(Survival in Auschwitz) If This is a Man

• A memoir by Italian Jewish writer Primo Levi, first published in 1947, describes his arrest as a
member of Italian anti-fascist resistance during the second world war, and his incarceration in
the Auschwitz concentration camp from February 1944 until the camp was liberated on 27
January 1945

• Europe eats up itself raw during WWII, Levi completes degree in chemistry and joins Resistance
Movement, is captured along with his compatriots, is taken to a holding camp, and then shipped
to Auschwitz, the infamous concentration and extermination camp in Poland

• Subjected to suffering for a year at Auschwitz, starved, beaten, made to work to the point of
deathly exhaustion (while tens of thousands of Jewish prisoners are sent to their death in the
gas chambers of the nearby extermination camp, Birkenau, average lifespan in the camp is one
month), struggles to maintain a sense of humanity in the face of degrading conditions designed
to turn him into a non-person,

• The Nazis evacuate the camp taking all the healthy people on a forced march to another
location, hoping to obliterate any traces of their crimes, just before the Soviet forces arrive

• Levi survives left behind with the ill prisoners and the challenge he faces is to learn to feel like a
human, after living in a system whose purpose is to reduce him to feeling and behaving like
desperate animals

The Journey

• Primo Levi is captured by Fascist Militia of Italy in December 1943 after hiding out in the
mountains by dodging the authorities

• His folks try to join a larger Resistance movement called Justice and Liberty

• Not good at the Resistance thing and not knowing about getting weapons and money, Levi and
his folks seek for help

• Levi is caught and transferred to a detention camp after a month, is put in the group Not
Approved by the Fascist Republic of Italy that includes Americans and English prisoners of war

• Almost 600 Italian Jews end up in the detention camp with Levi over the next few weeks

• The SS shows up about a month later and announces that Jews (the ill, the old, women,
children) will be leaving, no one knows where, the SS also announces that for every person
missing the next morning at departure, then others will be randomly shot

• Death journey, the prisoners mourn the night before departure

 • On the train the next day, the prisoners learn that they are going to Auschwitz after they are
crowed into a freight train like animals, cold, hungry, thirsty, the train stops after several days
and the German officers order the prisoners out

• Some prisoners are told to go one way, and some other – selected on the basis of age, gender
and health, all of the healthy, able men are rounded up, the women, children, and old men
disappear

• Along with many other men, Levi is loaded into a truck and hauled off to who knows where

• Their only guard on this bizarre ride is a German soldier, who (politely?!) asks them if he can
have their money and watches, since they really won't be needing them anymore

On the Bottom

• After passing under a gate with a sign marked Arbeit Macht Frei ("work gives freedom"), the
prisoners are put into a large room and are made to wait for a ridiculously long time.

• They're extremely thirsty. And while there is a water tap in the room, there is a sign on it
forbidding anyone from drinking out of it.

• Primo does so anyway, but the water tastes like it comes from a swamp.

• All the prisoners have to strip naked, and their belongings are swept into a big pile. Men in
striped uniforms enter, and shave off the prisoners' hair.

• Waiting, waiting, waiting. And more waiting. Many hours pass as the prisoners wait, naked, in a
shower room with two inches of cold water covering the floor.

• Finally, an Italian prisoner enters, and tells the prisoners that they're in a work camp in
Auschwitz. There's a big factory that produces a certain type of rubber called Buna. So, that's
also the name of the camp.

• This prisoner isn't Jewish, but a self-admitted "criminal."

• He also tells them some pretty crazy things: like how there are football (soccer) games and
concerts on Sundays, and other entertainment and opportunities to get prize-coupons to
exchange for luxuries like coffee and tobacco.

• Primo doesn't believe a word of what this guy says.

• Suddenly, the showers turn on, and after the prisoners are all drenched, they are ushered out of
the shower-room into the cold and given ragged clothing and worn-out shoes.

• Primo learns he is a prisoner (häftling), and is tattooed with his prisoner number on his arm. The
prisoners must show this number to get food and drink.
 • Again, the prisoners find themselves waiting for a long time, this time in a bunkhouse, with
neatly-made bunks. They're told not to touch the bunks or lie down.

• Everyone's still thirsty, and Primo tries to take down an icicle he sees hanging over the window,
but is stopped by a German guard.

• When night falls, the prisoners are taken to a central square, where a band is playing. Tons of
other prisoners march in (walking in a stiff and unnatural manner), and line up. Strangely, these
prisoners are marching to the beat of the band.

• Everyone is counted, and this takes a long time.

