This autobiography is a frightening account of a young Jewish boy by the name of Elie Wiesel. The begining of Elie's story starts out in a very close-knitt Jewish community and documents his journey through the Nazi concentration camps, where he is forced to witness the death of his family and friends. Whereas in the begining of Elie's journey he was a faithful servent of God, as the novel progresses he questions the role of God in his life and humanity. Not only does Elie lose his family he also loses his childhood innocence. The vivid and powerful account told in Night allows the reader to somewhat better apprehend one praticular story about the Holocaust.

Elie Wiesel was born September 30, 1928 in the town of Sighet in Transylvania. While growing up he focused his life around God, his family life, and his studdies. In 1944 Sighet, a small Jewish town, was deported to concentration camps. At age fifteen, Elie was taken to Auschwitz with his family and then relocated to Buchenwald concentration camp. ''Night'' was the first book Elie wrote and began his career as an author. Wiesel learned the French language and lived in Fance for a year after the war. From there his job as a journalist moved him to Israel and the United States. He currently resides in New York and has been a professor at Boston University. Wiesel received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

1933

o The Nazi party takes power in Germany. Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor, or prime minister, of Germany.

o Nazis "temporarily" suspend civil liberities for all citizens. They are never restored.

o The Nazia set up the first concentration camp at Dachau. The first inmates are 200 Communists.

o Jews are prohibited from working as civil servants, doctors in the National Health Service, andteachers in public high schools. All but few Jewish students are banned from public high schools and the nation's universities.

1934

o Hitler combines the positions of chancellor and president to become "Fuhrer" or leader of Germany.

1935

o Jews are deprived of their citizenship and other basic rights.

o The Nazis intensify the persecution of political dissidents and others considered "racially inferior" including "Gypsies," Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals. Many are sent to concentration camps.

1936

o Nazis boycott Jewich-owned businesses.

1938

o German troops annexed Austria.

o On Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass," Nazis terrorize Jews throughout Germany and Austria- 30,000 Jews are arrested, 91 are killed.

o All Jewish children are expelled from public schools in Germany and Austria.

o Nazis take control of Jewish-owned businesses.

1939

o Germany takes over Czechosolvakia and invades Poland.

o World War II begins as Britian and France declare war on Germany.

o Hitler orders the systematic murder of the mentally and physically disabled in Germany and Austria.

o Jews are required to wear armbands or yellow stars.

1940

o Nazis begin deporting German Jews to Poland.

o Jews are forced into ghettos.

o Nazis begin the first mass murder of Jews in Poland.

o Germany conquers one nation after another in Western Europe including Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.

1941

o Germany attacks the Soviet Union.

o Jews throughout Eastern Europe are forced into ghettos.

o In two days, mobile killing units shoot 33,771 Ukrainian Jews at BabiYar- the largest single massacre of the Holocaust. Mobile killing units begin the systematic slaughter of Jews.

o The death camp at Chelmno in Poland begins murdering Jews.

o Germany, as an ally of Japan, declares war on the United States, immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

1942

o At the Wannsee Conference, Nazi officials turn over the "Final Soulution"- their plan to kill all European Jews- to the government officials.

o Five death camps begin operation in Poland: Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, Belzec, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

o March: About 20 to 25 percent of the Jews who would die in the Holocaust have already been murdered.

o Ghettos of Eastern Europe are being emptied as thousands of Jews are shipped to death camps.

o The United States, Britian, and the Soviet Union acknowledge that Germans are exterminating the Jews of Europe.

1943

o February: About 80 to 85 percent of the Jews who would die in the Holocaust have already been murdered.

o Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto resist as the Nazis begin new rounds of deportations. These Jews hold out for nearly a month before the Nazis put down the uprising.

1944

o Hitler takes over Hungary and begins deporting 12,000 Hungarian Jews each day to Auschwitz where they are murdered.

1945

o Hitler is defeated and World War II ends in Europe.

o The Holocaust is over and the death camps are emptied.

o Many survivors are placed in displaced persons camps

__Surviviors of the Holocaust__ < http://www.remember.org/shoah/timeline.html > 27 September 2006

Along with ''Night,'' Wiesel has written ''Dawn,'' ''The Accident,'' ''The Town Beyond the Wall,'' ''The Gates of the Forest,'' ''A Beggar in Jerusalem,'' ''The Fifth Son,'' and ''Against Silence: The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel.''

1. Do you really think Elie every fully looses his belief in God? Why?

2. Through out the story Elie has a close relationship and connection with his father. What even does he witness that causes him to want to start distaining himself from his father? Does he ever really succeed?

3. Animal imagery is used through out the book. Give examples and the importance of them.

4. How does Elie view about humanity and himself change throughout the book?

5. When ever something harmful or bad happens to Elie, what happens to his soul and his body? Does he use this as a mechanism so he feels that he suffers less?

6. Elie mentions “night” a lot in the book. What does night usually signify or feeling does it relate to?

7. What are some of the "lucky" things that happen by chance to Eliezer during his experience in the concentration camp and afterwards?

8. Cruelty and selfishness are not only characteristics demonstrated by the Nazis. At what points in the novel are these two characteristics shown by people other than the Nazis? Give examples.

9. "I decided to look at myself in the mirror on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me." Eliezer completely changed throughout his experiences. What were some particular events that changed him? Were there any positive lessons he learned?

10. What do Elie and his dod consider thier valuables at the concentration camp? What does this reveal about how their lives have changed?

11.“You must never lose faith, even when the sword hangs over your head” (29). Do you think Elie lost faith while in the concentration camp? If so, at what event did he lose his faith? Would you be able to keep your faith if you experienced what Elie did?

12.How does the relationship between Elie and his father change throughout the story? Did the relationship grow stronger or weaken as the novel progressed? What were your reactions on the way Elie treated his father near the end of the novel versus the beginning?

13.Elie referred to the night sky as dead. The stars were merely sparks of fire which devoured them. How does Elie’s view contrasts the way we normally see a night sky? Do you believe the stars were symbolic?

1. In times of strife and turmoil, some people become closer to God, whereas others shun their religion and turn away from God. How could the Holocaust bring you closer or push you away from God? Examine Wiesel’s position.

2. Think back to when you were 16. Would you have been able to handle the emotional turmoil of having to leave your home, your friends, and watch your family be ripped apart?

3. As a parent, how would you feel if your child sacrificed your life in order for them to be able to survive?

4. It is hard to see one's religion degraded and spat upon by society. Would you personally be able to keep fighting for your faith, or would you just accept what was going on around you?

5. Did you know that genocide still occurs today? While reading the book Night were you motivated to make a difference so that your children will not be placed in a situation similar to Wiesel's?

!By Samantha Silver, Marie Quinones, and Jayme Alfano