Night Chapter Summaries

Meet Moishe the Beadle. Hes a poor Jew in the town of Sighet (now in modern-day
Romania), where our author and narrator, Eliezer Wiesel, lives. Moishe the Beadle is
awkward and shy, but 12-year-old Eliezer likes him anyway.
Eliezer, whos also Jewish, is very religious. He studies the Talmud and goes to the
temple every night, but he also wants to study Kabbalah.
Eliezers father thinks his son is too young to learn Kabbalah, and that Kabbalah
isnt something that Eliezer should spend his time on. He keeps saying to his son,
"There are no Kabbalists in Sighet."
Moishe the Beadle sees Eliezer crying while praying at the synagogue, and they
have a kind of connection. They end up talking most evenings at the synagogue.
Eliezer confides in Moishe his desire to learn Kabbalah, and to Eliezers surprise,
Moishe knows all about Kabbalah and starts to teach him.
Then one day, the Hungarian police expel all the foreign Jews from Sighet. Moishe
the Beadle is actually a foreigner, so he and the others like him are packed into train
cars like cattle.
The Jews of Sighet think its a shame that the foreigners are carted away, but
quickly forget, clearly not seeing this as a warning for their own futures.
Life goes back to normal.
Many months pass and Moishe the Beadle returns. He tells Eliezer his story: he and
the other foreign Jews were carted off into Poland, where the Gestapo took over and
forced them to dig their own graves. Moishe escaped because he was shot in the leg
and left for dead.
Moishe warns the people of Sighet to leave because death is coming their way.
Nobody listens. This is at the end of 1942.
Now its spring of 1944 and the people of Sighet listen with incredulity to radio
reports. How could one man (Adolf Hitler) possibly wipe out an entire people?
Impossible!
News comes from Budapest that the Jews there are subjected to attacks by the
Nazis. But the Jews of Sighet are optimistic that the Nazis wont come all the way to
their little town.
Then the Germans arrive.
At first the Germans dont seem so bad. They are billeted in peoples homes and
while theyre not exactly friendly, theyre not rude or violent. Some of them even
buy chocolate for their host families.
The Jews in Sighet just dont want to see whats coming. Wiesel sums it up pretty
well: "The Germans were already in town, the Fascists were already in power, the
verdict was already outand the Jews of Sighet were still smiling."
 Night Chapter Summaries

People celebrate Passover and as the celebration ends, the restrictions begin. First,
Jews cannot leave their houses for three days or theyll die. Then, Jews are no longer
allowed to keep valuable items, or theyll die. Next, Jews must wear the yellow star.
Important community members come to talk with Eliezers father (who has
connections with the Hungarian police) about what should be done about the
situation. Eliezers dad is still optimistic.
Next, the police set up two ghettos and move all the Jews there.
The Sighet Jews become optimistic again. The scary barbed wire isnt all that bad,
and they have their own Jewish Republic within each ghetto. They dont even have
to deal with outsiders.
If this is as bad as it gets, the Jews think, this isnt too bad.
Eliezers dad is summoned to a special Council meeting (hes a member of the
Jewish Council in his ghetto). Everyones anxiously waiting to find out what new
information Eliezers dad will bring.
Eliezers dad comes back from his meeting after midnight. Hes accosted by people
begging to find out what he learned in the meeting. And it cant be good news
because he looks awful.
The news is terrible: deportation, starting tomorrow.
The Jews in the ghetto get more information out of Eliezers father: everyone can
take only one bag of belongings. Theyll board trains and driven to an unknown
destination.
Eliezers dad tells the people to go wake up their neighbors because everyone
should pack and be ready for tomorrow.
The ghetto is a bustle of activity: women cooking food for the trip, people packing,
Eliezers father consoling friends left and right.
The police show up to the ghetto at 8am and call all of the Jews out.
The police empty the houses, club people with their guns, and do a roll call.
The Jews are marched to the synagogue and searched for valuables.
The Wiesels are not in the first groups to leave; they wont leave until Tuesday (in
two days).
Tuesday comes and the Wiesels deportation has been delayed; they will first be
moved to a smaller ghetto to await transport, but they still have to go through the
roll call and leave their home.
Eliezer feels empty. His father cries.
The police start clubbing Jews and force the whole group to run. Eliezer realizes
that he hates the Hungarian police.
 Night Chapter Summaries