• Primo meets a young boy who warns him against drinking the water. He tells him that he'll swell
up if he drinks it. His name is Schlome, and by hugging Primo, he shows him the first kindness
since he's been in the camp.

• There are a dizzying number of rules that everyone must follow in the camp. Most of these are
senseless and brutal, like knowing to not take a shower on the scheduled day, but to instead
take a shower on a day not scheduled.

• There's also a back-breaking work schedule for the prisoners. Basically, during all daylight hours,
the prisoners are forced into hard labor building the rubber factory.

• In short order, Primo starts to starve, get sores on his feet, and suffer from the wet and cold.

Initiation

• Primo is assigned to a regular hut (Block 30), and tries to sleep, but he has too many questions:
when will they eat? Where will he be assigned for work? The other prisoners, who are trying to
sleep, soon get tired of his questions

• Very early in the morning, the prisoners are awoken, and rush out into the freezing air to get
their morning bread.

• No one's satisfied with their small portion, and they begin to trade with others, thinking they'll
get a bigger piece. It's just not enough, though.

• The prisoners also use bread as money, and lots of bargaining and trading take place.

• Next, they go wash up in the washroom, which is dirty and disgusting.

• Primo decides it's a waste of time to wash, since he'll just get dirty anyway. He'd rather spend
the time thinking and appreciating what life he has left

• His new friend Steinlauf gives him an important lesson: since the prison is dedicated to making
the prisoners into beasts, it's way important to fight that and to hang on to as much of their
humanity as they can. Being as clean as possible is one way of doing that.
 • Primo doesn't quite buy this premise, and doesn't want to live by someone else's rules. He
wonders if it's better to simply acknowledge the futility of having personal rules

Ka-Be

• Primo finds himself working with a younger man, Null Achtzehn (which means Zero
Eighteen—he doesn't even have a name anymore). This guy is way dangerous, because he's
completely indifferent. No one wants to work with him.

• No one wants to work with Primo, either, because he's klutzy and weak. After all, the guy's a
chemist, not an athlete.

• Several supply trucks stop in the area where Primo and the other prisoners are working, and
for a moment he has a vivid fantasy of escaping in one of those trucks.

• While carrying a heavy load, Primo's strength totally gives out, and he cuts his foot badly.

• Since his foot isn't broken, the Kapo makes him return to work. When he returns to his hut, he
discovers the foot is pretty badly hurt. He knows this could be the beginning of the end.

• He decides he'll go to something called Ka-Be after dinner. This turns out to be the
Krankenbau, or the medical clinic. They call it Ka-Be for short (after the German letters).

• After waiting in yet another long line, Primo is examined by the doctor. He's told to return to
his hut, and to report back to Ka-Be in the morning instead of going to work.

• The next morning, Primo gets to line up with the others who are going to the clinic.

• The guards take away his meager belongings (his bowl, spoon, gloves and hat). Some of the
other prisoners laugh at him, since he should have known to hide them or leave them with
someone before reporting to the clinic.

• More waiting for poor Primo. By now he's been on his feet (including his severely injured foot)
for over ten hours waiting to have a second medical examination.

• While in line, he tries to talk to another prisoner, a Polish non-Jew, who ignores him and
makes fun of the high number tattooed on his arm. (You could tell a person's nationality and
how long he's been in the camp by his number. The higher numbers are the newer prisoners.)

• As a further insult, the nurse (who looks very much like the Polish guy) points out Primo's
emaciated body and how weak he is. Chillingly, he says: "You Jew, finished. You soon ready
for crematorium."

• Finally, Primo is examined and is allowed into the medical hut, where he finds a bunk all to
himself.

• He gets to stay in Ka-Be for some time, and gets a rest from working.
 • Even though it's relatively easier for Primo in the medical clinic, he learns one of the horrible
truths of the camp here: about the selections and the gas chambers.

• Primo is not ready to believe this yet, though.

• The next day, Schmulek is ominously selected by the SS to leave Ka-Be. He gives Primo his
spoon and knife before he leaves.

• While still in Ka-Be, Primo meets his friend, Piero Sonnino, who plans to stay in the medical
clinic until the end of winter. He's faking having a stomach illness.

• Being in Ka-Be gives Primo and the other prisoners time to reflect on what's happening to
them. This isn't possible while they're being worked so hard and are constantly hungry.

Our Nights

• Twenty days later, Primo's kicked out of Ka-Be. His foot is almost healed.

• Not only does Primo have to leave the relative comfort of the medical clinic, but he's going to
be thrown into a completely new housing unit and into a new work group. He'll be under new
leaders whose habits, likes and dislikes he hasn't had a chance to figure out yet.

• Primo's now assigned to Block 45, and lucky for him, that's where his best friend Alberto is
also assigned.

