François Mauriac (frahn swah moh ree ak) French Catholic ethicist who assisted the French Resistance by writing anti-Nazi articles. In 1952, Mauriac won the Nobel Prize for literature.
the Occupation June 22, 1940-October 23, 1944, the period during which Nazis overran France and set up a totalitarian government.
Austerlitz (ow stuhr lihtz) currently Brno, the Czech Republic, in the south-central portion of the country.
Nazi (naht see) shortened form for a member of NSDAP (Nationalsozialische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), the German National Socialist party, which Anton Drexler, Dietrich Eckart, Karl Harrer, and Adolf Hitler inaugurated in 1920 as a racist, totalitarian oppressor of human rights. The shortened form of the party's title remained in use from 1930-1945 as a pejorative expressing the world's distaste for Hitler's thugs.
Sighet (sih geht) a provincial Transylvanian town in the Carpathian Mountains in the far north of Romania near the Russian border, an area which was part of Hungary from 1941-1945, thus contributing to the confusion over Elie Wiesel's nationality. He is alternately identified as Romanian, Hungarian, and Transylvanian.
Lazarus (la zuh ruhs) according to John 11, a biblical character whom Christ raised from the dead. The name is a Romanized variant of Elie's first name, Eliezer.
Nietzsche (nee chuh) Friedrich Nietzsche, a late nineteenth-century German philosopher who proclaimed "God is dead" and proposed the concept of the "superman," an idea that was misappropriated by the Nazis in order to justify their obsession with Aryan superiority.
the god of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob three patriarchs of the book of Genesis. Abraham, son of an idol-maker, was the founder of monotheism in the Western world, the father of Isaac, and the grandfather of Jacob, who later changed his name to Israel and sired its twelve tribes.
Rosh Hashanah (rash hah shah nuh) Hebrew for "New Year," a Jewish holiday observed on the first day of the Jewish month of Tishri (usually in September).
that other Jew, his brother Jesus, who was born to Jewish parents and reared in the Hebraic tradition, including dedication at the Temple and training in oral disputation with learned men.
Zion here, the term refers to the Jewish nation; Zionism is a general term applying to the movement to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
Talmud (tahl muhd) a 45-volume compendium of scriptural interpretation, commentary, and traditions, edited in 500 A.D. and used as a source book of Jewish wisdom to solve problems and settle disputes.
cabbala (kuh bah luh) a philosophy based on mystical interpretations of Judaic prophecy, dreams, visions, wisdom, numerology, scripture, sacred mysteries, and godhood.
charnel houses mortuaries, or makeshift repositories of the dead.
grace the Christian concept of a gift that the receiver does not have to deserve; a blessing from God or from a generous donor.