The Wiesels and the other Jews arrive at the smaller ghetto, which had been
evacuated three days before. The small ghetto shows signs of the Jews being forced
to leave in a hurrytheres even a half eaten bowl of soup on the table where the
Wiesels are staying.
The Wiesels former maid, Maria, comes to see them. She says shes prepared a
hiding place for them in her town. Eliezers dad wont go into hiding but gives
Eliezer and his older sisters the choice of leaving. The family refuses to be
separated.
Optimism returns, again. Some think that the Germans are only out to steal the
Jews valuables, so theyre sending the Jews on "vacation" while they snag their
stuff. Others think theyre being deported "for our own good."
Saturday morning all of the Jews are out on the street and ready to leave.
They all go to the synagogue, which has been converted into a sort of over-
crowded train station, to await transport. Its the Sabbath, so its rather ironic that
theyre at the synagogue, considering its current use. They wait there for a full 24
hours.
The next morning, the Hungarian police load the Jews into cattle cars, seal the
cars, and check to make sure the bars on the windows are secure.
The train begins to move.
Chapter 2

Packed inside cattle trains, the Jews of Sighet are on their way to an unknown
destination. They are crammed together so tightly, its impossible to lie down and
they can only sit by taking turns.
Still, young people somehow manage to find a way to "caress" each other.
Two days pass and so does the Hungarian border. The Jews are not staying in their
country after all, and in fact they are now under German jurisdiction.
German officers inform them that there are eighty people in the cattle car. If
anybody goes missing, they will all be shot"like dogs."
In the middle of the night, a woman, Mrs. Schchter, begins to moan, cry, and
scream because she has been separated from her husband. At last, she begins to
scream that she sees fire, a terrible fire.
People try to calm her but she will not be calmed. She tells them she sees a
terrible furnace.
The Jews in the cattle car try to explain Mrs. Schchters vision awayshe must be
thirsty, they say.
At long last, people get fed up and they start to beat her with blows strong enough
to kill her.
 Night Chapter Summaries

The next night, though, she begins to scream again about the fire.
The train stops somewhere for a little while. Two men go for water and come back
with news that theyre at Auschwitz, where life is apparently pretty good. Everyone
rejoices.
But that night, Mrs. Schchter begins to scream again, and again shes beaten. At
long last she is silent.
The train continues to move. Suddenly Mrs. Schchter screams again. This time,
through the windows, everyone can see the crematoria smokestacks. Fire. The smell
of burning bodies.
The Jews get out (read: are beaten and forced out), only to encounter those
smokestacks, that smell, in front of them.
They have arrived in Birkenau. (Note that Birkenau is adjacent to Auschwitz and
sometimes called Auschwitz-Birkenau).
Chapter 3

The Jews must leave all of their cherished possessionsand optimistic illusionsin
the cattle car as they move forward to be admitted to the concentration camp.
Men are sent to the left, women to the right. Although he does not know it at the
moment, this is the last time Eliezer will ever see his mother and youngest sister
Tzipora.
Eliezers one thought is not to lose his father.
Already, some Jews are being beaten and shot.
A kind prisoner comes up to Eliezer and his father, asking them their ages. On
hearing that Eliezer is 15 and his father is 50, the prisoner tells them they should be
18 and 40. Age can mean the difference between life and death.
Another prisoner tells them they would have been better off hanging themselves
than to come here. Hadnt they heard of Auschwitz in 1944? The new prisoners all
have to admit that no, they hadnt heard about Auschwitz.
The prisoner points to the smokestacks and asks if they know whats being burned
there? Basically he says: thats where youre going to die. (But in more words and
some curses.)
The male prisoners are in a line being questioned by Dr. Mengele and divided into
two groups: one group, presumably, is going to be working; the other group will
head straight to the crematorium. (Dr. Josef Mengele was an infamous Nazi doctor
who selected which prisoners would be sent to labor and which would die.)
When Eliezer is questioned, he lies and says that hes 18 and a farmer, rather than
15 and a student.
 Night Chapter Summaries