• Here's the nightly schedule of Block 45: they eat (scraping every drop of food they can from
their soup bowls); Engineer Kardos comes around and takes care of people's sore and
wounded feet (in exchange for some bread, of course); the story-teller shows up and sings a
song in Yiddish about life in the camp; people with broken shoes are invited to exchange them
(they don't get to try them on, but can only decide if shoes fit by looking at them); and finally
the lights are turned off and people start to go to sleep.

• Primo dreams of being at home, and telling his family about what it's like at the camp, but no
one seems to understand, and they babble among themselves like he's not even there.

• Other prisoners, he learns, have this very same dream.

• Everyone in the barracks have to go to the bathroom in a bucket in the room. Because of all
the watery soup that the prisoners eat, they have to urinate every two or three hours during
the night.

• Once filled, the bucket has to be carried out and emptied in the latrines outside. Did we
mention it's cold and snowing outside?

• Often, the heavy (and full to the brim) bucket slops around and the disgusting contents slop
all over the prisoner's pants and shoes.
 • All too soon the reveille rings, and the prisoners have to get up, make their beds, get dressed,
wash up in the washroom, go to the bathroom, and prepare for work.

• The sores on Primo's feet immediately open up again.

The Work

• Primo gets a new bunkmate, Resnyk. He's a nice guy, who's also assigned to Primo's
Kommando (work detail).

• Today, the workers have to unload from a wagon an enormous cast-iron cylinder to be used in
the factory.

• Moving a big object like this is easier than moving the iron pipes that they usually move,
because the load is spread out among more people. It's more dangerous, though, because if
you slack off on paying attention, you can easily get crushed.

• After the cylinder is unloaded, the workers have to unload and carry wooden beams weighing
over 175 pounds each. These are used to make a pathway upon which the huge cylinder will
be moved.

• Primo wants to pair up with Resnyk, who's taller than him and can bear more of the load. He's
afraid Resnyk will want to work with someone stronger.

• Success. Resnyk agrees to work with Primo.

• Even so, the work of carrying this heavy load through the snow is almost unbearable for
Primo.

• Primo heads off to the bathroom, where he can get some rest. He's accompanied by
Wachsmann, the weakest guy in the Kommando, who's assigned to accompany people to the
latrine so they won't try to escape.

• After returning to work for awhile, Primo is happy that it's time for lunch, and a quick nap.
The prisoners fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion after eating.

• A cruelly short time later, the workers are summoned back to their labors.

A Good Day

• The Buna, the rubber factory at the camp, is as large as a city.

• One particular sunny day seems like A Good Day to the prisoners, since the sun is out and they
get some relief from the cold.

• Now, if only they could do something about their constant hunger.

 • There's another reason why today is a pretty good day: the prisoners get extra rations
because Templer, the Kommando's organizer, has found an extra pot containing eleven
gallons of soup.

This Side of Good and Evil

• The prisoners have been waiting for a long time for the "ceremony of the change of
underclothes" Um...what?

• This delay is understood by the prisoners in a couple of different ways: 1.) They're going to be
liberated soon, since the war front is getting closer; and 2.) They're going to die soon, and
therefore won't need clean underclothes.

• Neither of these things happen, and the underwear ceremony takes place.

• The prison directors arrange this when the prisoners don't expect it. That's so the prisoners
don't try to take strips of cloth from their garments, which is the only way they can get small
pieces of cloth for blowing their noses or padding their shoes.

• Prisoners with extra shirts hurry off to the Exchange Market, the underground prison market,
to sell their shirts for a good price (bread or soup) before the market is flooded with the new
shirts and the "prices" for used shirts go down.

• There's also a system of exchange with civilians, which can land prisoners into huge trouble if
they're caught.

• Plus, the civilians will also get in trouble for this type of activity. There's a whole section of
Auschwitz set aside for non-Jewish civilian workers who've been caught at this down-low
economic activity with the Jewish prisoners. This camp is called "E-Lager," which stands for
"Erziehung" ("education"). So, it's a "re-education" camp. Right.

• All this exchange activity is illegal, because everything that the prisoners have belongs to the
prison. Even the gold fillings in the prisoners' teeth belong to the Nazis, and they'll end up
with them one way or another—either while the prisoner is still alive, or after he's dead.

• Within this system of exchange, almost everyone is corrupt. Words like "good," "evil," "just"
and "unjust" are not as clear-cut in Auschwitz as they may be on the outside.

The Drowned and the Saved

• Some prisoners in the camp seem to be destined to survive, while others are resigned to
dying. The prisoners call the latter "mussulman."

