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Elie meets Moishe the Beadle
-Picture of 14-year-old Elie Wiesel
Moishe acts as a spiritual guide for Eiliezer, who teaches Elie about Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). He tells Eliezer that faith is not the answers he gets but the questions that he asks god. -
Period: to
Exposition
Eliezer Wiesel is a twelve-year-old boy living in Sighet, Transilvania. He is very trustful and religious. -
The Hungarians expel all foreign Jews
-April 1941, Deportation of Jews from Oswiecim to the Bendzin Ghetto, Poland
Moishe, along with the other foreign Jews is taken away. However, the Jews of Sighet soon forget about these deportees. -
Moishe returns to Sighet to tell the Jews what he saw
-Portrait created to honor the life of Moishe
After escaping, Moishe returns to tell his fellow Jews of the horrible things that the Gestapo did to them in Poland. The town, including Eliezer, doesn't believe in him. -
The Gestapo nazis take over Sighet
-A deserted street of the Sighet Marmatiei ghetto taken in May 1944
The Gestapo nazis take over the city, create two ghettos, and the Jews are transferred within them. These ghettos are small, and crowded, with narrow streets and barbed wire fences. Elie says the ghetto was ruled by delusion because something terrible was happening, yet the Jews around him stayed optimistic. -
Period: to
Rising Action
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The Wiesel's are sent on a train
-Jews during deportation action from Sighet on May 18, 1944
The train was cramped and there was no restroom. A woman named Mrs.Schacter disturbs everyone on the train by screaming about a fire. She would foreshadow the fate of many of these Jews: the crematorium in Auschwitz Birkenau. -
Arrival in Auschwitz
-Hungarian Jews line up for selection at Auschwitz-Birkenau in May of 1944
Upon arrival at the concentration camp, men and women are separated. Elie and his father are together, however, this is the last time Elie sees his mother (Sarah) or sister (Tziporah). -
First days in Auschwitz
-Mug shots taken of Auschwitz prisoners
Elie is given the name "A-7713" and has it tattooed on him. The Torah forbids Jews from tattooing their bodies. He experiences naked inspections and head shavings. After seeing people getting beaten and children being sent to the crematorium by truck, he starts to lose confidence and question his god. -
Eliezer meets a relative
Eliezer meets Stein, Eliezer's cousin by marriage, and asks Eliezer if he has any news of his family's safety. Eliezer lies to Stein and tells him that his family is fine, which gives him the will to live. -
Sent to Buna
-Aerial photo of Buna camp taken on January 14, 1945
Elie and his father are sent on a march to Buna: a labor camp. There, Elie and his father work in a warehouse soring electrical parts. -
Elie meets Juliek and becomes friends with Yossi and Tibi
The two brothers, Yossi and Tibi, after their parents were exterminated at Birkenau, continue to stay optimistic in the camp. They are the only friends that Eliezer makes while in Auschwitz, and the three plan to move to Palestine after the war. -
Eliezer and his father are beaten
Idek, the Kapo in charge of Eliezer's work crew, randomly decides to beat up Eliezer. Sometime later, Idek attacks Eliezer's father. However, rather than feel angry at Idek, Eliezer becomes angry at his father for being unable to dodge Idek's rage. -
Franek torments Eliezer's father for Eliezer's gold crown
Franek, noticing Eliezer's gold crown, demands it from him. On his father's advice, Eliezer refuses. Franek then mocks and beats Eliezer's father until Eliezer gives up the crown. -
Elie sees Idek with a girl and is whipped
-Whips made of leather strips attached to a wooden handle were found at various concentration camps
Eliezer accidentally sees Idek having sex in the barracks and laughs. Idek punishes Eliezer by publicly whipping him until he loses consciousness. -
Allies start bombing Buna
The SS officers take cover, while the prisoners remain in their bunks. All of the prisoners are glad to hear the bombs because it gives them hope. -
Rosh Hashanah
-Prayers written by Rabbi Naftali Stern on the eve of the Jewish New Year in Wolfsburg concentration camp
On Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish celebration of the new year) the Jews gather to pray. Eliezer stands as an observer feeling like a stranger to the praying Jews. -
Yom Kippur
-Picture of Jews at prayer on Yom Kippur in Krakow, Poland in October 1940
Eliezer did not fast on the Day of Atonement. He does this as an act of rebellion or protest against God. -
2nd selection
-Jews being forced to stand in line before selection
Eliezer's father is selected for a second selection and he gives Elie his knife and spoon, Eliezer's only inheritance. Thankfully he passes and Eliezer gives his father his knife and spoon back. -
Elie gets an operation on his foot
-Dachau concentration camp infirmary
With the arrival of Winter, Eliezer's foot swells up. After undergoing an operation, he recovers in the hospital. -