Near Eliezer, theres a pit of fire into which small children are being dumpedalive.
Eliezer comments, as the narrator, "Is it any wonder that ever since then, sleep
tends to elude me?"
It seems for a while that death is imminent. The male prisoners, including Eliezers
father, are weeping. Some are even saying the prayer for the dead, but saying it for
themselves.
Within himself, Eliezer begins to feel the first stirrings of rebellion against God.
Eliezer contemplates killing himself by throwing himself onto the electric wire
rather than be burned alive, but his group is directed away from the fires.
Both Eliezer and his father are assigned to labor units, so death is not immediate.
They wait through a long night, during which Eliezer loses faith in Gods justice and
mercy.
The new male prisoners are beaten, forced to strip off their clothes, beaten, and
sent to the barber to get their hair shaved off.
After the barber, all of the men are standing around, naked, finding acquaintances
and old friends. They are joyful at finding each other still alive.
The naked men are forced to run outside in the cold to a bath of disinfectant, and
then forced to run again to the storeroom to get striped prisoners clothes.
In the striped outfits, the men look like something other than human. "We had
ceased to be men," Wiesel says.
Aside from looking completely different all shaved and in awful, identical uniforms,
Eliezer feels he has lost his identity; he is no longer a child or a student of Talmud.
At daybreak, they see prisoners at work, digging holes and carrying sand.
They wait some morewhile standingfor who knows how long.
An SS officer arrives and lectures them about the realities of the concentration
camp. Its not a "convalescent home," he says. It is a place where you are expected
to work hard. Its a concentration camp. If you dont work, you can expect to go
straight to the smokestacks. To sum it up: work or die.
Eliezer and his father are moved to a new barracks where they are at least allowed
to sit, but Eliezer has to watch his father be beaten, and is horrified that hes
watching this without rebelling.
They continue marching, for half an hour, to another camp (theyve left Birkenau).
The iron gate to this camp has an inscription: "work makes you free." They are now
in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
The prisoner in charge is Polish. He is kind when he greets them and he tries to
encourage them that liberation is on the way. He also tells the new prisoners that
the only way to survive is to help each other.
 Night Chapter Summaries

They sleep and the next day their spirits are improved. They even get a bowl of
soup for lunch. The next day, they are given numbers, tattooed on their arms.
Eliezer becomes A-7713.
They look for friends and relatives among the latest arrivals.
A relative named Stein comes looking for Eliezer and his father after theyve been
in Auschwitz for about a week. Stein is Eliezers cousin, and he is looking for news
about his wife and children.
Eliezer lies to Stein, saying he heard they are well.
The nice Polish prisoner who was in charge of Eliezers group (or Block 17) is
removed because hes too nice. The prisoner who replaces him is vicious.
Stein continues to visit occasionally, and he often brings some of his own food
ration for Eliezer. He tells them that the important thing is to stay healthy and avoid
"selection." (Selection is when the group is divided between those that are healthy
enough to work and those destined for the crematoria.)
Stein says the knowledge that his wife and kids are alive gives him enough hope to
keep on living.
A new transport comes to Auschwitz and Stein hopes to hear some more news
about his family. When Stein hears real news about his wife and children, he does
not return. We assume that he gave up hope and died.
In the evenings, the men in Block 17 discuss their faith. Eliezer doesnt pray. Hes
not an atheist, but he no longer believes that God is absolutely just.
Eliezer and his father try to reassure themselves that his mother and Tzipora are
all right.
They finally receive their work orders and they depart with the next transport.
They march through German villages where their guards flirt with giggling German
girls. Four hours later, they reach Buna. The doors close behind them.
Chapter 4
Buna seems dead, empty.
Eliezers group starts asking around to find out which is the best work group to be
assigned to. The word on the street is that you just want to stay away from the
construction "Kommando" or (work group).
A fat German is in charge of them. One of his assistants tells Eliezer that, in
exchange for his shoes, he will make sure Eliezer gets into a good labor unit. Eliezer
refuses to part with his shoes.
The next day there is a medical and a dental examination, only the doctors simply
ask you if youre in good health and the dentist is just looking for gold crowns. If you
have a gold crown, he writes your name (read: number tattooed on your arm) on his
list.
 Night Chapter Summaries

Eliezer has a gold crown.

