Section 4

What was the process Elie Wiesel went through trying to get Night published?

After the war, Wiesel made a vow to wait ten years before speaking about his experiences. He wrote Night thanks to the inspiration of a catholic friend, and soon attempted to get it published. However, "They didn't want it. It was too morbid, they said. 'Nobody wants to hear these stories'". For almost three years, it was only picked up by small publishing companies. Finally, it was widely published in New York in 1960. It gained even more fame when Oprah selected it for her book club in 2006. This is how it became the largely famous memoir it is today.

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wie0int-3

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10879079/

Section 3

What was daily life like in the concentration camps?

"We had risen at dawn, as we did every day. We had received our black coffee, our ration of bread. We were about to head to the work yard as always" (73).

A typical day for a concentration camp prisoner started with a wake up call at about 4:00 a.m. They made their beds, washed quickly, and then went for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of tasteless coffee and a chunk of bread (and sometimes margarine or a thin piece of sausage, if one was lucky). Afterwards, it was time for the morning roll call. All the prisoners had to line up in rows of ten, including the bodies of those who had died during the night. Since the roll call often took place in rain or freezing weather, people sometimes died while the roll call was taking place. Next, prisoners got escorted by an SS officer to where they worked. They would do difficult manual labor for 12-14 hours a day. If one was working too "slowly", they were beaten by the Kapos, sometimes until they died. There was a short lunch break somewhere in the day. When the prisoners returned to the camp, they had to carry the prisoners who died that day back for the evening roll call. This roll call sometimes took hours. After that, dinner was served, which is another ration of bland soup. Finally, prisoners return to their barracks and tried to sleep in the horrible conditions they were put in. They had managed to survive another day.

http://www.jewishgen.org/Forgottencamps/Camps/DayEng.html

Section 2

What is a Kapo?

"The Kapos were beating us again, but I no longer felt pain" (36).

Kapos were inmates who supervised the prisoners. Many were more brutal than the Nazis, although a few were even Jewish. They were given special privileges for doing so. If they failed to perform their duties, they would receive severe punishment or death. They were prosecuted as war criminals when World War II ended.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kapos.html

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Kapo

Section 1

Question: Why was the Holocaust such a surprise for the citizens of Sighet?

Quote: "The Germans were already in our town, the Fascists were already in power, the verdict was already out-and the Jews of Sighet were still smiling" (10).

This reaction was partially motivated by a desire to not except the truth, since the truth was inconceivable. In addition, they thought it was happening too far away to affect them. They thought the Holocaust was ending anyway, so that it would be over before it had the chance to spread to Hungary. Even when evidence presented itself, such as radio broadcasts or word from Moishe the Beadle, the state of denial was kept due to the fear the people of Sighet had of the truth. Although this seems ridiculous to someone who knows the fate of the Jews in Sighet, it was the only way they knew to comfort themselves. We probably would have done the same.

Source: http://www.enotes.com/night-wiesel/q-and-a/time-time-again-people-sighet-doubt-advance-german-114855

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm