NightNight

By Elie WieselBy Elie Wiesel

Enduring Understandings

• The Holocaust left a legacy that is painfully tragic yet unquestionably important.

• Tragedy brings sorrow and loss, but it can also bring faith and wisdom.

• Sharing our stories with one another brings us closer as a human race.

Essential Questions

• How could the world allow such atrocities as occurred in the Holocaust?

• Why did one boy survive when so many millions of others did not?

• How can a man transform tragedy into inspiration?

• How can sharing our experiences with others transform relationships and deepen understanding among people?

Elie Wiesel

• Born Sept. 30, 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania (modern-day Romania)

• Transported to Auschwitz by the Gestapo at age 15

Holocaust Survivor

New York Times photo, May 6, 1945

Holocaust Survivor

• Moved with his father to Buchenwald

• His mother, father, and younger sister died in the Holocaust

• His two older sisters and he survived

After the War

• Studied at the Sorbonne in Paris• Became a journalist• Met famous French writer, Francois Mauriac, who

convinced him to write about his experiences in the Holocaust– 1956 And the World Remained Silent published in Yiddish– 1958 La Nuit condensed version of 1956 tome published in

French– 1960 First English translation of Night published– Since then, translated into over 30 languages– 2006 New edition, translated by Marion Wiesel, Elie Wiesel’s

wife; most accurate to original

The Legacy of Elie Wiesel

• Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986• Founding Chairman of the U.S. Holocaust

Memorial Council• President of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for

Humanity, dedicated to fighting indifference, intolerance and injustice

• World-renowned humanist, winner of many awards and honorary degrees

• Professor (Boston Univ., Yale, Barnard…)• Author – more than 50 books, fiction and non-

fiction

So to put this work in context…• 1928 – Elie Wiesel is born in Sighet, Transylvania• 1933 - The Nazis come to power; concentration camps established• 1935 – Nuremberg Race Laws• 1938 – Kristallnacht• 1939 – Germany invades Poland; WWII begins in Europe; Nazis establish Jewish

ghettos• 1941 – Bombing of Pearl Harbor; U.S. enters WWII; Nazis begin “Operation

Reinhard” and Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units); Elie meets and befriends Moishe the Beadle (a beadle ushers and preserves order during services) in Sighet

• 1942 – Moishe the Beadle is expelled from Sighet because he is a foreigner; he escapes the Gestapo and returns to warn the people of Sighet

• 1944 – D-Day; Battle of the Bulge; German forces arrive in Sighet, establish ghettos; Jews from Sighet moved to camps

• 1945 – January: “Death” marches (evacuation of camps); Elie and father leave Auschwitz, move to Buchenwald; Russians liberate Auschwitz; Elie’s father dies in Buchenwald; April: Germans begin to evacuate Buchenwald; Americans liberate Buchenwald; May: end of WWII

• 1945-1960 – Elie lives, attends university, and works in Paris• 1958 – La Nuit (Night) is first published • 1960 – Night is published in English for the first time