Eliezer and his dad are assigned to work in a warehouse for electrical equipment.
Idek is their "Kapo," or work leader. They learn that Idek is a little crazy and its best
to stay out of his way.
The work isnt bad, its just counting pieces of electrical equipment. There are even
civilians working therePolish people and some French women.
Eliezer becomes friends with Czechoslovakian brothers, Yossi and Tibi, whose
parents had been killed in Birkenau.
Their new block leader is a nice German Jew. Eliezer and his father now get a
blanket, soap, and a washbowl.
Eliezer uses trickery to keep his gold tooth. He keeps telling the dentist that hes
sick and puts off the tooth removal. At last, the dentist is punished because hes
been pocketing some of the gold crowns. Eliezers tooth is, for the moment, safe.
At the warehouse, Eliezer works near a young French girl who seems to him to be
Jewish although she passes herself off as Aryan.
One day, Idek (the crazy Kapo) gets angry and beats Eliezer. The French girl is kind
to him and gives him a little bit of bread. She tells him not to give up hope.
Many years later, Eliezer sees the French girl (now a woman) on a train in Paris.
She remembers him too, and he discovers that she is indeed from a religious Jewish
family but she managed to hide her identity to keep herself alive.
Back in Buna in 1944, Idek goes crazy again and beats Eliezers dad this time.
Eliezer reflects on how inhumane the concentration camps made him; as his father
is being beaten, rather than being mad at Idek, Eliezer is mad at his father for not
avoiding the Kapo.
Franek, the foreman, decides he wants Eliezers gold crown. Eliezer wont give it to
him. But, Franek discovers Eliezers weaknesshis father.
Franek begins to torment Eliezers father during their marches.
At last, Eliezer gives in and his tooth is extracted with a rusty spoon in the
bathroom.
Idek marches them to work one Sunday (when working isnt required) and leaves
them in Franeks care, saying he doesnt care what they do; he just doesnt want
them in the camp.
Eliezer goes exploring and discovers why Idek didnt want anyone in the camp:
hes sleeping with this young Polish girl. Eliezer laughs, thinking about the absurdity
of moving 100 prisoners to the warehouse just so he can get laid.
Idek discovers Eliezer and gets angry. He gives Eliezer 25 lashes with the whip in
front of the whole block and tells him hell get five times that if he tells anyone what
he saw.
 Night Chapter Summaries

Some Sunday (time seems to blend) theres an air raid. The SS officers take cover,
while the prisoners remain in their bunks.
One man dares to venture out to get some soup, as the soup has been left out. For
most people, terror is stronger than hunger, but not for this man. The man is killed,
though, when the Allies start bombing Buna.
All of the prisoners are glad to hear the bombs; they have renewed hope.
A week later at roll call, everybody notices the gallows that have been set up in the
middle of camp.
The SS officers drag a young Polish man out of solitary confinement; hes going to
be hanged for stealing something during the air raid. The Polish man cries "A curse
on Germany! Long live liberty!" as the rope goes around his neck. Then he is killed.
Eliezer witnesses other hangings. But the worst is the hanging of a young boy who
is involved in resistance activities. Because he is light in weight, the hanging
doesnt result in instantaneous death. The inmates are forced to watch as the boy
on the end of the rope struggles for half an hour before he dies.
That night, everything, including the soup they eat, tastes of death.
Chapter 5

The Jews inside Buna come together for a service to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.
Eliezer wonders, angrily, where God is and refuses to bless Gods name because of
all of the death and suffering He has allowed.
Eliezer thinks that man is strong, stronger than God.
During this years Rosh Hashanah, unlike all previous years, Eliezer is not asking
forgiveness for his sins. Rather, Eliezer feels himself to be "the accuser, God the
accused."
The services conclude with the Kaddish and Eliezer goes in search for his father,
who is standing as if a heavy weight is upon him. In that moment, Eliezer realizes
his father is already beaten.
On Yom Kippur, Eliezer refuses to fastnot only to please his father, who says they
should not fast when they need to keep up their strength, but also to mock God.
Eliezer is no longer in the same block as his father because he was transferred to
the construction Kommandothats the bad job where you haul huge stones
around.
During dinner one evening, the word spreads that selection is coming up.
Eliezers block leader gives the prisoners some advice about passing selection:
basically, look vigorous and dont be scared. Thanks, that wasnt very helpful.
 Night Chapter Summaries