The Russians are approaching Buna
-Soviet troops free Auschwitz prisoners on January 27, 1945
Rumors spread in the camp that the Russians are approaching, giving them hope. The Germans decide to evacuate and relocate the prisoners before the Russians arrive. Eliezer and his father decided to evacuate because they thought that if they stayed they would be killed. -
The death march begins
-Death march of prisoners from Dachau, end of April 1945
At night, the Jewish are forced to run in the snowstorm for forty-two miles. The prisoners who are left in the hospitals were rescued by the Red Army two days later. -
They arrive at an abandoned village
After arriving at a deserted village, Eliezer and his father find a shed and collapse inside. They keep each other awake because falling asleep in the cold could kill them. -
Rabbi Eliahou goes into the shed
The Rabbi asks if they have seen his son, whom Elie remembers seeing departing from his father to save himself. Elie vows to never be like the Rabbi's son and to never leave his father. -
The Jews continue marching until they arrive in Gleiwitz
-Gleiwitz map
The prisoners trample each other trying to enter the barracks. Eliezer and his father are thrown to the ground. Eliezer, laying on top of the violinist Juliek, is getting crushed by the person on top of him. Eventually, he gets free and hears the sound of Juliek playing his violin, and then falls asleep. When he wakes up, he finds Juliek dead and his violin is smashed. -
There is another selection
Three days without food or water and another selection take place. Eliezer's father is sent to the side of those who will be killed and then Eliezer runs after him. Commotion arises and Eliezer and his father are able to sneak back to the other side through the confusion. -
The prisoners are put into roofless cattle cars.
-Transports of prisoners in open freight cars, winter 1945
Bodies are thrown out of the cattle cars as prisoners die. Eliezer's dad is asleep and is mistaken for dead. Eliezer wakes him up to save him. For ten days and nights, the prisoners live off of snow, and the occasional piece of bread thrown by civilians as they passed through German towns. The prisoners killed each other for these pieces of bread. -
They arrive in Buchenwald
-The dead at Buchenwald, April 1945
Elie’s father at this point is losing the will to live and Eliezer is having resentful feelings about his father. Eliezer and his father are two of the 12 people who survived the ride out of the 100 that were in it. -
They are sent to the showers, however, Elie's father wants to sit and not go on
-Frozen Jew after being beaten to death by the SS
Eliezer's father begs his son to let him rest in the snow. Eliezer struggles as his father doesn't seem to realize that he will die. Eliezer says that he feels as if he is arguing with death itself. -
The blocks are cleaned and Elie's father begins to suffer from dysentery
-prisoners suffering from dysentery in the common toilets
The head of the barrack ordered the prisoners to clean the block to let the liberating army know that they "were not pigs." It is at this time that Eliezer's father starts to suffer from dysentery, which weakens him. The guards then refuse to feed the sick, which weakens him more. -
Eliezer's father is bullied by the other men
The other men batter Eliezer's father because he is too weak to use the bathroom. Eliezer gives his father his rations, which the other men later steal. The block leader tells Eliezer that he should be worrying about himself and his own survival. This leads to Eliezer feeling guilty for thinking of his father as a burden. -
Eliezer's father is beaten
-Camp guards beat a prisoner at the Cieszanow labor camp
Eliezer's father cries for water and is beaten in the head with a baton by an SS officer. -
Elie's father dies (Climax)
-photograph of Chlomo Wiesel (date: unknown)
Eliezer wakes up and finds out that his father has been taken to the crematory. He does not cry, but he feels relief. Eliezer only thinks of food. -
Period: to
Falling Action
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Period: to
Nazis kill the prisoners
On April 5, the Nazis start to kill thousands of Jews every day before the American Army arrives. On April 10, the Nazis try to evacuate and kill everyone left. However, the resistant movement attacks the SS, driving them out, and taking over the camp. -
The American army arrives and Eliezer is liberated
-Photograph of Elie Wiesel being liberated
Food, not revenge, is the only thing on the freed prisoners' minds. The American Army feeds the prisoners but Eliezer eats too much and is sent to a hospital to recover from food poisoning. After weeks of recovering, he looks in a mirror for the first time since leaving Sighet and writes, "a corpse gazed back at me." -
Ending / Resolution
Eliezer is completely alone, his body is a skeleton that he doesn’t recognize, and his faith in God and the goodness in mankind is shattered. He doesn’t know what to believe, or if there is anything that he can believe in at all.