Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel
An introspective teenager, Elie first begins to hate when Hungarian police strike out with billy clubs and force Jews from their homes. At Auschwitz's Block 17, he berates himself for being a spoiled child and rejecting his first plate of prison soup. He redeems himself by multiple acts of kindness, such as giving up his gold dental crown to spare his father torment for marching out of step. At the end of his incarceration, an emaciated, demoralized Elie bears little resemblance to the teenage boy who left Sighet.
Chlomo Wiesel
An esteemed grocer, adviser, and religious leader in the village of Sighet, Chlomo is cultured, but realistic. His dedication to others is evident in his accompaniment of the first convoy of deportees to the gates of the ghetto. At the Birkenau ditch where infants are burned, he wishes that Elie had gone with his mother. Elie assumes that his father does not want to witness the murder of his only son.
Mrs. Wiesel
Elie's mother remains silent and casts questioning looks at her family as she cooks food for the departure from their Sighet home. As the family marches from the large ghetto, her face is expressionless. In Elie's last view of her, she is stroking Tzipora's hair in a reassuring gesture.
Hilda Wiesel
As she nears the time of betrothal, Elie's oldest sister works in the family store.
Beatrice "Béa" Wiesel
The second child of the Wiesels, Béa also assists in the family grocery store.
Tzipora Wiesel
A miniature vision of stoicism during the march to the cattle car, Elie's seven-year-old sister wears a red coat and struggles without complaint under the heavy load she must carry.
Batya Reich
A relative who lives with the Wiesels in the larger ghetto, Batya hears ominous knocking on a window overlooking the street.
Stein of Antwerp
A shrunken, bespectacled fellow, Stein introduces himself to Elie's father on the sixth day at Auschwitz. He asks for news of Reizel and their boys, who emigrated to Belgium. In exchange for Elie's fabricated news, the exuberant Stein returns with half rations of bread. The receipt of real news of his family ends his brief fantasy that they thrive in Antwerp.
Moshe the Beadle
Elie's mentor is an awkward, silent, hesitant man whose pious chanting and dreamy eyes suit the needs of a boy seeking to know more about Jewish mysticism. The synagogue's handyman, Moshe deliberately seeks anonymity among villagers yet opens himself to an intimate friendship with Elie, whose tearful prayers alert Moshe to the boy's spiritual hunger. After escaping the Gestapo in Poland near the end of 1942, he considers himself a messenger, but the villagers believe he has lost his mind and ignore his frenzied warning. (Note: Moshe's manic sobbing and subsequent withdrawal are symptomatic of a mental disorder currently known as post-traumatic shock syndrome, a common state of emotional dysfunction that affects survivors of war, terrorism, kidnapping, or other threats to safety or well-being.)
Berkovitz
A villager who returns from Budapest, Berkovitz reports that Fascists are terrorizing Hungarian Jews.
Madame Kahn
The Wiesels' neighbor, she provides temporary housing to a polite German officer who buys her a box of chocolates.
Stern
A thin Sighet police officer, Stern summons Chlomo to a council meeting. At Birkenau, Stern receives an oversized tunic in the chaotic allotment of prison clothing.
The Hungarian Police Inspector
An unnamed friend, the officer promises to warn Elie's father if danger approaches and knocks on the window early on the morning of the deportation.
Maria
The Wiesels' servant, Maria pleads with them to leave the unguarded ghetto and seek safety with her.
Madame Schächter
A quiet fifty-year-old deportee whose husband and two sons were carried on an earlier convoy, Madame Schächter is left with a ten-year-old son. Her manic state progresses from moans to hysterical cries of "Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh, that fire!"
Bela Katz
The son of a Sighet tradesman, Bela is selected to load the crematory and ordered to put his father's corpse into a crematory oven.
Yechiel
The brother of Sighet's rabbi who, on the night that Elie arrives at Birkenau, weeps for their doom.
Akiba Drumer
A deep-voiced singer who stirs the hearts of inmates with Hasidic melodies sung at bedtime, Drumer applies cabbalistic numerology to scripture and predicts deliverance from Buna within weeks. After the selection at Block 36, he departs in despair, his faith destroyed. His fellow inmates forget his parting request for a Kaddish.
