Dawn: List 2

by Elie Wiesel
Elisha, a Holocaust survivor living in Palestine, joins a paramilitary group and is ordered to execute a British officer. As he waits for dawn, when the execution is to take place, he meditates on his life.

This list covers pages 21–43 in the 2006 Hill and Wang edition, translated from the French by Frances Frenaye.

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

words only definitions & notes
  1. convoy
    a procession of land vehicles traveling together
    Since my arrival in Palestine several months before, I had taken part in various tangles with the police, in sabotage operations, in attacks on military convoys making their way across the green fields of Galilee or the white desert.
  2. casualty
    someone injured or killed in a military engagement
    There had been casualties on both sides, but the odds were in our favor because the night was our ally.
  3. ostensibly
    from appearances alone
    This house was ostensibly occupied by a professor of languages, to justify the comings and goings of a large number of young people who were actually, like myself, apprentices of a school of terrorist techniques.
  4. wield
    handle effectively
    We learned also to wield a dagger, to strangle a man from behind without making a sound, and to get out of practically any prison.
  5. indoctrinate
    teach uncritically
    For two hours every day Gad indoctrinated us with the Movement’s ideology.
  6. ideology
    an orientation that characterizes the thinking of a group
    For two hours every day Gad indoctrinated us with the Movement’s ideology.
  7. persecute
    cause to suffer
    For generations we’ve wanted to be better, more pure in heart than those who persecuted us.
  8. heretofore
    up to this point or up to the present time
    We don’t like to be bearers of death; heretofore we’ve chosen to be victims rather than executioners.
  9. scythe
    an edge tool for cutting grass
    They ran with lowered heads in every direction, but their legs were cut by our bullets, as if by an immense scythe, and they fell shrieking to the ground.
  10. insurmountable
    not capable of being overcome
    A few Jews tried to break through the circle of fire, but they only rammed their heads against its insurmountable wall.
  11. scrutinize
    look at critically or searchingly, or in minute detail
    “Don’t torture yourself, Elisha,” said Gad. He had turned off the radio and was scrutinizing me intently. “This is war.”
  12. heartrending
    causing or marked by grief or anguish
    Her delicate features seemed chiseled out of brown marble and there was an expression of heartrending melancholy on her face.
  13. melancholy
    a feeling of thoughtful sadness
    Her delicate features seemed chiseled out of brown marble and there was an expression of heartrending melancholy on her face.
  14. sentry
    a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event
    It was supposed to be what we called a “soft job,” but the courageous stupidity of a sentry had spoiled it.
  15. convulsion
    a violent uncontrollable contraction of muscles
    Although wounded and in convulsions he had continued to crawl along the ground with a bullet in his belly and even to shoot off his gun.
  16. consign
    give over to another for care or safekeeping
    The major returned his salute and handed him an order with a colonel’s signature at the bottom, an order to consign to the bearer five tommy guns, twenty rifles, twenty revolvers, and the necessary ammunition.
  17. condescending
    characteristic of those who treat others with arrogance
    “We’re expecting a terrorist attack,” the major explained condescendingly.
  18. pacifist
    opposed to war
    “A neighbor who was against us because of his pacifist convictions reported me to the police,” he went on.
  19. homage
    respectful deference
    We kept silence for several minutes, as if to pay homage to death for saving his life and giving the name of Madman to a fellow with an innocent, tormented face.
  20. inarticulate
    without or deprived of the use of speech or words
    He was a husky, inarticulate fellow some twenty years old, who took pains to make himself inconspicuous and was always mumbling prayers.
  21. raucous
    unpleasantly loud and harsh
    I burst out laughing, but no one else joined in. My laugh was raucous and artificial.
  22. indifferent
    showing no care or concern in attitude or action
    Involuntarily I looked at Gad’s hands and face, the familiar hands and face of my friend, who had put a bullet in the neck of a fellow human being and now talked coldly, almost indifferently, about it.
  23. dispassionate
    unaffected by strong emotion or prejudice
    Without stopping to question me he caught hold of my throat and said dispassionately: ‘I’m going to choke you.’
  24. enfeeble
    make weak
    His powerful hands closed in on my throat and in my enfeebled condition I did not even try to put up a fight.
  25. caricature
    a representation of a person exaggerated for comic effect
    I felt the blood gather in my head and my head swell to several times its normal size, so that I must have looked like a caricature, a miserable clown.
  26. interminable
    tiresomely long; seemingly without end
    They did not stir, but sat petrified as the seconds dragged interminably by.
  27. strident
    unpleasantly loud and harsh
    “What doesn’t he know?” I repeated stridently.
  28. transfix
    render motionless because of surprise, terror, or awe
    I should have liked to run away, but my friends’ stares transfixed me.
  29. plumb
    examine thoroughly and in great depth
    Midnight, I reflected, the hour when the dead rise out of their graves and come to say their prayers in the synagogue, the hour when God Himself weeps over the destruction of the Temple, the hour when a man should be able to plumb the depths of his being and to discover the Temple in ruins.
  30. opaque
    not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy
    There were tears in her eyes, or rather there were tears in the place of her eyes, tears which with every passing second grew heavier and more opaque and threatened to overflow...I was afraid that suddenly the worst would happen: the dusky Ilana would no longer be there; she would have drowned in her tears.
  31. apparition
    a ghostly appearing figure
    I wondered why Catherine had come, but her apparition did not particularly surprise me.
  32. transcend
    go beyond the scope or limits of
    For this reason her presence in the magical room—magical because it transcended the differences, the boundary lines between the victim and the executioner, between the present and the past—was not surprising.
  33. zenith
    the highest point of something
    Slowly at first, as if swept by an invisible wind, the stars drew away from the zenith, some moving to the right, others to the left, until the center of the sky was an empty space, dazzlingly blue and gradually acquiring depth and outline.
  34. heedless
    marked by or paying little attention
    Heedless of her objection I went on: “First, Catherine, I must tell you...”
  35. implore
    beg or request earnestly and urgently
    “No, no, no!” she implored. “Don’t tell me. Be quiet. Take me quickly, but don’t talk.”
Created on Fri Oct 18 12:06:41 EDT 2019 (updated Wed Oct 23 09:55:23 EDT 2019)

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