CHAPTER 1

Meet Moishe the Beadle. Hes a poor Jew in the town of Sighet (now in modern-day Romania), where our author and
narrator, Eliezer Wiesel, lives. Moishe the Beadle is awkward and shy, but 12-year-old Eliezer likes him anyway.
Eliezer, whos also Jewish, is very religious. He studies the Talmud and goes to the temple every night, but he also
wants to study Kabbalah. Eliezers father thinks his son is too young to learn Kabbalah, and that Kabbalah isnt
something that Eliezer should spend his time on. He keeps saying to his son, "There are no Kabbalists in Sighet."
Moishe the Beadle sees Eliezer crying while praying at the synagogue, and they have a kind of connection. They end
up talking most evenings at the synagogue. Eliezer confides in Moishe his desire to learn Kabbalah, and to Eliezers
surprise, Moishe knows all about Kabbalah and starts to teach him. Then one day, the Hungarian police expel all the
foreign Jews from Sighet. Moishe the Beadle is actually a foreigner, so he and the others like him are packed into
train cars like cattle.
The Jews of Sighet think its a shame that the foreigners are carted away, but quickly forget, clearly not seeing this as
a warning for their own futures. Life goes back to normal. Many months pass and Moishe the Beadle returns. He tells
Eliezer his story: he and the other foreign Jews were carted off into Poland, where the Gestapo took over and forced
them to dig their own graves. Moishe escaped because he was shot in the leg and left for dead. Moishe warns the
people of Sighet to leave because death is coming their way. Nobody listens. This is at the end of 1942. Now its
spring of 1944 and the people of Sighet listen with incredulity to radio reports. How could one man (Adolf Hitler)
possibly wipe out an entire people? Impossible! News comes from Budapest that the Jews there are subjected to
attacks by the Nazis. But the Jews of Sighet are optimistic that the Nazis wont come all the way to their little town.
Then the Germans arrive.
At first the Germans dont seem so bad. They are billeted in peoples homes and while theyre not exactly friendly,
theyre not rude or violent. Some of them even buy chocolate for their host families. The Jews in Sighet just dont
want to see whats coming. Wiesel sums it up pretty well: "The Germans were already in town, the Fascists were
already in power, the verdict was already outand the Jews of Sighet were still smiling." People celebrate Passover
and as the celebration ends, the restrictions begin. First, Jews cannot leave their houses for three days or theyll die.
Then, Jews are no longer allowed to keep valuable items, or theyll die. Next, Jews must wear the yellow star.
Important community members come to talk with Eliezers father (who has connections with the Hungarian police)
about what should be done about the situation. Eliezers dad is still optimistic. Next, the police set up two ghettos and
move all the Jews there. The Sighet Jews become optimistic again. The scary barbed wire isnt all that bad, and they
have their own Jewish Republic within each ghetto. They dont even have to deal with outsiders. If this is as bad as it
gets, the Jews think, this isnt too bad. Eliezers dad is summoned to a special Council meeting (hes a member of the
Jewish Council in his ghetto). Everyones anxiously waiting to find out what new information Eliezers dad will bring.
Eliezers dad comes back from his meeting after midnight. Hes accosted by people begging to find out what he
learned in the meeting. And it cant be good news because he looks awful. The news is terrible: deportation, starting
tomorrow. The Jews in the ghetto get more information out of Eliezers father: everyone can take only one bag of
belongings. Theyll board trains and driven to an unknown destination. Eliezers dad tells the people to go wake up
their neighbors because everyone should pack and be ready for tomorrow. The ghetto is a bustle of activity: women
cooking food for the trip, people packing, Eliezers father consoling friends left and right. The police show up to the
ghetto at 8am and call all of the Jews out. The police empty the houses, club people with their guns, and do a roll call.
The Jews are marched to the synagogue and searched for valuables. The Wiesels are not in the first groups to leave;
they wont leave until Tuesday (in two days). Tuesday comes and the Wiesels deportation has been delayed; they
will first be moved to a smaller ghetto to await transport, but they still have to go through the roll call and leave their
home. Eliezer feels empty. His father cries. The police start clubbing Jews and force the whole group to run. Eliezer
realizes that he hates the Hungarian police. The Wiesels and the other Jews arrive at the smaller ghetto, which had
been evacuated three days before. The small ghetto shows signs of the Jews being forced to leave in a hurry
theres even a half eaten bowl of soup on the table where the Wiesels are staying. The Wiesels former maid, Maria,
comes to see them. She says shes prepared a hiding place for them in her town. Eliezers dad wont go into hiding
but gives Eliezer and his older sisters the choice of leaving. The family refuses to be separated. Optimism returns,
again. Some think that the Germans are only out to steal the Jews valuables, so theyre sending the Jews on
"vacation" while they snag their stuff. Others think theyre being deported "for our own good." Saturday morning all of
the Jews are out on the street and ready to leave. They all go to the synagogue, which has been converted into a sort
of over-crowded train station, to await transport. Its the Sabbath, so its rather ironic that theyre at the synagogue,
considering its current use. They wait there for a full 24 hours. The next morning, the Hungarian police load the Jews
into cattle cars, seal the cars, and check to make sure the bars on the windows are secure. The train begins to move.
