Question

Chapter 4 - pp. 45-62 of Night
1. What were the objectives of the medical examinations?2. Why were the Jewish musicians not allowed to play music by Beethoven?3. Describe one of Idek’s bouts of madness.4. How did Elie initially avoid losing his gold crown?5. Whom did Elie meet years later on the Paris Metro?6. What happened when Elie refused to give his crown to Franek?  What was the result?7. Describe the scene with the soup cauldrons.8. During one of the preliminary “ceremonies” for a hanging, what did Juliek whisper to Elie?  What does this suggest?9. During one hanging, Elie and the other prisoners cried.  What made this hanging different from others?

Accepted Answer

The objectives of the medical examinations were to determine if the inmates were in good health capable of discharging their duties as required by the Germans. The dental examination, on the other hand, was for the sole purpose of looking for inmates with gold crowns so they can be removed.
The Jewish musicians were not allowed to play Beethoven because the Jews were prohibited from playing German music.
One of Idek’s bout of madness occurred when he physically assaulted Elie. He later calmed down and asked Elie to resume his duties like nothing had happened.
Elie feigned sickness to avoid losing his gold crown. He informed the dentist that he had a fever, and so the dentist postponed the procedure. He did this until the dentist’s office was shut down.
Years later, on the Paris Metro, Elie met the French lady who worked at the electrical warehouse as a forced laborer. The lady comforted Elie after his first encounter with Idek.
After Elie refused to give Franek his gold crown, Franek took to harassing Elie’s father because he could not march in step as required in the camps. He physically assaulted Elie’s father until Elie decided to teach his father how to march correctly. Eventually, Elie was forced to give away his gold crown because the assault persisted.
During an alert, all inmates and officers took cover in the buildings leaving behind two cauldrons of soup unattended. The inmates saw this, but they also understood that they risked their lives if they dared venture outside during an alert. However, one of the inmates made his way to the cauldrons of soup by crawling on his belly. He made it to the cauldrons, but he was shot dead before having its contents.
Juliek whispered that “They’re expecting trouble” because the inmates were surrounded by the SS. They were just about to witness the hanging of one of their fellow inmates.
Elie and other inmates cried during the hanging of the pipel belonging to the Dutch Oberkapo. They cried because the pipel was just a child.

Answer

In chapter four of Night by Elie Wiesel, the main character describes what life was like inside the concentration camp. The following answers address the above questions and expand on the context of the events when clarification is needed.
In the camp, the medical examinations served at least two purposes. While the exams were intended to assess the health of the prisoners, the true intention was to weed out those that were unhealthy. As they were paraded before the doctors, they asked each of them if they were in good health. If a Jew was sick, weak, or diseased, this was seen as a waste of resources, and of no benefit to the workload; furthermore, any sick person posed the risk of spreading infection. Eliezer hints at this fact by rhetorically asking, “Who would have dared to admit the opposite?” (48). The second function of the examinations was to survey their mouths for gold fillings and crowns. These valuable bits of precious metal were later extracted for their value. Eliezer explains his trip to the dentist for the extraction of his crown on page 52.
The Jewish musicians were forbidden to play Beethoven, because it was German music (49). Because of the anti-Semitic ideology, Jews were not considered worthy enough to participate in any form of German culture. As the ideology taught that Jews were a cancer, they were considered incapable of being German or even playing German music. Hitler propagated the idea that Jews were to blame for the failure of the economy, and the collapse of German society. This act of forbidding the musicians to play Beethoven was just one method among the milieu of psychological other-ization techniques imposed by the Nazis.
The most compelling example of Idek’s wrath is when he unleashes on Eliezer: "One day when Idek was venting his fury, I happened to cross his path. He threw himself on me like a wild beast, beating me in the chest, on my head, throwing me to the ground and picking me up again, crushing me with ever more violent blows, until I was covered in blood. As I bit my lips in order not to howl with pain, he must have mistaken my silence for defiance and so he continued to hit me harder and harder" (53).
Eliezer was able to delay the removal of his gold tooth by lying about his health. Eliezer makes a plea to the dentist, saying, “Couldn't you wait a few days, sir? I don't feel well, I have a fever" (52). The dentist obliges and never gets the chance to extract the crown; the dentist is found guilty of stealing gold and is later publicly executed.
One of the most human experiences Eliezer has is with the French girl in the forced labor unit. After suffering blows by Idek, the French girl comforts him with words in German. The narrator later tells of seeing the French girl again at a metro stop in Paris. The two steal away to a café, and they reminisce about their experiences in the camp.
Eliezer suffered quite a bit of consequence for his gold crown. In fact, the Polish commander, Franek, sees the crown in Elie’s mouth and insists that he give it to him. Trying to think of a good excuse, Elie tells him that he needs it in order to eat and then that the tooth was already registered and to give it to Franek would pose a risk to them both. Unconvinced, Franek insists, to which Elie replies that he must consult his father. His father says no, and this leads to an endless wrath from Franek against Shlomo in the marching line. Elie tries to teach his father to march better, but to no avail; the beatings continue. Giving in, Elie allows Franek’s dentist friend to one night extract the crown using a dirty spoon in the latrine.
The story of the two caldrons was a sad and unfortunate tale of the Sunday that an alert left the camp empty, as the SS sought shelter from an imminent attack. The few prisoners who were left in the camp noticed two caldrons of soup unattended outside by the road. As all the starving prisoners looked on with hunger, one of the men dared to crawl out into the open to eat some of the soup. The orders were to shoot anyone who left their barracks, and this is exactly what happened to the poor man who sold his soul for a bowl of soup. As he crawled to the caldrons, he opened one and stuck his face in the soup as a shot rang out, taking his life.
The executions in the camp were intended to put fear in the prisoners. When an execution was performed, it served as a ceremony in at least two ways. First, the “ceremony” was the closest thing to burial rites the poor victims would see. Even the command for prisoners to remove their hats was a kind of ceremonial sign of respect. The second reason that these executions were ceremonial is the fact that they were part of the brainwashing, as they likewise celebrated the cult of National Socialism. With all of the pomp, arrogance, intimidation, superiority, and oppression, every action was carried out in a ceremonial, almost religious, way.
The hanging that led the prisoners to tears was when a young boy was hanged. After a beloved Oberkapo was transported to Auschwitz, he left behind a young boy under his care. Called a pipel, this young boy was imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death with two other men. He was taken to the gallows and hanged, and his body writhed and twisted exceptionally longer than usual. With cries of grief from the prisoners, a powerful comment about the goodness and justice of God is posed: “For God's sake, where is God?” Elie thinks, “Where is He? This is where—hanging here from this gallows” (63).
Works Cited:
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Hill and Wang, 2017.

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