Vocabulary in Night

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.