Night, Elie Wiesel,

The Holocaust, and

Genocide
For Elie Wiesel, darkness and
night symbolize a world
without God.
 Elie Wiesel

 A Jewish writer, professor, political

activist, Nobel price winner, and
Holocaust survivor
 Born September 30, 1928 – still living
 The author of 57 books, the best known
of which is Night
 Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1986
 Early Life of Elie Wiesel

 Wiesel was born in Sighet, Romania

 His family was of Hungarian-Jewish

heritage

 Suffered through WWII and the

Holocaust
 Post-War II Wiesel
 Professional journalist

 Still goes around the world to speak

 September 2006, he appeared

before the UN Security Council to
call attention to the humanitarian
crisis in Darfur
 Wiesel’s Night
 For ten years after the war, Wiesel
refused to write about or discuss his
experiences during the Holocaust
 His decision changed, however, after a
meeting with François Mauriac
 Mauriac is the 1952 Nobel Laureate in
Literature, who eventually became
Wiesel's close friend
 Mauriac persuaded him to write about his
Holocaust experiences
 Night’s Popularity
 Did not do well at first – sold small
numbers of copies around 1955, its
publishing date
 Took many years until it was recognized
 Is now recognized as one of the leaders
of Holocaust literature
 Wiesel was on Oprah, and the book
become a #1 Bestseller that year
 Millions of copies are in print today
 Wiesel’s Popularity
 The Elie Wiesel Foundation for
Humanity is an organization
dedicated to combating indifference,
intolerance, and injustice though
international dialogues and youth-
focused programs that promote
acceptance, understanding, and
equality.
 The internationally acclaimed Night has been
published in more than 30 languages
 He has also been awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, the U.S. Congressional
Gold Medal and the Medal of Liberty Award.
 President Jimmy Carter appointed him as
chairman of the President’s Commission on
the Holocaust.
 He also became the founding chairman of the
United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Night’s Style and Themes

 It has been viewed as “a sparse and

fragmented narrative style, with
frequent shifts in point of view
 Represents the “ghetto-speaker”

 Loss of Faith: in God and man’s

goodness
 Night, continued

 Genre?
 Novel, memoir, historical narrative

 Part of a Trilogy
 Dawn and Day are the following two
 Nonfiction:
Autobiography Vs.
Memoir
 An autobiography is a sketch of the
author’s entire life, often from birth
up until the time of the writing.
 A memoir focuses on one aspect of
the writer’s life. Memoirs usually
cover a relatively short span of time,
and their main purpose is to draw
the reader’s attention to a specific
theme or circumstance
 Other Types of
Nonfiction
 A biography is the story of a life
from another person’s perspective.
 An essay is a short nonfiction work
that addresses a specific subject.
 A speech is a talk or an address
presented to an audience.
 Genocide
 From the UN: “any of the following acts committed
with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
killing members of the group; causing serious
bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of
life, calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures
intended to prevent births within the group; [and]
forcibly transferring children of the group to
another group.”

 Our definition: “Mass killings of people

based on ethnicity, nation, race, or religion”
 Genocide, continued

 Term coined in reference to the

Holocaust
 There have been numerous genocides
before then
 American Indians?
 Many others

 There are genocides today

 Darfur
 Holocaust
 Term generally used to describe the
genocide of approximately six million
European Jews during World War II
 Means: Used many ways, but
concentration camps were the largest
 3 million died in these camps
 Virtually the entire Jewish population of

Poland died in these camps

 Holocaust

 Jewish people were the largest

targets, but there were others:

 mentally ill

 handicapped

 Same-sex people
 Darkness and Light
 For Elie Wiesel, darkness and night
symbolize a world without God.

 Night is always when the suffering is

worst, and the presence of darkness
reflects Eliezer’s belief that his has
become a world without the
presence of God.
 Vocabulary
 Holocaust means “complete
destruction by fire.”
 The term is now associated with the
murder of more than six million
Jewish people during World War II.
 Genocide
 Genocide is a word that combines
the Greek word “genos” (meaning
race, people, or nation) and the
ending “cide” (meaning to kill).
 Genocide refers to the deliberate
and systematic extermination of a
national, racial, political, or cultural
group.
 Vocabulary
 Ghetto: The confinement of Jews in a
set-apart area of the city.
 Anti-Semitism: Hostility toward or

discrimination against Jewish people

 Euphemism: A mild or vague term

that is substituted for one that is

harsh or offensive.
“To pass away” is a euphemism for “to
die.”
 Fascism
 A system of government with
centralized authority under a
dictator, stringent socioeconomic
controls, suppression of the
opposition through terror and
censorship and usually a policy of
belligerent nationalism and racism
 Death Camps
 Camps dedicated to the efficient
murder of Jews and other victims;
 E.g. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec,
Chelmo, Madjanek, Sobibor,
Treblinka.
 The terms was also used for
concentration camps where
thousands died of starvation and
disease.
 Aryan Race
 The pure Germanic race, used by the
Nazis to suggest a superior, non-
Jewish Caucasian typified by height,
blonde hair, blue eyes.
 The Final Solution
 The plan devised in 1941 to speed up the
system of killing the Jews and
“undesirables.”
 The previous method of shooting and
burying the dead was too “costly and
inefficient.”
 This final method used an efficient system of
gas chambers and crematories to kill the
Jews. Six of these death camps were built
and often were kept working round the
clock, killing thousands per day
 The Selection
 Term used when the SS forced
prisoners to line up for inspection
and decided which prisoners would
live and which would be killed.
 Zionism
 Political movement advocating the
establishment of a Jewish state.
 Essential Questions to
Consider
1. Why do writers write about such
atrocious things as the Holocaust?
2. What is the purpose of reading literature
about such atrocious things as the
Holocaust?
3. How do people justify awful things such
as genocide?
4. How did the Nazis justify the Holocaust?