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** Night by Elie Wiesel

"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."

Summary/Main Points: **-This story is about Elie Wiesel's experiences that he went through during the Holocaust. The book begins with his life before the Holocaust began and the book ends with the ending of the Holocaust. During the book Elie deals with the struggles of relationships (son & father, Jews & Germans), maintaining his belief in God, wondering why the German's have done this to such innocent human beings, and trying to save his own life as well as his very ill father.

-Eliezer (Elie): **Main character who narrates the book. He is a twelve year-old Jewish teenager who lives in Sighet. He is the protagonist in the story. He has to deal with many difficulties including walking away from his mother and sister forever. He is very mature for his age and sometimes cares more for others than himself (father). **-Juliek:** young musician who plays the violin. He dies after the Death March of Gleiwitz right after he finishes playing a sad song. -**Idek:** prisoner that watches over other prisoners (kapo). He's very mean to Elie.
 * Characters & Traits:
 * -Eliezer's Father (Chlomo): ** Everyone in the Jewish community respects him. While in the Ghetto, he had the opportunity to leave but he chose to stay. During the Holocaust he expresses how important it is to maintain everyones belief in God and to pray. However, towards the end of the book he becomes ill, starts to give up, and eventually has no strength to live any longer and dies.
 * -Moshe the Beadle: ** Poor Jewish teacher who teaches Elie (also lives in Sighet). He was deported before the rest of the town because he was a preacher of the Jewish religion. However, he escaped and came back to warn the town of the Nazi's but everyone just assumed he was "crazy," so they didn't listen.
 * -Madame Schachter: ** Jewish woman who hallucinates while on the train to Buna about a furnace that's about to burn everyone. The people on the train assume she is crazy as well and beat her so she stops screaming. Eventually, everyone finds out that the furnace is true.
 * -Dr. Josef Megele: ** Known as the "Angel of Death." They meet him in the beginning when he directs the people to go to the working camp or the death camp. Known for killing people in many horrible ways.
 * -Rabbi Eliahou: **He's upset because he can't find his son after the death march, but Elie knows that his son actually abandoned him so that he had a better chance of survival.
 * - Franek: ** Notices the gold tooth in Elie's mouth, but doesn't take it.

-**In the beginning, the Wiesel's seem very happy, but everything changes in the worst ways possible. In the beginning, it takes place in a Jewish community called Sighet, Transylvania. Later the Jews are transferred to a Ghetto and eventually deported to Auschwitz/Birkenau, Buna, Gleiwitz, and Buchenwald. It takes place in the 1940's and he is actually liberated in 1945. The tone through the rest of the story eventually turns into very depressing, heartbreaking, and hopeless because Elie feels like he will never escape.
 * Setting & Tone:

Night:** Night had two different meanings. The first one was the lack of resisitance towards the Nazi threat. None of the Jews tried to take stand and try to defend themselves against the Nazi's. The darkness also represented a world without God's presence. God wasn't intervening to save the innocent lives of the people who never even did anything.
 * Symbols & Meanings:
 * Fire:** The fire represented the Nazi's cruel power of burning the Jews in the furnace.

The struggle to maintain faith: **Towards the beginning, Elie and his family believe in God with all they have. In Elie's struggle to survive he slowly loses his faith in God. For example, when he witnessed many babies being burned to death, he hears people in the background singing an old Jewish prayer. In his mind he thinks to himself, "Why should I bless His name?" "What had I to thank Him for?" he believes there is no reason to praise him in this situation. Another example is when the young boy get hung. A man behind him asked "Where is God now?" Elie then thinks to himself "Where is He? Here He is-He is hanging here on this gallows..."
 * Themes:
 * Cruel and inhumane treatment: ** Elie struggles with the idea of how the Germans can kill and beat the Jews that never did anything wrong. Also, as foreshadowing, Madame Schachter's hallucination about the furnace came true. Shockingly, many Jews ranging from babies to older adults were burned alive.

**Critique: ** As readers, we both agree that the book was very moving and thought-provoking. It really made us think how cruel and distructive the Nazi's were to the Jews. It's different than other books about the Holocaust because instead of many information on different things, it focused on the thoughts of only one person and exactly what he went through. In our opinion, it makes us appreciate what we have to this day and that things like this are not happening in America.

Night Quiz **Elie Wiesel Biography**
 * Links: **

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