Things to Think About (with Ms. Hammond):
- Words you may not know: tumult, imperative, interrogating, oppressor, harangued, leprous, convalescent, Appelplatz, pipel
- What is one feeling or image that you feel will stay with you, even after reading?
- What does the guards’ treatment of the prisoners reveal about human nature?
- How did the prisoners’ treatment of Mrs. Schachter on the train in chapter 2 foreshadow the events that were to come in chapters 3-4?
- Upon arriving at the camp, why does Elie’s father ask him if he remembers Mrs. Schachter from the train? (34)
- Are the prisoners, as Akiba Drumer suggests, “capable of overcoming [their] base instincts?” (45)? Why/why not?
- In what ways are the prisoners compared to cattle/livestock? What does this analogy reveal about the way Jews were viewed by the Nazis?
- How does Elie’s relationship change from the time they arrive in Birkenau, to the time they spend in Buna?
- Though Elie writes about the dehumanization caused by the concentration camps, he also includes small acts of kindness within his writing. Can you think of any? What does this say about human nature?
- Despite the large number of prisoners held within the camps, why do you believe there is no large-scale effort to resist or rebel?
- “How was is possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?” (Elie, 32)