The Holocaust and Wiesel Hints

Essay Ideas for Elie Wiesel’s Night
1. Good to Brutal: One of the most tragic themes in Night is Eliezer’s discovery of the way that atrocities and cruel treatment can turn good people into brutes. Does he himself escape this fate? Use specific events to convey your opinion.
2. Advocacy from Experience: Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his championing of human rights around the world. How might his advocacy for human rights have grown out of his Holocaust experiences? What are the positive lessons of the Holocaust that Wiesel hints at in Night?
3. How to Survive: Two different prisoners gave Wiesel two contrasting pieces of advice about how to survive. One was his new block leader at Auschwitz (41), and the other was at Buchen-wald as his father lay dying (110). Summarize these two philosophies of survival and discuss the wisdom of each.
4. Silence is Participation: Elie Wiesel once said that anyone who witnesses an atrocity or an act of inhumanity, and does nothing to stop it, is just as guilty as the person committing the act is. Those who know and remain silent are guilty of the same offense. To stand by silently is to participate in the crime. Do you agree with Elie Wiesel’s judgment?
5. Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis reduced the Jews to little more than "things" which were a nuisance to them. Discuss how dehumanization occurred in Night. How did dehumanization help Hitler achieve his ends? At one point in the book, Wiesel said that he had ceased to feel human. What did he mean by this and what things can cause people to lose their sense of dignity and humanity?
6. Loss of Innocence: It is possible to look at Night as the story of Eliezer’s loss of innocence. It might be argued, too, that innocence is impossible after the Holocaust. Is this true? Is it tragic, or is innocence an impediment to survival, as when the Jews are too innocent to believe that Hitler really means to kill them?
7. Chance vs. Choice: What role does chance play in Eliezer’s survival of the Holocaust? What role does choice play? Do your answers to these questions have any implications regarding the extent of control that a person has over his or her life?
8. Experience and Belief: In what ways did Wiesel's experiences affect his beliefs? Does Wiesel believe that God is dead? Does the narrator, Eliezer? Did questioning strengthen Elie’s faith? Did he learn to ask “the right questions” as Moishe the Beadle said?
9. Remembering: Discuss why it is important to study the Holocaust and why we should not forget it. Be sure to include references to Night to support your argument: Wiesel wrote of those things he will never forget (p. 32); after reading Night, what images, ideas, and feelings do you think you will never forget?
10. Lack of Resistance: Many people ask survivors why there was so little resistance in the death camps. While there is documented evidence of some resistance in the various camps, why do you think that there were so few accounts of resistance?
11. Giving up is easy: In discussing the Holocaust, Luba Frederick, a survivor, said, "To die was easy." Based on the reading you have done, explain her statement. In normal life situations is giving up also easier than keeping up the struggle?
12. Culture and Barbarism: Before and after the Holocaust, many people wondered how the Germans, cultured Europeans, could commit such barbaric acts. Does Wiesel suggest any rationale behind the Holocaust in Night? Does he speculate as to the motives of the perpetrators? What, for Wiesel, are those motives, if they exist?
13. To Speak or Not to Speak: In his 1996 memoir All Rivers Run to the Sea, Elie Wiesel writes, in reference to the responsibility of the Holocaust survivor, “To be silent is impossible, to speak forbidden.” What do you think Wiesel means? How does he resolve or circumvent this paradox?
14. The Title: Discuss the significance of the book's title, Night.
15. Motifs: Explore how Wiesel utilizes motifs in his book, Night (night, eyes, silence). How does his use of motif help to develop character, plot, or other literary elements?
16. Discuss the significance of the last three paragraphs of Night.
17. Memoir: Night is essentially Elie Wiesel’s memoir about his experiences in the Holocaust. Yet, there are minor differences between Wiesel’s own experiences and those of Night’s narrator, Eliezer. Why might that be? Must a memoir be absolutely factual?