Night by Elie Wiesel - Part 4 - – Identity and Indifference (pages 45-62)

To be indifferent—for whatever reason—is to deny not only the
validity of existence, but also its beauty. Betray, and you are a man;
torture your neighbor, you’re still a man. Evil is human, weakness is
human; indifference is not.
- Elie Wiesel, The Town Beyond the Wall

The opposite of good is not evil but indifference.

Consider the relationship between Eliezer and his father.

• How do the changes in his relationship with his father affect the way Eliezer sees himself as an individual? What is prompting these changes? What does Eliezer mean when he refers to his father as “his weak point”? Why has he come to view love as a weakness? Consider how the process of dehumanization affects Eliezer and his fellow prisoners.

Consider the daily life in the camp:

• Eliezer describes two hangings in this section. He tells the reader that he witnessed many others. Yet he chose to write only about these two. Why are these two hangings so important to him? How do they differ from the others? Why do you think Eliezer and the other prisoners respond so emotionally to the hanging of the child?

• Why do you think the Germans chose to hang a few prisoners in public at a time when they are murdering thousands each day in the crematoriums?

• When the young boy is hanged, a prisoner asks, “For God's sake, where is God?” Eliezer hears a voice answer, “Where He is? This is where–-hanging here on this gallows.…” What does this statement mean? Is it a statement of despair? Anger? Or hope? Discuss the meaning of the word resistance at Auschwitz.

• The word hunger takes on new meaning in this section of the book. What does the word mean to Eliezer? What other words have taken on new meaning in this section of the book?


Consider the idea of Resistance:

• What does the word resistance mean to you? Some insist that “armed resistance” is the only form of legitimate resistance. Others stress the idea that resistance requires organization. Still others argue that
resistance is more about the will to live and the power of hope than it is about either weapons or organization. Which view is closest to your own?



• Use your ideas about and definitions of resistance to decide whether
each of the following is an act of resistance:
—Eliezer’s refusal to let the dentist remove his gold crown
—Eliezer’s decision to give up the crown to protect his father
—The French girl’s decision to speak in German to Eliezer after he is beaten
—The prisoner’s choosing to die for soup
—The prisoners who attempted to stockpile weapons, for which they were later hanged

• In each act of resistance that you identified, who or what are the prisoners resisting?

• How does Wiesel try to help us understand why it is so difficult to judge those who “tried to play the executioner’s game”?

• Wiesel writes that he prefers to remember “the kindness and compassion” of his fellow prisoners rather than those who were cruel or violent. How does he describe both groups in this reading? Why does he view both as victims?

• What type of preparation does it take to plan such an act of resistance? To carry it out?

• Do you think the rebels thought they would succeed? If so, how? If not, why did they risk their lives for a hopeless endeavor?

• Some scholars believe that the right question to ask about resistance is not why there were not more such acts but why there were any at all. What do you think they mean by that statement? Do you agree?