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another study guide question about Night, by Eli Weisel?

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Scholars and reviewers have been unsure which literary genre Night belongs to. In All Rivers Run to the Sea, Wiesel explicitly says, "Night is not a novel," calling it his "deposition," and writes that he "object[s] angrily" if someone implies it is a work of fiction. He writes that he wants his readers to know that "the truth I present is unvarnished; I cannot do otherwise.

Nevertheless, reviewers have had difficulty approaching Night as a historical work or eyewitness account. Gary Weissman of East Carolina University writes in Fantasies of Witnessing: Postwar Efforts to Experience the Holocaust that Night has been called a "novel/autobiography," an "autobiographical novel," a "non-fictional novel," a "semi-fictional memoir," a "fictional-autobiographical novel," a "fictionalized autobiographical memoir," and a "memoir-novel." Weissman argues that Night is regarded as defying all categories, and notes Irving Abrahamson's introduction to the latter's collection of Wiesel's work: "Night is an unprecedented book, the beginning of something new in literature, if not in religion."

François Mauriac wrote in the foreword to the first French edition that Night is "different, distinct, unique ... a book to which no other could be compared." When the first American edition was published, A. Alverez wrote in Commentary that it was "almost unbearably painful, and certainly beyond criticism."

Ruth Franklin argues that the book's impact stems from its construction, which she calls "exquisite." Its language is plain, but "every sentence feels weighted and deliberate, every episode carefully chosen and delineated. It is also shockingly brief; it can be read in an hour, and carried in a pocket. One has the sense of merciless experience mercilessly distilled to its essence ... To read it is to lose one's own innocence about the Holocaust all over again."

The simplicity and power of the narrative has come at the cost of literal truth, writes Franklin. The Yiddish version was more of a historical work than a literary one, and it was political and angry. Wiesel blamed the Jewish concept of chosenness as the source of the Jews' troubles, and complained bitterly about how quickly the world had forgotten the Holocaust. "Today, Germany is a sovereign state. The German army has been resuscitated ... War criminals stroll through the streets of Hamburg and Munich ... [T]here are anti-Semites in Germany, France, and even the United States who tell the world that the 'story' of six million assassinated Jews is nothing but a hoax ..."

In preparation for publication in France, Wiesel and his publisher pruned everything that was not entirely necessary, and Franklin writes that it was a work of art that emerged, rather than a faithful narrative.

Naomi Seidman, professor of Jewish Culture at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, wrote a comparative analysis of the Yiddish and French texts for a 1996 article in Jewish Social Studies. She documented the transition from a historical account of events to what she sees as an autobiographical novel, concluding that Night transforms the Holocaust into a "religious theological" event. She writes that "[i]n the aftermath of God's abdication, the site and occasion of this abdication — "the Holocaust" — takes on theological significance, and the witness becomes both priest and prophet of this new religion," quoting Wiesel, who has said that "Auschwitz is as important as Sinai."

Seidman concludes that there was not one Holocaust survivor in Night, but two, "a Yiddish and a French," a view that Holocaust deniers have exploited to imply that Wiesel has not been truthful about some of the scenes, and which led to Seidman herself being accused of Holocaust revisionism in letters to the editor. Seidman told the Jewish Daily Forward that, in re-writing, rather than simply translating Un di Velt Hot Geshvign for publication in France, Wiesel had replaced an "angry survivor" who regards "testimony as a refutation of what the Nazis did to the Jews," with one who is "haunted by death, whose primary complaint is directed against God, not the world, [or] the Nazis."

Seidman supports her thesis that the Yiddish and French versions are two books written for different audiences by comparing the parts of the text that survived the editing process, and pointing out what she sees as significant differences. For example, in the Yiddish, Wiesel writes that, after liberation, some of the camp survivors, the "Jewish boys," run off to "fargvaldikn daytshe shikses" ("rape German shiksas"), whereas in the French, they are just "young men" who go "coucher avec les filles" ("to sleep with girls"). Seidman argues that the Yiddish version is for the Jewish readers, who want to hear about Jewish boys taking revenge by raping German non-Jews. For the rest of the world—the largely Christian readership—the anger is removed, and they are simply young men sleeping with girls.Seidman writes that Wiesel, per

Darlene Said:

Night Study Guide Question Elie Wiesel?

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He was removed because he showed kindness and humanity. He simply wasn't savagely enough to be in charge of the prisoners.

Melissa Said:

Help with study guide for Night by Elie Wiesel?

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Before anyone knew where they were going, Wiesel's mother urged the family to stay together no matter what. When they arrived at Auschwitz, everyone held each other's hands as they proceeded forward. Not long after they disenbarked, the S.S. ordered that the men and women must be separated. As Wiesel saw his mother and sisters disappear into the crowd, he didn't realize that at that precise moment, that it would be the very last time in his life that he would see his mother and youngest sister alive.

Steve Said:

study guide question about Night, by Eli Weisel?

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The short answer is this. "Arbeit macht frei (Work brings freedom)".

Mark Said:

Does anyone have the answers to the study guide for Night by Elie Wiesel for chapters 3 through 5?

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this study guide will help you find your answers

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