Eliezer and all of the other men undress as Dr. Mengele and some SS officers
arrive.
They go through the selection process. Dr. Mengele, a notorious doctor in the Nazi
concentration camps, is the one who inspects them.
Though terrified, Eliezer passes the inspection, as does his dad. Theyre relieved.
(That was an understatement.)
Several days pass and they learn that a new list of prisoner numbers has been
selected for death. Eliezers father is on that list.
Eliezers dad tries to reassure him, saying that the selection wasnt decisive; there
will be another one today that he might pass.
His father is rushed, trying to tell his son everything he wants to say before he
dies. As they say goodbye that day, his father gives him a knife and a spoonthe
family inheritance. Eliezer doesnt want to take them. He doesnt want to admit his
father might have been selected. But at last, he takes them and marches off with
the construction group.
The days work is hard and Eliezer dreads going back to camp to find he is alone.
That night, he returns to find his father is still alive, having passed the second
selection. Eliezer gives the knife and spoon back to his dad.
Akiba Drumer, one of their fellow prisoners, is selected. He asks them to remember
to say the Kaddish for him after he dies. They promise but they forget to say the
Kaddish.
Winter arrives and makes everything worse, more unbearable.
The prisoners get Christmas and New Years off, plus the present of a "slightly less
transparent soup."
In January, Eliezers foot begins to swell. Its so swollen, he goes to the doctora
Jewish doctor and a prisonerwho tells Eliezer that he needs an operation or his
foot will have to be amputated. So Eliezer enters the hospital.
Life in the hospital is a bit bettermore food, thicker soup, and even sheets on the
beds.
What Eliezer fears most is that he will be selected at the hospital while
recuperating.
The operation is successful and the doctor tells Eliezer he just needs to rest for two
weeks.
But Eliezer cant feel his leg and hes afraid its been amputatedwhich would
mean selection. Hes relieved to learn that his leg is still very much attached.
While he waits in the hospital, rumors fly that the Russians are not far away and
the camp is going to be evacuated. Those who are in the hospital will probably be
"liquidated," that is, killed.
 Night Chapter Summaries

So Eliezer, even though his foot is still recovering, goes in search of his father. He
doesnt want to stay behind in the hospital and be separated from his father during
the evacuation.
Later, Eliezer learns that the Russians liberated the hospital two days after he left.
The prisoners are forced to evacuate, but only after mopping the floor of the
barracks (literally crazy, huh?).
Off the prisoners go, marching through the snow.
Chapter 6

The prisoners arent marching, but running through the snow while the SS yell at
them to go faster faster faster! The SS will kill anyone who cant keep up.
Eliezers friend Zalman gets a stomach cramp. He stops for a second to try to
relieve it and he ends up getting trampled to death by all the prisoners.
The road seems endless, but finally (after many hours) they are at last ordered to
rest.
Eliezers father directs him to a shed to sleep in.
When Eliezer falls asleep, his dad wakes him and warns him not to fall asleepits
dangerous to sleep in the snow. To sleep means death.
Death is all around them. Many people do in fact die while they sleep. Snow falls
on the corpses.
Eliezer and his dad work to keep each other awake.
Eliezers father smiles at him, and Eliezer wonders from which world the smile
comes. This is his admission that his father hovers between life and death. It is only
a matter of time.
Rabbi Eliahu comes looking for his son. Eliezer says he hasnt seen him but after
the Rabbi leaves, Eliezer remembers seeing the Rabbis son running beside him,
looking back and leaving his old, weak father behind.
Eliezer utters a prayer that God will never let him be so cruel to his own father.
They continue marching. It continues snowing. Eliezer cant even feel his wounded
foot.
At last, they reach a camp, Gleiwitz, and they enter the barracks to sleep. There
are so many people that they are stacked on each other to sleep.
Eliezers friend, Juliek, is also struggling but the worst thing, for him, is that his
violin is getting smashed.
Eliezer feels himself being crushed. He is seeking air. At last he fights until he
reaches some air.
 Night Chapter Summaries

Then he hears the violinJuliek playing Beethoven through the long night.
When he wakes up, Juliek is dead and his violin is crushed beside him.
They stay at Gleiwitz for three days without food or water. SS officers guard the
doors to the barracks.
On the third day, they are driven out of the barracks.
A selection! Eliezers father is sent to the left (bad side). Eliezer manages to slip
into the left side and, in the middle of confusion, move his father back to the right.
Those on the right leave the camp. They march until they are told to stop and wait
for the train. They wait for hours.
Finally, the train arrives and they are pushed inside.
Chapter 7

