Night Chapter Focus Questions- provide answers on loose leaf

Section 1 Focus Questions

1. Quote the text and explain why Moishe the Beadle was important to Elie.

2. What was the public reaction to Moishe’s story?

3. Describe the setting.

4. Name at least 3 of the laws put in place to restrict the Jews in Sighet.

5. Why did Elie’s father refuse to take Elie’s advice and move to Palestine?

6. What was the ghetto and why were people not concerned about being placed there at first?

7. Who was Maria and what happened when she visited the Wiesel family in the ghetto?

Section 2-3 Focus Questions

1. How many people were put in the cattle cars?

2. What did Madame Schachter see in her vision? What did they do to subdue her?

3. Where did the train stop?

4. What notorious S.S. officer did they meet at Auschwitz? What have you heard about this man (outside of this novel)?

5. What was Elie’s main concern as he was being herded from the train?

6. What prayer were people saying and why was it unusual?

7. Explain why the prisoner told Elie to say that he was eighteen, rather than fifteen.

8. What was the job of the men of the Sonder-Kommando? How were they chosen?

9. What did Elie do when the gypsy hit his father? What do you think about this?

10. How long were they at Auschwitz? Where did they go after that?

Section 4 Focus Questions

1. What camp are Elie and his father now in? Why did the officers there take a special interest in the children?

2. Describe the incident with Elie’s shoes.

3. Describe Elie’s encounter with the dentist.

4. What did Yossi and Tibi have in common with Elie’s family?

5. Describe the incident with the French girl who said kind words to Elie after Idek beat him.

6. Why was Elie angry with his father when he got beat by Idek?

7. What did Elie witness Idek doing and what was Elie’s punishment to make him stay quiet?

8. Why and for whom were the gallows set up the first time?

9. How did Elie say the soup tasted after he witnessed the first hanging? How about after the last hangings at the end of the chapter?

Section 5 Focus Questions

1. What is Rosh Hashana? How did Elie feel when everyone was praying on this holiday?

2. What was Elie’s decision about fasting on Yom Kippur? Why did he make that decision?

3. What was the advice that they were given to make it through selection?

4. What was Elie’s “inheritance” from his father? What was his father’s fate at the end of selection?

5. How did Akiba Drummer feel about God at this point? What is the significance of the men forgetting to say the Kaddish for him?

6. What did Elie and his father worry would happen if he stayed behind in the infirmary during the evacuation? What actually happened to those people who stayed behind?

7. What was the last act performed by the men before leaving their block? Why?

Section 6 Focus Questions

1. While they were running, what idea began to fascinate Elie? Why didn’t he go through with the thoughts that he was having?

2. Why did Elie’s father warn him to not be overcome by sleep?

3. What did we learn about Rabbi Eliahou’s son? What was Elie’s prayer after he realized what the Rabbi’s son had done?

4. What was the name of the next camp that they arrived at?

5. Describe the situation that Elie was in when he believed he was about to die. How did he escape death?

6. How did Elie’s father escape selection?

7. What were the prisoners doing that the S.S. officers found amusing?

8. They boarded a train to another camp. They could fit 100 people per car. How many were in each cattle car at the beginning of this book (section 2) and what does this tell us?

Section 7 Focus Questions

1. Why were the prisoners happy that the train stopped in an empty field? What almost happened to Eli’s father here?

2. What happened when the train stopped and people threw scraps of bread onto the train?

3. Who was Meir Katz and what happened to him?

4. What camp did the train arrive in at the end of Section 7?

5. How many men were on the train at the start of the trip and how many were left at the end?

Section 8 Focus Questions

1. When the prisoners were waiting for the showers, why did Elie become angry with his father?

2. What did Elie do at the beginning of Section 8 that made him say that he would be “ashamed of myself forever”.

3. Elie’s father was very sick but the sick prisoners were not given anything to eat. Why?

4. As Elie’s father neared death, what information did he feel necessary to tell Ellie?

5. What was the last thing that Elie’s father said?

6. After his father’s death, Elie realized that if he reached deep down inside, how would he really feel?

Section 9 Focus Questions

1. Why does Elie say he doesn’t feel the need to describe his life in Buchenwald after his father died?

2. When the prisoners were supposed to gather at the Appleplatz, some people were whispering to the children to go back to the bunks. Why did they do this?

3. What was the result of the resistance acting?

4. What was Elie’s first act as a free man?

5. What is ironic about Elie getting food poisoning and almost dying?