Night, Chapter 5 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why does Eliezer refuse to join the blessing at the Rosh Hashanah service?

   • Correct answer: He will not praise a God who permits the crematoria
   • He is too weak from hunger to stand through the service
   • The block chief has forbidden the prisoners to pray
   • He has forgotten the words of the Rosh Hashanah prayers

   He asks why he should bless a God who kept six crematoria working day and night, and he feels that he is the accuser and God the accused.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does Eliezer's father tell him about fasting on Yom Kippur?

   • That fasting is the only prayer still left to them
   • That he should fast to honor the family they have lost
   • That the entire block has agreed to fast together
   • Correct answer: That he is forbidden to fast while he is in the camp

   Eliezer says he did not fast, first of all to please his father, who had forbidden it, and he turned swallowing his soup into a symbol of rebellion.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How does the Blockälteste tell the prisoners to behave during the selection?

   • To trade bread for a place at the end of the line
   • To limp so the doctors will send them to the infirmary
   • Correct answer: To run past the doctors quickly and look strong
   • To stay hidden in the block until the count is over

   The Blockälteste tells them to move their limbs, give themselves some color, run instead of walking, and not look at the SS.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does Eliezer's father hand over when he learns his number was recorded?

   • A piece of rubber from the depot to repair a shoe
   • Correct answer: A knife and a spoon, telling him not to sell the spoon
   • A letter addressed to a relative living abroad
   • A photograph he had carried with him from home

   Believing his number has been recorded, his father says he will not need the knife anymore and tells Eliezer not to sell the spoon; Eliezer calls them his inheritance.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What causes Akiba Drumer to stop struggling to survive?

   • Correct answer: He loses his belief that God is testing His people
   • He is beaten by a Kapo and cannot return to work
   • He is injured badly during a shift at the factory
   • He receives word that his family is already dead

   His faith had supplied his stamina; once the belief cracked, the will to live went with it and he was soon selected.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Why do Eliezer and his father choose to march out rather than remain as patients?

   • They hope to slip away from the column during the march
   • They are told the Red Army will never reach the camp
   • The doctor refuses to let his father stay in the ward
   • Correct answer: They are convinced the SS will kill anyone left behind

   They reason that the SS would not leave living invalids for the enemy to find, so staying appears to mean certain death.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does Wiesel later reveal about the prisoners who stayed in the infirmary?

   • They were shot on the morning the columns left
   • They were loaded onto trains for camps deep in Germany
   • Correct answer: They were liberated by the Russians shortly afterward
   • They died of disease before any army arrived

   Looking back, Eliezer says that after the war he learned those who stayed in the infirmary were liberated by the Russians two days after the evacuation.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does the forgotten Kaddish for Akiba Drumer most clearly reveal?

   • That the prisoners had forgotten the words of the prayer
   • Correct answer: That exhaustion had worn away even duties owed the dead
   • That the block chief had banned prayer after the selection
   • That the men blamed Drumer for giving up on himself

   Terrible days followed, with more blows than food and crushing work, and three days after Akiba Drumer left, the men forgot the Kaddish they had promised him.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 5?

   • Eliezer refuses to bless God's name during the Rosh Hashanah service.

     Happened

     During the service Eliezer asks why he should bless God, who kept the crematoria working day and night.

   • Eliezer's father orders him not to fast on Yom Kippur.

     Happened

     Eliezer says he did not fast, first of all to please his father, who had forbidden him to do so.

   • Eliezer's father is taken away after the second examination.

     Didn't happen

     His father's number is recorded, but when Eliezer returns from work his father is alive and has passed the second selection.

   • Akiba Drumer is selected after his faith collapses.

     Happened

     Akiba Drumer loses his faith, is taken as a victim of the selection, and asks his friends to say Kaddish for him.

   • Eliezer hides his swollen foot and refuses the operation.

     Didn't happen

     Eliezer goes to the infirmary with his swollen foot, and the doctor operates on the sole of his foot.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which of these details belong to the evacuation of Buna at the end of Chapter 5?

    • The Blockälteste has the block cleaned before they leave.

      Happened

      Just before they leave, the Blockälteste has four prisoners mop the floor so the liberating army will know men lived there.

    • A patient tells Eliezer that Hitler has kept his promises.

      Happened

      Eliezer's neighbor in the infirmary says he has more faith in Hitler than in anyone else because Hitler kept his promises.

    • Eliezer and his father decide to stay behind in the hospital.

      Didn't happen

      Eliezer proposes that they be evacuated with the others, and he does not return to the infirmary.

    • Snow is falling as the columns pass through the gate.

      Happened

      As the blocks stand in ranks and the gates open, the snow continues to fall.

    • Eliezer is assigned to a work detail inside the infirmary.

      Didn't happen

      Eliezer is a patient in the infirmary after his operation; the chapter does not show him given any work there.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'reprieve' mean as used in: 'Then we would know the verdict: death or reprieve'?

    • A quiet expression of thanks and praise
    • Correct answer: A delay or cancellation of a punishment
    • A promise offered under solemn oath
    • A humble request for forgiveness

    A reprieve is a delay or cancellation of a punishment; after the selection the prisoners would learn whether they faced death or were spared.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'Kommando' mean as used in: 'The Kommando headed toward the camp gate'?

    • Correct answer: A prisoner work detail sent out to labor
    • The barracks where new arrivals were housed
    • The roll call held on the square each dawn
    • The SS unit posted at the camp's main gate

    A Kommando is a work detail of prisoners; Eliezer's Kommando marches out through the gate to work while his father stays near the block.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does 'emaciated' mean as used in: 'A poor emaciated Jew questioned him anxiously, his voice trembling'?

    • Recently recovered from a long illness
    • Deeply religious and strictly observant
    • Correct answer: Abnormally thin and weakened by hunger
    • Unusually talkative and restless

    Emaciated means wasted and very thin from hunger; this man, whose number was written down at the selection, anxiously questions the Blockälteste.

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