticed the dentist’s teeth. Why do you think this was the case?

9. What excuse did Elie give the dentist to delay his procedure?

10. What happened to the dentist? Why?

11. How might Elie’s gold crown be useful one day?

12. When Idek beats Elie’s father, with whom was Elie angry? Why?

13. Elie gave his father lessons on what?

14. Describe how the dentist from Warsaw extracted Elie’s gold crown.

15. What was Elie’s punishment for seeing Idek with the young Polish girl?

16. Why did the bombs exploding give the prisoners confidence in life?

17. Why did the Kapos force each prisoner to look at the man who was hanged?

18. What is a pipel?

19. Why did the Lagerkapo refuse to act as executioner?

20. When a man was hanged Elie said, “I found the soup excellent that evening,” but when a child was hanged he said “That night the soup tasted of corpses.” Explain the reasons or his different reactions. How does the death of the child differ from other prisoners? (didn’t die immediately; stayed alive for more than an hour)

Section 4 Assignment: Surviving the Process of Dehumanization

Conflict Used to Dehumanize

Type of Conflict (external or internal)

Effect on the Prisoner

Example:

SS starve prisonersexternal

destroys health, weakens, steal food, fight for food, food becomes more important than people or dignity

SS force Jews to give up their possessions and leave their homes.

Burn numbers into the Jews’ arms.

SS beat prisoners

Split up families

SS shave heads and force to wear uniforms

1. Based on the examples given in the chart above, what is dehumanization?

2. What kept Elie and his father determined to survive?

3. Many external conflicts in column one lead to internal ones in column three. Explain why external conflicts often lead to internal conflicts.


1. At the beginning of the chapter, Elie writes, “Why do You still trouble their sick minds, their crippled bodies?” To whom is he talking? Why does He trouble the Jews in the concentration camps?

2. How many men attended the Rosh Hashanah service?

3. Why were the prisoners debating whether or not to fast for Yom Kippur?

4. Elie decides not to fast on Yom Kippur as a form of defiance against God. Yet he feels something at the same time even through his anger that disturbs him. What is it?

5. What was the gift from the SS soldiers to the prisoners?

6. Define musulman.

7. What was Elie’s inheritance?

8. How did Elie’s father escape the second selection?

9. It has been said that a person’s eyes are windows into the soul. How does Elie describe the eyes of Akiba Drumer?

10. What did Akiba Drumer ask Elie and his friends to do for him? Did they do it?

11. Why does Drumer lose his will to live? How about Elie? Is there a difference between the two?

12. Why was Elie placed in the hospital?

13. What effect does morphine have on the body? How would rumors of the approach of the Red Army act as morphine for the prisoners?

14. Explain the irony in following passage: “I’ve got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, to the Jewish people.” What does this mean?

15. Why would the Germans go to all the trouble to move the prisoners away from the front lines into the heart of Germany? (look for two reasons, one of them practical)

16. During the evaluation, why were the patients to remain in the infirmary?

17. What is ironic about the patients who stayed behind in the hospital?

18. Why did the prisoners have to wash the wooden floor?

19. Why does Elie say that men are greater than God? (probably out of order)Section 5 Assignment: Visual Analysis and ExplanationIn the box, illustrate or make a collage in response to the reading; in the margins around the box, add words from the text (include edition and page numbers).


1. How far had the prisoners run during the night? What does this tell you about the capabilities of the human body?

2. What did Rabbi Eliahou’s son do that was despicable?

3. How long did the men stay at Gleiwitz? Were they fed or given water?

4. How did Elie save his father’s life?

5. Since the men were not allowed to sit down or bend over to eat snow, how did they get water while waiting for the train?

6. What kind of train cars do the prisoners ride in as they are moved at the end of the chapter?


7. What simile does Elie use to describe the scene in the railroad car as dawn breaks?

8. How long do they travel in the railroad cars?

9. What other father and son horror does Elie witness on the train? What is the outcome of this? How old is Elie?

10. How many lived through the transport?

11. Where did they eventually arrive?


12. What is personified as the person with whom Elie argues at the beginning of the chapter?

13. What horrible thought shames Elie when he wakes up from his deep sleep in the barracks?

14. How does Elie describe his father’s face just before all the prisoners went into the showers on their third day in Buchenwald?

