Night: Chapters 1-2 Study Guide - English

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key characters, locations, events, foreshadowing, and analytical concepts from the opening sections of Elie Wiesel's Night.

Sighet

A Romanian Jewish community wiped out in May 1944 when 13,000 residents were deported to Auschwitz; famous as the hometown of Elie Wiesel in Night.

Birkenau

The entry camp to Auschwitz and the administrative headquarters of the camp complex, focused on forced labor, torture, medical experiments, and holding political prisoners.

Auschwitz

The primary mass extermination facility where over 1 million people—mostly Jews—were murdered in industrial gas chambers upon arrival.

Moishe the Beadle

A poor 'jack of all trades' in Sighet who lived in utter penury, stayed out of everyone's way, and survived execution by the Gestapo in a Polish forest by pretending to be dead after being shot in the leg.

Eliezer's Prayer

Prayer offered for his father who passed away; Eliezer cried when praying because he remembered the night it happened and heard his father's voice.

Moishe's Testimony

The account of foreign Jews being taken by the Gestapo to Polish forests, forced to dig mass graves, and executed—which the townspeople of Sighet rejected as madness, lies, or pity-seeking because the atrocities were too horrific to imagine.

Loss of Civil Rights (Sighet)

The initial phases of persecution in Sighet, including being confined to homes under threat of death, stripped of gold, jewelry, and valuables, and forced to wear the yellow Star of David while banned from synagogues, cafes, and travel.

Ghetto

A gated, guarded city section where Jews were forcibly crowded and isolated prior to deportation.

Denial of Reality

The psychological resistance of Sighet's citizens to the truth right in front of them, because denying reality offered comfort, while accepting it required facing terrifying danger and losing all hope.

Cattle Cars (Deportation Trains)

Transport cars packed with 80 people each that were stiflingly hot, completely dark, without sanitary facilities, and short on food and water.

"Our eyes were opened too late"

A realization by the victims of the true, deadly scope of the Holocaust, occurring only after they were already trapped on trains with no possibility of escape.

Madame Schächter's Nightmare

Visions of fire and smoke experienced on the cattle car that foreshadowed the crematoria furnaces at Auschwitz.

Suppression of Madame Schächter

The actions of passengers who tied Madame Schächter up, gagged her, and struck her repeatedly to silence her screams.

Elie's Early Worldview

The perspective of young Elie in the traditional, devout Jewish community of Sighet, characterized by deep religious devotion and a focus on studying Jewish mysticism to draw closer to God.

Warnings of Danger (Sighet)

A series of warning signs—including Moishe's story, news of Hungarian fascism, German troop arrivals, and the loss of civil rights—that were disbelieved due to false hope and the assumption that the war would end before harm reached the community.

Erosion of Empathy

A psychological reaction demonstrated by the brutal treatment of Madame Schächter on the train, proving that extreme terror and deprivation can destroy empathy and drive desperate people toward cruelty.

Foreshadowing of Camp Dehumanization

The link between the beating of Madame Schächter on the train and concentration camp life, illustrating how camp conditions would dehumanize prisoners and reduce survival to brutal self-preservation.

Modern Information Isolation

The phenomenon where state censorship, internet blackouts, and willful denial (disinformation) can leave isolated groups ignorant of atrocities occurring elsewhere, despite the modern ubiquity of mass media.