CHAPTER 2
Packed inside cattle trains, the Jews of Sighet are on their way to an unknown destination. They are crammed
together so tightly, its impossible to lie down and they can only sit by taking turns. Still, young people somehow
manage to find a way to "caress" each other. Two days pass and so does the Hungarian border. The Jews are not
staying in their country after all, and in fact they are now under German jurisdiction. German officers inform them that
there are eighty people in the cattle car. If anybody goes missing, they will all be shot"like dogs." In the middle of
the night, a woman, Mrs. Schchter, begins to moan, cry, and scream because she has been separated from her
husband. At last, she begins to scream that she sees fire, a terrible fire. People try to calm her but she will not be
calmed. She tells them she sees a terrible furnace. The Jews in the cattle car try to explain Mrs. Schchters vision
awayshe must be thirsty, they say. At long last, people get fed up and they start to beat her with blows strong
enough to kill her. The next night, though, she begins to scream again about the fire. The train stops somewhere for a
little while. Two men go for water and come back with news that theyre at Auschwitz, where life is apparently pretty
good. Everyone rejoices. But that night, Mrs. Schchter begins to scream again, and again shes beaten. At long last
she is silent. The train continues to move. Suddenly Mrs. Schchter screams again. This time, through the windows,
everyone can see the crematoria smokestacks. Fire. The smell of burning bodies. The Jews get out (read: are beaten
and forced out), only to encounter those smokestacks, that smell, in front of them. They have arrived in Birkenau.
(Note that Birkenau is adjacent to Auschwitz and sometimes called Auschwitz-Birkenau).
CHAPTER 3
The Jews must leave all of their cherished possessionsand optimistic illusionsin the cattle car as they move
forward to be admitted to the concentration camp. Men are sent to the left, women to the right. Although he does not
know it at the moment, this is the last time Eliezer will ever see his mother and youngest sister Tzipora. Eliezers one
thought is not to lose his father. Already, some Jews are being beaten and shot. A kind prisoner comes up to Eliezer
and his father, asking them their ages. On hearing that Eliezer is 15 and his father is 50, the prisoner tells them they
should be 18 and 40. Age can mean the difference between life and death. Another prisoner tells them they would
have been better off hanging themselves than to come here. Hadnt they heard of Auschwitz in 1944? The new
prisoners all have to admit that no, they hadnt heard about Auschwitz. The prisoner points to the smokestacks and
asks if they know whats being burned there? Basically he says: thats where youre going to die. (But in more words
and some curses.) The male prisoners are in a line being questioned by Dr. Mengele and divided into two groups:
one group, presumably, is going to be working; the other group will head straight to the crematorium. (Dr. Josef
Mengele was an infamous Nazi doctor who selected which prisoners would be sent to labor and which would die.)
When Eliezer is questioned, he lies and says that hes 18 and a farmer, rather than 15 and a student. Near Eliezer,
theres a pit of fire into which small children are being dumpedalive. Eliezer comments, as the narrator, "Is it any
wonder that ever since then, sleep tends to elude me?" It seems for a while that death is imminent. The male
prisoners, including Eliezers father, are weeping. Some are even saying the prayer for the dead, but saying it for
themselves.
Within himself, Eliezer begins to feel the first stirrings of rebellion against God. Eliezer contemplates killing himself by
throwing himself onto the electric wire rather than be burned alive, but his group is directed away from the fires. Both
Eliezer and his father are assigned to labor units, so death is not immediate. They wait through a long night, during
which Eliezer loses faith in Gods justice and mercy. The new male prisoners are beaten, forced to strip off their
clothes, beaten, and sent to the barber to get their hair shaved off. After the barber, all of the men are standing
around, naked, finding acquaintances and old friends. They are joyful at finding each other still alive. The naked men
are forced to run outside in the cold to a bath of disinfectant, and then forced to run again to the storeroom to get
striped prisoners clothes. In the striped outfits, the men look like something other than human. "We had ceased to be
men," Wiesel says. Aside from looking completely different all shaved and in awful, identical uniforms, Eliezer feels
he has lost his identity; he is no longer a child or a student of Talmud. At daybreak, they see prisoners at work,
digging holes and carrying sand. They wait some morewhile standingfor who knows how long. An SS officer
arrives and lectures them about the realities of the concentration camp. Its not a "convalescent home," he says. It is
a place where you are expected to work hard. Its a concentration camp. If you dont work, you can expect to go
straight to the smokestacks. To sum it up: work or die. Eliezer and his father are moved to a new barracks where they
are at least allowed to sit, but Eliezer has to watch his father be beaten, and is horrified that hes watching this without
rebelling. They continue marching, for half an hour, to another camp (theyve left Birkenau). The iron gate to this
camp has an inscription: "work makes you free." They are now in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The prisoner in
charge is Polish. He is kind when he greets them and he tries to encourage them that liberation is on the way. He
also tells the new prisoners that the only way to survive is to help each other. They sleep and the next day their spirits
are improved. They even get a bowl of soup for lunch. The next day, they are given numbers, tattooed on their arms.
