Flashcards for Night

Akiba Drumer

Akiba Drumer is a fellow Jewish prisoner from Sighet who Eliezer meets in the concentration camps, particularly at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buna.

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Bea Wiesel

Bea Wiesel is one of Eliezer's two older sisters in Elie Wiesel's Night, a memoir that details the Holocaust's impact on a Jewish family from Sighet, Transylvania.

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Dr. Josef Mengele

Dr. Josef Mengele is the notorious SS doctor stationed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau selection ramp, appearing in Night as a brief but profoundly impactful figure.

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Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel

Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel serves as both the narrator and main character in Night, a semi-autobiographical account detailing his harrowing experience in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buna, and Buchenwald.

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Franek (the Foreman)

Franek is a Polish prisoner-foreman at the Buna work camp and acts as a predatory authority figure during Elie's early experiences in the camp.

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Hilda Wiesel

Hilda Wiesel is one of Eliezer's two older sisters in Elie Wiesel's memoir Night.

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Idek (the Kapo)

Idek serves as the Kapo — a prisoner chosen by the SS to supervise fellow inmates — assigned to the work detail alongside Eliezer and his father at Buna.

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Juliek

Juliek is a young Polish Jewish violinist whom Eliezer first meets at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they are both assigned to the same work Kommando.

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Moishe the Beadle

Moishe the Beadle plays a minor yet crucial role in Night, acting as the novel's initial prophet of doom and a spiritual guide for the young Eliezer.

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Rabbi Eliahou

Rabbi Eliahou is a minor yet morally essential character in Elie Wiesel's Night, representing faith, community devotion, and the heartbreaking breakdown of human connections during the Holocaust.

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Shlomo Wiesel

Shlomo Wiesel is Eliezer's father and a central figure in Night.

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Tibi and Yosi

Tibi and Yosi are two Czech brothers who appear in Elie Wiesel's Night as brief but significant companions to the narrator, Eliezer, during his time in Buna.

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Tzipora Wiesel

Tzipora Wiesel is the youngest daughter of Shlomo Wiesel and the adored little sister of Eliezer (Elie).

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“To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.”

This quote comes from Elie Wiesel, a Romanian-born Jewish-American author and Holocaust survivor, and is drawn from the moral and philosophical reflections found in his memoir Night (1960) as well as his other works.

Elie Wiesel

“Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”

This quote is taken from Elie Wiesel's autobiographical memoir Night (1960), which stands as one of the most haunting first-person accounts of the Holocaust.

Elie Wiesel (author/narrator)

“Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.”

This powerful line is delivered by Eliezer, a teenage narrator who reflects Elie Wiesel's own experiences, in the opening of Night.

Eliezer (narrator) · Section 3 (First Night at Birkenau)

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.”

This intense passage opens the third section of Elie Wiesel's autobiographical memoir Night, voiced by Eliezer, the teenage narrator widely seen as representing Wiesel himself.

Eliezer (Elie Wiesel, narrator) · Section 3 (Chapter 3)

“Where is God? Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows.”

This powerful line comes from Elie Wiesel's autobiographical memoir Night, spoken by the narrator Eliezer, who represents Wiesel himself.

Eliezer (Elie Wiesel, narrator) · Chapter 4 (the hanging / gallows scene)

“Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.”

This powerful line is delivered by Eliezer, the teenage narrator who reflects Elie Wiesel's own experiences, in the opening section of Night (1960).

Eliezer (narrator) · Section 1 (First Night / Arrival at Birkenau)

“Night. No one was praying for the night to pass. The stars were only sparks of the fire which devoured us.”

This haunting passage comes from Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, narrated by Eliezer, who serves as Wiesel's semi-autobiographical stand-in.

Eliezer (Elie Wiesel, narrator) · Section 2 (the cattle car transport)

“I was the accuser, God the accused.”

This powerful line comes from Eliezer, who serves as both the narrator and a semi-autobiographical stand-in for author Elie Wiesel, during the solemn Jewish fast of Rosh Hashanah observed at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Eliezer (narrator) · Section 5

“He had become like a stranger to me. I did not know him anymore.”

This line is from Elie Wiesel's deeply moving memoir Night, where he reflects on his father, Shlomo Wiesel, during their horrific experiences in the Nazi concentration camps.

Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel (narrator)

Fire and Flames

In Elie Wiesel's Night, fire and flames represent the devastating and dehumanizing effects of the Holocaust, marking the loss of innocence, faith, and humanity.

Night and Darkness

In Elie Wiesel's Night, the themes of night and darkness take center stage as powerful symbols in the memoir, reflecting the loss of innocence, faith, and humanity amid the Nazi genocide.

The Hanged Child

In Elie Wiesel's Night, the hanged child — a young boy from Warsaw executed by the SS at Buna — serves as the memoir's most heartbreaking symbol of God's death, lost innocence, and the collapse of moral order.

The Mirror

In Elie Wiesel's Night, the mirror represents a fractured identity and the profound loss of self caused by the Holocaust.

The Silence of God

In Elie Wiesel's Night, God's silence represents the devastating loss of faith when faced with overwhelming evil.

Juxtaposition

In Elie Wiesel's Night, juxtaposition serves as the memoir's backbone, compelling readers to feel the stark contrast between what was and what becomes.

Imagery

In Elie Wiesel's Night, vivid imagery turns historical atrocity into a deeply felt, unforgettable experience.

Irony

In Night, Elie Wiesel uses irony as a consistent structural and tonal element, constantly contrasting hopeful human beliefs with the horrors that quickly shatter them.

Metaphor

In Elie Wiesel's Night, metaphor does more than just embellish; it reshapes the reader's moral perspective.

Anaphora

In Night, Elie Wiesel uses anaphora to embed grief and disbelief into the reader's body rather than just their mind.

Symbolism

In Elie Wiesel's Night, the memoir is deeply infused with symbolism, transforming ordinary objects and events into vessels of moral and spiritual significance that a straightforward narrative could never convey.

Foreshadowing

In Elie Wiesel's Night, foreshadowing unfolds as a gradual, haunting build-up of warnings that the reader perceives while the characters remain oblivious to them.

Tone

In Night, Elie Wiesel adopts a tone of harrowed, almost emotionless witness — a deliberate flatness that makes the horror feel more devastating than outrage would.

Repetition

In Night, Elie Wiesel uses repetition as a powerful tool, embedding trauma deep within the reader’s psyche instead of just appealing to the mind.

beadle

A minor synagogue official who assists with religious services, maintains order, and runs errands for the congregation — a humble, low-ranking caretaker of a Jewish house of worship.

noun · Chapter 1

Cabbala

Jewish mystical tradition involving secret interpretations of scripture; here it refers to the esoteric, spiritual texts that Eliezer wishes to study as a young boy.

noun · Chapter 1

Zohar

The foundational text of Jewish mysticism, part of the Cabbalistic tradition, containing mystical commentary on the Torah that Eliezer seeks to study.

noun · Chapter 1

edict

An official order or decree issued by an authority — here, the anti-Jewish laws and restrictions imposed by the Hungarian and German authorities on the Jewish community.

noun · Chapter 2

ghetto

A restricted, enclosed section of a city where Jews were forced to live under Nazi occupation, separated from the rest of the population and tightly controlled.

noun · Chapter 2

deportation

The forced removal of people from their homes and transport to another location — here, the Nazis' systematic removal of Jews from Sighet to concentration camps.

noun · Chapter 2

haggard

Looking exhausted, gaunt, and worn out, as from suffering, hunger, or prolonged hardship — describing the hollow, desperate appearance of prisoners.

adjective · Chapter 3

Kapo

A concentration camp prisoner assigned by the SS to supervise and control other prisoners, often using brutal force; these prisoners held a small degree of power over fellow inmates.

noun · Chapter 3

truncheon

A short, thick club or baton used as a weapon, typically by guards or Kapos to beat prisoners into compliance or as punishment.

noun · Chapter 4

ration

A fixed, strictly limited portion of food or supplies allocated to each prisoner — here, the meager daily allotment of bread and soup that kept inmates barely alive.

noun · Chapter 4

gallows

A wooden frame used for execution by hanging — here, the structure erected in the camp where prisoners were publicly hanged as punishment and as a warning to others.

noun · Chapter 5

pipel

A young boy who served as a personal servant or aide to a Kapo or SS officer in the concentration camps — the term is used specifically in this text for the child who is hanged.

noun · Chapter 5

Rosh Hashanah

The Jewish New Year, a solemn religious holiday — observed even in the camps, it becomes a moment of crisis of faith for Eliezer as he questions God's silence.

noun · Chapter 5

Yom Kippur

The Jewish Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year, traditionally marked by fasting and prayer — Eliezer's relationship to fasting on this day reflects his collapsing faith.

noun · Chapter 5

dysentery

A severe intestinal infection causing painful, bloody diarrhea and extreme weakness — a disease that spread rapidly among prisoners due to the filthy, overcrowded conditions.

noun · Chapter 6

evacuation

The forced, rapid emptying of the camp — here, the Nazis' brutal march of prisoners out of Auschwitz ahead of the advancing Soviet army, also called the death march.

noun · Chapter 6

selection

The process by which SS officers divided arriving prisoners or existing inmates into those who would be kept for forced labor and those who would be sent immediately to their deaths.

noun · Chapter 3

crematorium

A furnace facility used to incinerate human bodies — in the camps, the site where the bodies of murdered prisoners were burned, a constant and terrifying presence for survivors.

noun · Chapter 3

phylacteries

Small leather boxes containing Hebrew scripture passages, strapped to the arm and forehead during Jewish morning prayers — a sign of religious devotion that becomes harder to maintain in the camps.

noun · Chapter 1

Lagerältester

The senior prisoner in charge of an entire concentration camp barracks or camp section, appointed by the SS — a prisoner-leader who held authority over all other inmates.

noun · Chapter 3

meningitis

A dangerous inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord — mentioned in the context of illness and death among the weakened, malnourished prisoners.

noun · Chapter 8

penury

Extreme poverty and deprivation — used to describe the state of total material and spiritual destitution that the prisoners are reduced to in the camps.

noun · Chapter 4

convalescent

Recovering from illness or surgery — here referring to prisoners in the camp's medical block who are too sick to march and face an uncertain fate when the camp is evacuated.

adjective · Chapter 6

Kaddish

A Jewish prayer of mourning traditionally recited in memory of the dead — its presence or absence in the camps marks the breakdown of religious ritual and communal grief.

noun · Chapter 5

Aryan

A Nazi racial classification referring to people of non-Jewish, especially Northern European, descent — used by the Nazi regime to define who had full rights and who was to be persecuted.

adjective · Chapter 2