Night

• Genre: Nonfiction; memoir
• Originally Published: 1956
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 590L; grades 9-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length: 9 chapters; approx. 120 pages; approx. 4 hours, 17 minutes on audio
• Central Concern: This autobiographical account serves as both a record of a young man’s survival in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps and a deeply moving reflection on the inhumanity of the Holocaust.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: The Holocaust; graphic and brutal descriptions of murder, violence, imprisonment, and physical injury; death of parents and family members

Elie Wiesel, Author

• Bio: 1928-2016; born in what is now Romania; deported and imprisoned as a teenager to German concentration camps; studied in Paris after the war; became a journalist; served as a speaker and activist for human rights and Holocaust remembrance, awareness, and education with the publication of Night and 40 additional books; was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1986), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1992), and the Congressional Gold Medal (1985); awarded Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Romania, Legion of Honour; awarded with honorary knighthood by the British government (2006)
• Other Works: Dawn (1961); Day (1961); A Beggar in Jerusalem (1968); Souls on Fire (1972); Messengers of God (1976); The Forgotten (1992)

CENTRAL THEMES  connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Religion and the Loss of Faith
• Dehumanization
• Loyalty and the Father-Son Relationship
• The Power of Illusion

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the cultural, historical, and geographical contexts regarding Judaism and persecution of Jewish communities that connect to the narrator’s experiences during the Holocaust.
• Study paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Dehumanization and The Power of Illusion.
• Analyze and evaluate narrative details to draw conclusions in structured essay responses regarding the separation of family, Wiesel’s relationship with religion, and other topics.