Night by Elie Wiesel

Written after ten years of self imposed silence First written as an 852 page work called And the World Kept Silent

Written over 30 books, Awarded Nobel Prize http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/200011/omag_ 200011_elie.jhtml

Timeline of Elie Wiesel

    

1928--born in Sighet, Romania 1944deported to Auschwitz Jan.1945--father dies in Buchenwald Apr.1945--liberated from concentration camp 1948--moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne 1948--work in journalism begins 1954--decides to write about the Holocaust 1956--hit by a car in New York 1958--Night is published 1963--receives U.S. citizenship

    

   

   

1964--returned to Sighet 1965--first trip to Russia 1966--publishes Jews of Silence 1969--married Marion Rose 1972--son is born 1978--appointed chair of Presidential Commission on the Holocaust 1980--Commission renamed U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council 1985--awarded Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement 1986--awarded Nobel Peace Prize 1995--publishes memoirs

Photographs

And so we begin


 

http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c= gvKVLcMVIuG&b=394663 Choose one question It will then be answered

"On Wiesel's Night by: Thomas E. Thorton

I cannot teach this book. Instead, I drop copies on their desks, like bombs on sleeping towns, and let them read. So do I, again. The stench rises from the page and chokes my throat. The ghosts of burning babies haunt my eyes. And that bouncing baton, that pointer of Death, stabs me in the heart as it sends his mother to the blackening sky. Nothing is destroyed the laws of science say, only changed. The millions transformed into precious smoke rode the wind to fill our lungs and hearts with their cries. No, I cannot teach this book. I simply want the words to burn their comfortable souls and leave them scarred for life.

You will need:

An open mind A notebook for journal entries by Monday

Night Guided Reading Questions Chapter 1 - pp. 13-31

1. Upon his return, what story did Moshe tell? 2. Why didnt the people believe him? 3. Cite examples of how the Jewish citizens of Sighet began to lose their rights. 4. What is a ghetto? 5. Why did the citizens resist the truth, even when it was in front of them? 6. Describe the conditions in the train (at the end of the chapter).