Section 1, pages 1-20 
Central or Main Idea: Eliezer’s relationship with God is going to play a major role throughout the book. At this point in Eliezer’s life, nothing has happened yet to shake his faith or question God’s benevolence. He doesn’t know why he cries when he prays. He doesn’t even know why he prays. He’d never thought about it before. He might as well ask himself, “Why do I live? Why do I breathe?” Who can say? But unimaginable horrors await young Eliezer. Soon these questions will be very real to him, not just rhetorical. Why does he live? Why does he pray? When he asks these questions, Moishe warns him that God’s answers aren’t necessarily within our understanding. We can only hope to ask the right questions and search inside ourselves for the answers.


1. Describe Moishe the Beadle. 
He worked at the ____________ synagogue. He was able to make himself seem __________, almost invisible. He was  ____________ , with  ____________  eyes, and did not  ____________  much. Page 3

2. Describe Elie Wiesel's father. What was his occupation? 
He was  ____________  and  ____________ . He had more concern for  ____________  than for his  ____________ . He and his wife were ____________ . Page 4

3. Why was Moshe the Beadle important to Elie Wiesel? 
Moshe became his  ____________ , or instructor in the  ____________  aspects of the  ____________  faith. Page 4, 5

4. Summarize the story Moshe the Beadle told on his return from being deported. Why  did he say he had returned to Sighet? 
He and the other ____________  Jews had been taken by ____________ through  ____________  and into  ____________ . They were taken to a forest and made to  ____________ . Then the Gestapo  ____________ . Moshe ____________ because he had been ____________, although he was just wounded. He said he returned to tell the ____________ to prepare themselves before it was ____________. Pages 6, 7


5. What was the public reaction to Moishe's story? 
People ____________ to believe him. Some would not ____________ to him. They said he just wanted their ____________. Page 7



6. What was the setting and the year for the first section of the book? What was the world's condition at the time? 
His story opens in ____________, in the town of ____________ in ____________. World War II was in progress. The author mentions ____________, then describes events in ____________. The ____________ party had taken power. Pages 3, 8

7. Describe, in order, the events that happened from the last day of Passover until Pentecost. On the seventh day of ____________ the ____________ arrested the   ____________. The Jewish residents were not allowed to ____________ for ____________  days. At the end of the ____________ the Jews had to start wearing the ____________. Then two ____________ were set up. On the Saturday before Pentecost, Stern attended an extraordinary meeting of the council. When he returned he told the others they were all to be ____________, starting the ____________. P10-22


8. How did Wiesel say he felt about the Hungarian police? 
He said he began to ____________ them because they were his and his community's first ____________. p19


9. Who was Maria? What happened when she visited the Wiesel family in the ghetto? 
Maria was a former ____________of the Wiesel family. She visited the family in the ____________ and offered them ________________. Elie's father refused V. He told Elie and his sisters they could ____________, but they refused to____________. p20