Night, Chapter 4 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why does Eliezer twice tell the camp dentist that he is ill?

   • To be admitted to the infirmary for a few days of rest
   • Correct answer: To postpone having his gold crown pulled out
   • To avoid being reassigned to a harder work unit
   • To keep from being separated from his father

   Eliezer pretends to have a fever to win a delay, then comes back a week later with the same excuse; he thinks the crown could one day buy some bread or even time to live.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What happens to the dentist before he can pull Eliezer's crown?

   • He is beaten by Idek for working too slowly at his job
   • He is transferred to another camp with the Polish prisoners
   • Correct answer: He is jailed to hang, apparently for dealing in gold teeth
   • He is promoted to take charge of the camp infirmary

   The dentist's office is shut down; he has been thrown into prison and is about to be hanged, for dealing, it appeared, in the prisoners' gold teeth.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How does Franek finally force Eliezer to hand over the gold crown?

   • Correct answer: He torments Eliezer's father for failing to march in step
   • He withholds Eliezer's bread ration for an entire week
   • He threatens to have Eliezer moved to a punishment unit
   • He reports Eliezer's refusal to the camp authorities

   Unable to move Eliezer directly, Franek attacks him through his father, beating Eliezer's father daily for failing to march in step until, after two weeks, Eliezer gives in.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does Eliezer admit about his own reaction when Idek beats his father?

   • That his father refused to explain what he had done
   • That he ran to shield his father from the blows of the iron bar
   • That he was too far away to see what had happened
   • Correct answer: That what anger he felt was aimed at his father, not at Idek

   Eliezer watches without moving and admits that whatever anger he felt was aimed not at the Kapo but at his father, for not avoiding Idek's wrath: "That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me."

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why is Eliezer given twenty-five lashes of the whip?

   • He was caught taking soup during an air raid alert
   • He refused to hand his gold crown over to the foreman
   • He stepped out of line during the morning roll call
   • Correct answer: He laughed after stumbling on Idek with a young girl

   Idek punishes him publicly for what he saw in the warehouse and warns him of far worse if he ever speaks of it.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How do the prisoners react to the bombs falling during the air raid on Buna?

   • Correct answer: With joy, because every bomb that hits renews their confidence
   • With prayers that the bombs will spare their own blocks
   • With indifference, since the raid changes nothing for them
   • With terror that the camp will be destroyed around them

   The bombardment gives the prisoners courage rather than fear; a bomb that lands inside the camp fails to explode.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What is different about the child's hanging from the two men's?

   • The execution was carried out in secret rather than in public
   • Correct answer: Too light, he stayed alive on the rope for over half an hour
   • He was the only prisoner ever hanged in front of the whole camp
   • No verdict was read aloud before the sentence was carried out

   When the prisoners march past, the two men are no longer alive, but the child, too light, is still breathing, and he lingers between life and death for more than half an hour.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Where does the answer that God is 'hanging here from this gallows' come from?

   • Juliek, whispering beside him at roll call
   • A man standing behind Eliezer in the column
   • Correct answer: A voice Eliezer hears from within himself
   • The two condemned men, just before they hang

   A man behind Eliezer keeps asking where God is, and from within himself Eliezer hears a voice answer that He is here, hanging from this gallows.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 4?

   • Eliezer is placed in a warehouse unit that counts electrical parts.

     Happened

     Juliek explains that they work in a warehouse of electrical materials, where Eliezer sits on the ground counting bolts, bulbs, and small electrical parts.

   • A prisoner is shot as he reaches for one of the soup cauldrons left untended during the alert.

     Happened

     During the alert, a man crawls to a cauldron, pulls himself up to its rim and thrusts his head toward the soup; at the sound of a shot he falls and is still.

   • Eliezer gives the tent leader's aide his shoes in exchange for a place in a good Kommando.

     Didn't happen

     Eliezer refuses to give the aide his shoes, which are all he has left, though they are later taken from him anyway.

   • The Lagerkapo acts as the hangman when the pipel is hanged.

     Didn't happen

     This time the Lagerkapo refuses to act as executioner, and three SS take his place.

   • A dentist from Warsaw pries out Eliezer's crown with a rusty spoon.

     Happened

     That evening in the latrines, the dentist from Warsaw pulls Eliezer's crown with the help of a rusty spoon.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which of these statements about Chapter 4 are true?

    • Idek beats Eliezer's father with an iron bar for working too slowly.

      Happened

      While the prisoners load diesel motors onto freight cars, Idek calls Eliezer's father an old loafer and beats him with an iron bar.

    • Eliezer meets the French girl again years later in the Paris Metro.

      Happened

      Many years later, in Paris, Eliezer recognizes the woman across the aisle in the Metro, and they spend the whole evening reminiscing.

    • Idek is punished by the camp authorities for his violence.

      Didn't happen

      The chapter shows no one punishing Idek; he goes on as Kapo, and he has Eliezer whipped for seeing him with a young Polish girl.

    • Louis is allowed to play Beethoven for the men of the Kommando.

      Didn't happen

      Louis, a well-known violinist, complains that they will not let him play Beethoven, because Jews are not allowed to play German music.

    • Yossi and Tibi plan with Eliezer to emigrate to Palestine one day.

      Happened

      Yossi and Tibi often speak with Eliezer about Palestine, and they decide that if they live until the Liberation, they will board the first ship to Haifa.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What is a 'Kapo,' the position Idek holds in Eliezer's work unit?

    • A civilian foreman employed by the factory owners
    • A doctor placed in charge of the camp infirmary
    • A German officer assigned to supervise a labor detail
    • Correct answer: A prisoner given authority over other prisoners

    Kapos were prisoners themselves; Juliek warns that Idek, the Kapo, "occasionally has fits of madness."

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12. 12

    Question 12. What is a 'pipel,' the word Wiesel uses for the child hanged at the end of the chapter?

    • Correct answer: A young boy kept as a personal servant by a prisoner official
    • A prisoner who has survived more than one selection
    • An orphan placed under the protection of the block elder
    • A boy who carries messages between the blocks of the camp

    The hanged child was the young servant, the pipel, of the Dutch Oberkapo; tortured, he too remained silent, and the SS then condemned him to death.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does 'Kommando' mean as used in: 'You fell into a good Kommando'?

    • A barracks shared by prisoners from the same town
    • Correct answer: A prisoner work unit assigned to a particular job
    • A punishment cell used for solitary confinement
    • The daily roll call at which prisoners are counted

    A Kommando is a work unit; the veterans warn that the most important thing is not to be assigned to the construction Kommando, while Eliezer's unit counts electrical parts in a warehouse.

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