15. What haunts Elie about his father’s last moments? Why was Elie unable to cry upon learning that his father was dead?

16. What was the phrase that crept into Elie’s mind when he realized that his father was gone?


17. What had the Germans planned to do with the camp after the last prisoners had been evacuated? Why do you think that they planned to do this?

18. How long did Elie and his fellow block members go without food during the evacuation? What did they eat during these days?

19. What illness does Elie contract after the liberation?

20. What is ironic about the following: “Three days after the liberation of Buchenwald I became very ill with food poisoning. I was transferred to the hospital and spent two weeks between life and death.”

21. How does Elie describe his appearance in the mirror?

Sections 6-9 Assignment: The theme of the book is its underlying message. The following passage from Night is closely related to the book’s theme. Read the passage and then answer the questions below.

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire

to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

1. What were the fires that consumed Elie’s faith? (What destroyed Elie’s religious faith?)

2. Why did the fires consume, or destroy, his faith? (Why did it destroy his faith?)

3. What does night symbolize to Elie? Why do you think he selected it as the title of his memoir?

4. State the theme of this book in your own words. Do not say: “The theme in my own words is…” or “I think the theme is…”

Night - After Reading Assignments

Final Due Date: October 12th

Grading Procedures:I will only assess two products per person per day. If you wait until October 12th to bring me everything at once, I will ask you to choose your favorite two for assessment. I will not accept any submissions for assessment in the last five minutes of class. Be proactive! All finished products should have a “finished” look.

Remember (Choose one.)1. Learn the vocabulary words. You may want to make flash cards on paper or using:

http://www.flashcardmachine.com/ or http://quizlet.com/. You will be orally assessed on these.

http://quizlet.com/

http://www.flashcardmachine.com/

2. Pick out 20 significant incidents in the book, and construct a time line with the incidents. Graph this using the top for positive incidents and the bottom for negative ones. Draw (or find and paste) a picture for each event.

Understand (Choose one.)1. Draw a map of where the story takes place and label all of the important places. On a separate piece of

paper, explain how the places were used in the novel.

2. On your own paper, complete a character wheel graphic organizer for two different characters (not the one you wrote your journal entry about). Include traits and references that develop those traits. Then write a paragraph for each character, identifying their most important personality trait and giving details to support your choice.

Apply (Choose one.)1. Write three half-page diary entries from the perspective of one of the following: Chlomo Wiesel (Elie’s

father), an SS officer, Stein of Antwerp. If you’d like to do someone else, get approval first. You may not repeat a character done in your journal or one done for the Understand assignment.

2. Write a song or make a piece of art that you feel represents this novel. Write an explanation of why.

Analyze1. Create a character chart that compares the relationships between characters. You may use

www.mindmeister.com or create it by hand.

http://www.mindmeister.com/

The following assignments must be completed and submitted via Edmodo. We will have access to the lab for half a period on Monday and Tuesday. Make sure you are ready to type and submit. If you do not have a computer or the internet at home, these will have to be finished by the end of class on Tuesday.

Evaluate1. Write a review of the book that includes an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Your review needs to be

typed and double spaced. Consider these questions in your review:a. What do you think was the author’s purpose for writing this book? Do you agree with the author’s

message?b. Which literary elements do you think the author handled best – writing style, setting, characters,

plot, climax, or resolution? Why?c. This book is a memoir. Do you think it’s valuable to read first-hand accounts of events that

occurred during World War II? Why?d. In what ways do you think the book was “less than perfect”? If you were the writer, how would you

fix those flaws?e. Do you like this book? Why or why not? What kind of person do you think would like this book

most?

Create (Choose one.)1. Create three writing prompts for this book: definition, cause, and effect. Each prompt should have at least

four good quotations. Each prompt should also have a convincing writing situation. Make sure they conform to writing prompt standards.

2. Write a letter to Elie Wiesel explaining to him how this book has made a difference in your life. Include at least four specific examples from the book and how these examples affected you. Finally, make sure you share with Wiesel specifically how you have changed, and the actions you have taken or will be taking to illustrate this change. As always, use specific examples. Your letter needs to be at least two pages, double spaced. (If you would like, we can mail the final letter to the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in New York.)

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