Name: _________________________
Chapters 3 and 4 questions
Chapter 3
1. While he is walking with his father, what thought stands out most to Wiesel? What is he
trying to remember to do?
2. Why is it that the “veteran” inmates find it so hard to believe that the Jews of Sighet did
not know what horrors awaited them at Aushwitz?
3. Why is it that the older men choose not to try and revolt?
4. Describe how silence, mentioned first on pages 32 and 33, reflects the title of the story?
5. How is it ironic, according to Wiesel, that the Jews are saying a Kaddish for themselves?
6. Why does Wiesel choose to repeat the words “never shall I forget” on page 34?
7. What is an antechamber? How does the “antechamber of hell” accurately describe the
Jews living conditions?
8. Why did the SS choose to have each prisoner strip naked?
9. The people have chosen not to think about the fate of the “absent.” What does this tell us
about the human condition?
10. What could be one of the reasons that the SS and the Gestapo took the prisoners shoes?
11. The SS officer gives the prisoners two options: “work or the crematorium.” How could
these be similar?
12. Why does Wiesel choose not to help his father when he is attacked by a Gypsy on page
39?
13. Wiesel describes a beautiful day in May on page 40. How does this contrast with their
situation?
14. Why does the Polish man in charge of Wiesel and the rest of his block choose to call the
other prisoners “comrades?”
15. Describe Wiesel’s schedule. What does it tell us about what became of his life?
16. Why does Schlomo Wiesel choose to lie to Stein about his family? Why do you think
that, after he learns the truth, he is not seen again?
17. Akiba Drumer says that they are being tested by God. Does Wiesel believe this? Why or
why not?
Name: _________________________
Chapter 4
1. What kind of images are associated with a camp that looks like it has “been through an
epidemic” and looks “empty and dead?”
2. Why does Wiesel try so hard to stay with his father?
3. Describe the beat that the orchestra block played. How does it reflect what is going on in
the story at that time?
4. On page 51, why is Wiesel so relieved to have a Jew as his Kommando leader?
5. What does Wiesel’s description of himself as nothing but a “famished stomach” tell us
about his self-image at this point in the camps?
6. Why would the French girl risk her own safety by comforting Elie Wiesel after he was
beaten by Idek?
7. Why does Wiesel get angry at his father, for being beaten, than at Idek for doing the
beating?
8. The inmates have begun to turn against each other especially when they start making fun
of Eliezer teaching his father to march. Why would they do so?
9. Why does Wiesel silently take his whipping instead of ratting out Idek to the SS officers?
10. Describe the metaphor of the “two lambs with hundreds of wolves lying in wait for
them.” What does this say about the prisoners thought process?
11. Why is Eliezer more concerned about the factories being destroyed than he is about the
people who would die in the fires?
12. How is it ironic that the only death from the bombings was the man who tried to steal the
soup?
13. Why do the officers have the prisoners march up and look at the face of the first prisoner
(62-63) who was hanged? How do Eliezer and the other prisoners react?
14. Who are the pipel? Why do they seem crueler than those they serve?
15. Give your general reaction to the hanging of the child at the end of chapter 4.
16. What kind of effect does it have to walk by the excecuted and see that the young boy was
still breathing?
17. What does Eliezer mean when he says that God is “hanging here from his gallows?”