Eliezer becomes A-7713. They look for friends and relatives among the latest arrivals. A relative named Stein comes
looking for Eliezer and his father after theyve been in Auschwitz for about a week. Stein is Eliezers cousin, and he is
looking for news about his wife and children. Eliezer lies to Stein, saying he heard they are well. The nice Polish
prisoner who was in charge of Eliezers group (or Block 17) is removed because hes too nice. The prisoner who
replaces him is vicious. Stein continues to visit occasionally, and he often brings some of his own food ration for
Eliezer. He tells them that the important thing is to stay healthy and avoid "selection." (Selection is when the group is
divided between those that are healthy enough to work and those destined for the crematoria.) Stein says the
knowledge that his wife and kids are alive gives him enough hope to keep on living. A new transport comes to
Auschwitz and Stein hopes to hear some more news about his family. When Stein hears real news about his wife and
children, he does not return. We assume that he gave up hope and died. In the evenings, the men in Block 17
discuss their faith. Eliezer doesnt pray. Hes not an atheist, but he no longer believes that God is absolutely just.
Eliezer and his father try to reassure themselves that his mother and Tzipora are all right. They finally receive their
work orders and they depart with the next transport. They march through German villages where their guards flirt with
giggling German girls. Four hours later, they reach Buna. The doors close behind them.

CHAPTER 4
Buna seems dead, empty.
Eliezers group starts asking around to find out which is the best work group to be
assigned to. The word on the street is that you just want to stay away from the
construction "Kommando" or (work group).
A fat German is in charge of them. One of his assistants tells Eliezer that, in exchange
for his shoes, he will make sure Eliezer gets into a good labor unit. Eliezer refuses to
part with his shoes.
The next day there is a medical and a dental examination, only the doctors simply ask
you if youre in good health and the dentist is just looking for gold crowns. If you have a
gold crown, he writes your name (read: number tattooed on your arm) on his list.
Eliezer has a gold crown.
Eliezer and his dad are assigned to work in a warehouse for electrical equipment. Idek is
their "Kapo," or work leader. They learn that Idek is a little crazy and its best to stay out
of his way.
The work isnt bad, its just counting pieces of electrical equipment. There are even
civilians working therePolish people and some French women.
Eliezer becomes friends with Czechoslovakian brothers, Yossi and Tibi, whose parents
had been killed in Birkenau.
Their new block leader is a nice German Jew. Eliezer and his father now get a blanket,
soap, and a washbowl.
Eliezer uses trickery to keep his gold tooth. He keeps telling the dentist that hes sick
and puts off the tooth removal. At last, the dentist is punished because hes been
pocketing some of the gold crowns. Eliezers tooth is, for the moment, safe.
At the warehouse, Eliezer works near a young French girl who seems to him to be
Jewish although she passes herself off as Aryan.
One day, Idek (the crazy Kapo) gets angry and beats Eliezer. The French girl is kind to
him and gives him a little bit of bread. She tells him not to give up hope.
Many years later, Eliezer sees the French girl (now a woman) on a train in Paris. She
remembers him too, and he discovers that she is indeed from a religious Jewish family
but she managed to hide her identity to keep herself alive.
Back in Buna in 1944, Idek goes crazy again and beats Eliezers dad this time. Eliezer
reflects on how inhumane the concentration camps made him; as his father is being
beaten, rather than being mad at Idek, Eliezer is mad at his father for not avoiding the
Kapo.
 Franek, the foreman, decides he wants Eliezers gold crown. Eliezer wont give it to him.
But, Franek discovers Eliezers weaknesshis father.
Franek begins to torment Eliezers father during their marches.
At last, Eliezer gives in and his tooth is extracted with a rusty spoon in the bathroom.
Idek marches them to work one Sunday (when working isnt required) and leaves them
in Franeks care, saying he doesnt care what they do; he just doesnt want them in the
camp.
