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Elie Wiesel is born
Elie Wiesel is born in Sighet to a Yiddish speaking couple, Sarah Feig and Chlomo Wiesel. He had two older sisters at the time. This picture of Sighet is how it looked before World War 2. It is very different from how it will look years later. -
Moshe the Beadle warns Sighet
Moshe the Beadle returns after being deported by the Gestapo. He tells the people of Sighet that the Gestapo are going to kill the Jews, but no one believes him. This foreshadows the rest of the book and also adds to the dark feel of the book. -
Germans take over Sighet
Although the Germans were already occupying Sighet, it was only until the seventh day of passover in 1944 when they really took control of things. Almost immediately, they arrested jewish leaders, took the Jews' posessions, required the Jews to wear the yellow star of David, and establish the Jewish ghettos. This is when Elie first realizes how bad things are. -
The Jews are deported
On Pentecost, the Jews are sent inland on huge freight trains. Elie doesn't know it, but he is being shipped to Auschwitz concentration camp., the book's primary setting and the place where Elie comes face to face with death. -
Madame Schächter
Madame Schächter screams that there is a fire, even though there is none. Eventually men have to hit her for her to be quiet. The only one who can calm her down a little is her son. But although people think she's mad, she is actually just predicting the future. There is fire at Aushwitz in the crematorium. -
Elie arrives at Auschwitz
Elie arrives at Aushwitz concentration camp. Auschwitz is the biggest recorded cemetary in history and was the deadliest and worst concentration camp. Over three million people were killed here. It is a symbol of the holocaust. -
Elie is separated from his family in Birkenau
Birkenau was a subcamp of Auschwitz. It was the reception center and extermination center of Auschwitz. When he is separated from his mother, sisters, and grandmother, Elie makes a pact to never leave his father's side. This is also the last the last time Elie will ever see his mother, Sarah, and his younger sister Tzipora. -
Elie is tattooed
Elie is given the number A-7713. He is now a completely different person than he was a few months back. The one thing that he had kept through the ghettos and the the train and the previous camps was his identity. Now he did not even have that. -
Elie arrives at Buna
Buna is another subcamp of Auschwitz. It's a labor camp. This is where Elie stays for a long time. This camp is important to much of the plot because it is the setting for much of the plot. On the same day, he is put into a unit that makes electrical equipment. One of the other prisoners tells him that it is a good unit. His bosses are Idek and the foreman Franek. -
Idek punished Elie
After Elie witnesses Idek having an inappropriate relationship with a girl, he gets 25 lashes. -
The Air Raid
During a standard air raid, one prisoner decided to risk his life and break the rules. He crawls out of the barracks to have some fresh soup that was left out although he knows that he could die. -
The thief is killed
The man who drank from the soup cauldron is executed. -
The pipel is executed
Although most pipel were loathed, everyone loved this one. He was killed along with two other people for blowing up the electic power station at Buna. He was very young. It took him half an hour to die. -
Chlomo's selection
Chlomo is required to stay back because he has to go through a selection. This means that the Nazis will determine if he is fit enough to do work. If he isn't, he will be killed. He gives Elie his knife and spoon before the selection because he thinks he might die, but Elie doesn't want to take them because he wants to believe that his father will live. When Elie returns from work a few hours later, he finds that his father is still alive and he gives him the utensils back. -
Elie gets foot surgery
Elie gets surgery to remove pus from his foot. Soon after, the camp is required to evacuate because the Russians are approaching Auschwitz. Elie is given a choice to leave with the camp or stay with his father. Fearing the camp will be blown up with him in it, he leaves the camp with his hurt foot. The sad part is that if he had stayed behind, he would have been freed by the Russians two days later. When the audience reads this, they lose hope like the prisoners of the camp. -
Elie marches to the next camp
Elie and his father march relentlessly. They don't get any rest or jackets or shoes. If they are too slow, they are either shot on spot, or run over by the people behind them. They don't know where they are going.This part of the book really shows how evil the Nazis were and how terrible the holocaust was. It shows the worst of humanity. -
Elie arrives at Gleiwitz
Elie is caught in a stampede of people. Everyone is crushing eachother, but amidst the chaos, Elie finds a friend. He talks to Juliek. Later, Juliek starts playing the violin beautifully. Later, when Elie wakes up, he finds Juliek dead slumped over a broken violin. Elie chose to write about this moment just to show the reader that nothing good ever lasted in the holocaust. The only thing that lasts is evil and despair. -
Elie goes to Buchenwald
The other prisoners almost throw Chlomo off the train because they think he's dead. German workmen would throw crumbs of bread onto the train and watch as the prisoners would fight to the death for it. A boy even killed his own father for some bread. This just shows how bad people can be depending on the situation. The Germans were so horrible, they even caused family to turn on each other. -
Elie arrives at Buchenwald
Once they arrive at Buchenwald, Chlomo gives up on life. He decides he can't go on. Elie doesn't want his father to leave him now, after all they've been through. In the next few days, Chlomo is beaten and his food is stolen. He is constantly crying. -
Elie is alone
Elie awakes to find his father, Chlomo, gone and realizes he must have been sent to the crematorium. Elie loses a part of himself on that day. -
Buchenwald is liberated
Elie, along with most of Buchenwald, is liberated by the US 89th Infantry Division. -
Night is published
Elie Wiesel retells the horrors of the holocaust in Yiddish in the book Night, -
Elie wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Elie Wiesel wins the Nobel Peace prize for educating the community about humanity and fighting evil.
