Cattle Car Exercise

Cattle Car Exercise

Write down your thoughts, feelings, emotions, physical sensations that you experienced during the exercise.

Foreshadowing Section 1-3

What are some incidents that suggest or foreshadow the coming danger to the Sighet Jews? What connection might there be between Mrs. Schacter’s treatment on the train and possible future events in the concentration camp? What are some other ways that Weisel foreshadows, or hints at the horrors ahead?

Fate

What role does chance play in Eliezer's survival of the Holocaust? What role does choice play? Do your answers to these questions have any implications regarding the extent of control that a person has over his or her life?

Silence

In his 1996 memoir All Rivers Run to the Sea, Elie Wiesel writes, in reference to the responsibility of the Holocaust survivor, “To be silent is impossible, to speak forbidden.” What do you think Wiesel means? How does he resolve or circumvent this paradox?

Night

Why do you think Wiesel titled the book "Night?" What are the literal and symbolic meanings of "night" in the book?

Faith

The Rabbi of Kotzk, a European village later destroyed in the Holocaust, is famous for being bold enough to challenge God: “Our Father, our King,” he said, “I shall continue to call You Father until You become our Father.” For Wiesel, is there a purpose to faith even without the existence or justice of God? What do you believe?

Author vs. narrator

Does Wiesel believe that God is dead? Does the narrator,Eliezer? Support your position for each with evidence.

Memoir

Night is essentially Elie Wiesel's memoir about his experiences in the Holocaust. Yet, there are minor differences between Wiesel's own experiences and those of Night's narrator, Eliezer. Why might that be? Must a memoir be absolutely factual?

Hope

At the end of the book, Wiesel describes himself in the mirror as "a corpse" gazing back at himself. In what ways did Wiesel die during the Holocaust? Does the memoir give you any hope that Wiesel ever started living again?

Man’s Inhumanity to Man

One of the most tragic themes in Night is Eliezer's discovery of the way that atrocities and cruel treatment can make good people into brutes. Does he himself escape this fate? What is man’s essential nature: good or evil?

Advocate

Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his championing of human rights around the world. How might his advocacy for human rights have grown out of his Holocaust experiences? What are the positive lessons of the Holocaust that Wiesel hints at in Night?

Style

How does Wiesel's writing style strengthen his account?

Motivation

In the midst of the dying men in Gleiwitz, the violinist Juliek plays a fragment of music written by the German composer Beethoven. Before and after the Holocaust, many people wondered how the Germans, cultured Europeans, could commit such barbaric acts. Does Wiesel suggest any rationale behind the Holocaust in Night? Does he speculate as to the motives of the perpetrators? What, for Wiesel, are those motives, if they exist?

Modern Day Genocides

Could something like the Holocaust happen today? Discuss more recent genocides, such as the situation in Rwanda in the 1990s and the ongoing conflict in Sudan. Does Night teach us anything about how we can react to these atrocities? Should governments like the United States intervene?