Night: Pages 23–46

by Elie Wiesel
In this unflinching memoir, Elie Wiesel describes his experience as a young man imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust.

This list covers pages 23–46 in the 2006 Hill and Wang edition.

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. intolerable
    incapable of being put up with
    After two days of travel, thirst became intolerable, as did the heat.
  2. constraint
    a limitation or restriction
    Freed of normal constraints, some of the young let go of their inhibitions and, under cover of darkness, caressed one another, without any thought of others, alone in the world.
  3. economize
    use cautiously and frugally
    But we never ate enough to satisfy our hunger. Our principle was to economize, to save for tomorrow.
  4. irrevocably
    in a manner that cannot be taken back
    The doors were nailed, the way back irrevocably cut off.
  5. abyss
    a bottomless gulf or pit
    We were still trembling, and with every screech of the wheels, we felt the abyss opening beneath us.
  6. tumult
    a state of commotion and noise and confusion
    “Form ranks of fives!”
    There was a tumult.
  7. imperative
    requiring attention or action
    It was imperative to stay together.
  8. lucidity
    a clear state of mind
    In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until the end of time, seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either.
  9. harangue
    address forcefully
    He harangued us from the center of the barrack...
  10. convalescent
    returning to health after illness or debility
    And Auschwitz is not a convalescent home. It is a concentration camp. Here, you must work.
  11. ascertain
    establish after a calculation, investigation, or study
    The Gypsy stared at him for a long time, from head to toe. As if he wished to ascertain that the person addressing him was actually a creature of flesh and bone, a human being with a body and a belly.
  12. compulsory
    required by rule
    These were the showers, a compulsory routine. Going from one camp to the other, several times a day, we had, each time, to go through them.
  13. camaraderie
    the quality of affording easy familiarity and sociability
    And now, here is a prayer, or rather a piece of advice: let there be camaraderie among you. We are all brothers and share the same fate. The same smoke hovers over all our heads. Help each other.
  14. veritable
    being truly so called; real or genuine
    The new one was ferocious and his aides were veritable monsters.
  15. concur
    be in agreement
    As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.
Created on Thu Jan 23 15:09:24 EST 2014 (updated Fri Jun 27 16:37:35 EDT 2025)

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