Night Background Terms

Night by Elie Wiesel:

Researching Background

To understand Night more fully, it is helpful to research some information on Judaism and the Holocaust.  Write a couple of facts defining the term and explaining its significance.

Terms related to Judaism:

The Torah: The Jewish Bible, same as the Christian Old Testament________________

The Talmud:  another Jewish religious text, 2^nd book to the Torah

Cabbala: mystic branch of Judaism

Synagogues: Jewish temples

Rabbi: Jewish teacher, kind of like a priest

The Kaddish: Jewish prayer for the dead

Passover:  7 day Jewish holiday, celebrating when the Angel of Death “passed over” the Jewish houses to kill Egyptians for revenge of their treatment of Jews

Rosh Hashanah: Jewish New Year and “Day of Judgment,” a time to repent for your wrongs

The Star of David: 6 pointed star that symbolizes Jews, named for a famous Jewish king (David & Goliath)

Sabbath: Jewish day of rest, Saturday

Yiddish: Jewish language that combines Hebrew (official) and Russian

Nazi: a political party in Germany during the 1930s-40s, who believed that the German people were better than all others, and especially blamed Jewish people for Germany’s problems

Hitler: leader of Nazis and dictator of Germany in 1940s

Gestapo: Nazi secret police

“The Final Solution”: Hitler’s plan of killing all the Jews of Europe

Joseph Mengele: Nazi doctor who performed unethical experiments on Jewish people

Kapo: a prisoner in the concentration camps who acted as a police/guard of their own people for privileges

Concentration Camp: prison camp for Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped people, and political prisoners

Auschwitz/Birkenau: most famous Nazi death camps

Buchenwald: concentration camp

Buna: concentration camp