Night: wkst 2

Directions: Answer each question with a complete sentence. It is best to incorporate the question as part of the answer.

1. One of Wiesel’s concerns in Night is the way that exposure to inhuman cruelty can deprive even victims of their sense of morality and humanity. By treating the Jews as less than human, the Nazis cause the Jews to act as if they were less than human – cruelty breeds cruelty. In the ghetto, Eliezer recounts, the Jews maintained their social cohesion, their sense of common purpose and common morality. Once robbed of their homes and treated like animals, however, they begin to act like animals. List three examples of less-than-human behavior exhibited by the Jews brought on by the cruelty.

2. In your own words, write a brief summary of this chapter. Include three main events in your summary.

3. How is Madame Schaechter (the lady screaming in the boxcar) similar to Moishe the Beadle? List two similarities.

4. Madame Schaechter is considered crazy, but was proven to be the only one sanely perceiving their danger. Give another example of the blurred boundary between sanity and insanity. (i.e. : people acting sanely in an insane situation or people acting insanely in an otherwise sane situation.)

5. The continual denial of what is really happening to them is a continual theme. Give one example of the Jews refusing to believe the reality of the horrors around them.