Friday, April 10, 2015

In Night by Elie Wiesel, why was the dentist executed?

In Night, author Elie Wiesel is called to the dentist because he has a gold crown on one of his teeth. The Nazis would have gold crowns removed from their prisoners and then melt the gold down to help fund the war effort or to line their own pockets in some cases. Elie tells the dentist he is not feeling well, so the dentist, who Elie describes as a man who "... had a...

In Night, author Elie Wiesel is called to the dentist because he has a gold crown on one of his teeth. The Nazis would have gold crowns removed from their prisoners and then melt the gold down to help fund the war effort or to line their own pockets in some cases. Elie tells the dentist he is not feeling well, so the dentist, who Elie describes as a man who "... had a face like a death mask" (Wiesel 49), tells Elie to come back as soon as he is feeling better. 


Elie goes back and again tells the dentist he is feeling sick, so he is given one more reprieve. Soon after this, Elie discovers that the dentist has been arrested and put in prison for selling the gold teeth for his own profit. His sentence would be death by hanging. In other words, the dentist was executed for taking money from selling prisoners' teeth which the Nazis claimed as theirs.

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