Eliezer goes exploring and discovers why Idek didnt want anyone in the camp: hes
sleeping with this young Polish girl. Eliezer laughs, thinking about the absurdity of
moving 100 prisoners to the warehouse just so he can get laid.
Idek discovers Eliezer and gets angry. He gives Eliezer 25 lashes with the whip in front
of the whole block and tells him hell get five times that if he tells anyone what he saw.
Some Sunday (time seems to blend) theres an air raid. The SS officers take cover,
while the prisoners remain in their bunks.
One man dares to venture out to get some soup, as the soup has been left out. For most
people, terror is stronger than hunger, but not for this man. The man is killed, though,
when the Allies start bombing Buna.
All of the prisoners are glad to hear the bombs; they have renewed hope.
A week later at roll call, everybody notices the gallows that have been set up in the
middle of camp.
The SS officers drag a young Polish man out of solitary confinement; hes going to be
hanged for stealing something during the air raid. The Polish man cries "A curse on
Germany! Long live liberty!" as the rope goes around his neck. Then he is killed.
Eliezer witnesses other hangings. But the worst is the hanging of a young boy who is
involved in resistance activities. Because he is light in weight, the hanging doesnt result
in instantaneous death. The inmates are forced to watch as the boy on the end of the
rope struggles for half an hour before he dies.
That night, everything, including the soup they eat, tastes of death.

CHAPTER 5
The Jews inside Buna come together for a service to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.
Eliezer wonders, angrily, where God is and refuses to bless Gods name because of all
of the death and suffering He has allowed.
Eliezer thinks that man is strong, stronger than God.
During this years Rosh Hashanah, unlike all previous years, Eliezer is not asking
forgiveness for his sins. Rather, Eliezer feels himself to be "the accuser, God the
accused."
The services conclude with the Kaddish and Eliezer goes in search for his father, who is
standing as if a heavy weight is upon him. In that moment, Eliezer realizes his father is
already beaten.
On Yom Kippur, Eliezer refuses to fastnot only to please his father, who says they
should not fast when they need to keep up their strength, but also to mock God.
Eliezer is no longer in the same block as his father because he was transferred to the
construction Kommandothats the bad job where you haul huge stones around.
During dinner one evening, the word spreads that selection is coming up.
Eliezers block leader gives the prisoners some advice about passing selection:
basically, look vigorous and dont be scared. Thanks, that wasnt very helpful.
Eliezer and all of the other men undress as Dr. Mengele and some SS officers arrive.
They go through the selection process. Dr. Mengele, a notorious doctor in the Nazi
concentration camps, is the one who inspects them.
 Though terrified, Eliezer passes the inspection, as does his dad. Theyre relieved. (That
was an understatement.)
Several days pass and they learn that a new list of prisoner numbers has been selected
for death. Eliezers father is on that list.
Eliezers dad tries to reassure him, saying that the selection wasnt decisive; there will be
another one today that he might pass.
His father is rushed, trying to tell his son everything he wants to say before he dies. As
they say goodbye that day, his father gives him a knife and a spoonthe family
inheritance. Eliezer doesnt want to take them. He doesnt want to admit his father might
have been selected. But at last, he takes them and marches off with the construction
group.
The days work is hard and Eliezer dreads going back to camp to find he is alone.
That night, he returns to find his father is still alive, having passed the second selection.
Eliezer gives the knife and spoon back to his dad.
Akiba Drumer, one of their fellow prisoners, is selected. He asks them to remember to
say the Kaddish for him after he dies. They promise but they forget to say the
Kaddish.
Winter arrives and makes everything worse, more unbearable.
The prisoners get Christmas and New Years off, plus the present of a "slightly less
transparent soup."
In January, Eliezers foot begins to swell. Its so swollen, he goes to the doctora
Jewish doctor and a prisonerwho tells Eliezer that he needs an operation or his foot
will have to be amputated. So Eliezer enters the hospital.
Life in the hospital is a bit bettermore food, thicker soup, and even sheets on the beds.
What Eliezer fears most is that he will be selected at the hospital while recuperating.
The operation is successful and the doctor tells Eliezer he just needs to rest for two
weeks.
But Eliezer cant feel his leg and hes afraid its been amputatedwhich would mean
selection. Hes relieved to learn that his leg is still very much attached.
While he waits in the hospital, rumors fly that the Russians are not far away and the
camp is going to be evacuated. Those who are in the hospital will probably be
"liquidated," that is, killed.
So Eliezer, even though his foot is still recovering, goes in search of his father. He
doesnt want to stay behind in the hospital and be separated from his father during the
evacuation.
Later, Eliezer learns that the Russians liberated the hospital two days after he left.
The prisoners are forced to evacuate, but only after mopping the floor of the barracks
(literally crazy, huh?).
Off the prisoners go, marching through the snow.