The prisoners are crammed together in the train car for the night.
The train stops and the SS officers order the prisoners to toss any dead bodies out
of the train. The prisoners are happy to get rid of the dead to make more room in
the train car.
Eliezers father, who looks pretty dead, is almost thrown out, but Eliezer manages
to revive him (by hitting him repeatedly) just in time.
They resume their journey. There is no foodonly snow. They travel for ten days,
sometimes through German villages.
A German workman by the train tracks throws some bread into the train car. The
German watches, amused, as the men fight each other to the death to get the
bread.
A son kills his own father for a piece of bread.
The bread incident is so interesting to the German workers that they begin tossing
more bread into the train cars.
During the night, somebody tries to strangle Eliezer. The man in charge of the
wagon (who also happens to be a friend of Eliezers dad), Meir Katz, manages to
save him.
On the last day of the journey, an icy wind blows through them. It seems that they
cant possibly survive such a cold wind.
When somebody cries out as they die, everybody begins to wail.
Meir Katz wonders why the Germans dont just shoot everybody. It would be more
merciful.
 Night Chapter Summaries

The train at last arrives at Buchenwald. A hundred prisoners had gotten on the
trainonly a dozen get off. Eliezer and his father are among that dozen.
Chapter 8

At Buchenwald, Eliezer and his father go to take a hot shower. But there are so
many prisoners crowding around the baths that his father goes to lie down in some
snow. He says hes tired and Eliezer can wake him when its their turn.
Eliezer refuses to let his father sit down and rest because he sees the ground
covered in corpses who tried to do just what his dad wantsto rest and give in to
death.
They are sent to the barracks to sleep. When Eliezer wakes up, he realizes he lost
his dad in the confusion to enter the blocks.
Momentarily Eliezer wishes that his father would die so Eliezer would only have to
look over himself (this is just like Rabbi Eliahus son), but he immediately feels
ashamed.
Eliezer searches for his father for hours but cant find him. He prays for a minute:
"Dont let me find him." Then he feels guilty.
At last Eliezer finds his father at the block where they are giving out coffee. Hes
burning with fever and he just wants a drop of coffee. Hes calling out his sons
name.
Eliezer brings him some coffee and later gives his father some of his own soup
ration.
Eliezer keeps him alive for days, but his father has dysentery. Eliezer no longer
thinks his dad will survive.
Eliezer takes his father to the doctor, but is turned away because the doctor is a
surgeon and not concerned with dysentery.
The men in the neighboring bunks hit Eliezers dad when Eliezer is out. Eliezer tries
threatening the men, then he promises them soup and bread if they will just leave
his dad alone. They laugh at him.
The block leader tells Eliezer that he should stop taking care of his fatherhere in
the concentration camps, its every man for himself. Eliezer feels guilty that he even
considers this.
An SS officer hears Eliezers father moaning, "Eliezer, a drop of water." The SS
delivers a blow to his head.
Eliezer stays awake with his dying father for a while, as his father moans, "Eliezer."
But eventually, Eliezer goes to bed.
In the morning, his fathers body is gone. Eliezer hopes that his father wasnt taken
to the crematorium before he stopped breathing.
 Night Chapter Summaries

Eliezer cannot cry, which disturbs him. But he knows that if he searched his mind,
what he would find is the feeling"free at last!"
Chapter 9

Eliezer is at Buchenwald for a couple more months, until April 11th. Eliezer says
that during those months after his father died, nothing mattered to him.
The Allies are approaching and it seems like the Germans will fulfill their promise
to "liquidate" the world of Jews.
The SS officers begin to evacuate the camp and start moving thousands of
prisoners out each day. After all prisoners are removed, the camp will be blown up.
But Eliezer and others in the camp are lucky. An underground resistance
movement in the camp acts and gains control.
At six oclock that night, American tanks are at the door of Buchenwald.
The first thing everybody does as free men is stuff themselves with food.
Eliezer gets food poisoning and spends a couple of weeks recovering in the
hospital, hovering between life and death.
When he is better, Eliezer looks at himself in the mirror. He sees a corpse.
That vision of himself has stayed with him forever.