• On the other hand, those who can get "prominent" positions have it relatively easy. These
positions include the cooks, camp officials, Kapos, and overseers of the toilets and baths.
 • Survival in the concentration camp, Primo points out, is a constant struggle, and it's difficult
not to completely sell out your own moral code in the process.

• Primo tells the stories of four of his fellow prisoners, all who've managed to survive so far in
different ways.

Chemical Extermination

• The camp announces that a new Kommando, the Chemical Kommando, is to be formed.

• There's going to be a chemistry examination to see who is skilled enough to work in this unit.

• In the meantime, though, this Kommando now has to go unload sacks of magnesium chloride.

• Primo gets worried about this exam. He's afraid it will be in German. Plus, he thinks it's
shameful that they're not dressed appropriately, and are bald, skinny, and smell very bad.

• Despite this, though, Primo has an important insight: he can save himself by becoming a
Specialist if he can pass the chemistry examination. This is because Specialists are skilled
workers, and are treated marginally better in the camp.

• It's time for the chemistry exam, and the guys selected are afraid they don't remember how to
write.

• During the exam, Primo has the feeling that Doktor Pannwitz is looking at him like he's a
lower order of human, even though he holds a degree from a major university, and is a
specialist in several different fields of chemistry.

• Primo thinks his exam went well, but is afraid to get his hopes up too much.

• It's enough that he's been able to avoid work for one day, and is less hungry than usual.

• On the way back to the camp, Alex, the Kapo, gets grease on his hand, and without a second
thought, wipes it off on Primo's shirt, like he's some kind of object.

The Canto of Ulysses

• The Chemical Kommando is cleaning an underground oil tank when Jean, the Pikolo
(messenger boy) of the Kommando comes in.

• Today, Primo gets to go with him to pick up the soup.

• Jean tells Primo to stop walking so fast; they have time. So, they take a longer route to the
kitchens—one that will take an hour and give them a rest from work.

• Primo wants to teach Jean Italian, since he's good with languages. He even picks up some
Italian words during a conversation between Primo and another guy as they continue their
walk to the kitchen.
 • Since their time together's almost over, Primo decides to recite for Jean the Canto of Ulysses
from Dante's Inferno. Jean should understand it if he's smart.

• But Primo has a hard time remembering the passages he's trying to recite for Jean, and it loses
meaning in trying to translate it from the Italian poetry.

• Primo continues to struggle to remember the verses, and becomes frustrated. He urgently
wants Jean to understand him, because it seems to Primo that these passages are meaningful
to their situation.

• Too late: they're now in the kitchen picking up their cabbage and turnip soup.

The Events of the Summer

• It's August, 1944, and there's news in the camp of the landing of Allied soldiers at Normandy,
and an attempt on Hitler's life.

• There are also Russian attacks fairly close to Auschwitz, so the start date for producing
synthetic rubber at the camp's factory gets pushed back.

• Normal work stops, and instead the prisoners have to repair damaged areas, and evacuate the
important equipment.

• Sometimes, because of the attacks, there's no water, food, or light at night.

• Not surprisingly, the Jews aren't allowed in the bomb shelters, and have to fend for
themselves during the air raids.

• But they're so beaten down and hopeless that they regard this as a kind of rest, and they
watch the destruction around them with a sort of "whatever" attitude.

• During all this, Primo meets Lorenzo.

• Lorenzo's a civilian who helps Primo out by giving him extra food and clothing; he even has a
postcard delivered to Italy for him.

• In Lorenzo, Primo sees that there's still some good in the world, and that there's something
outside worth living for.

• Primo pretty much attributes his survival to Lorenzo.

October 1944

• It's now the beginning of winter, which is major bad news: about seven out of ten prisoners
die during the winter.

• And the hits just keep on coming. There are an excess number of prisoners—so many that the
camp put up several temporary tents.
 • With the coming of winter, these tents have been taken down, and now all those prisoners
are crowding into the regular huts.

• The prisoners know this can mean only one thing: there will be a selection.

• Rumors fly around the camp about how many prisoners will be selected, and from which
groups they'll be chosen.

• Made to strip naked, the prisoners are forced into the Quartermaster's office of the housing
unit. Being naked so close to others should be awkward, but it's warm and gives them all a
break from the horrible cold.

• This is how the test is done: Each naked man has to run through the opening between the
Quartermaster's office and the sleeping quarters. That's all the time they get. In that short
time, the SS officer makes the decision whether they are selected for extermination or not.

• Not surprisingly, this leads to perfectly healthy and strong people being selected for going to
the gas chambers.

• Those selected get a double helping of soup for the next two days, before the SS sends them
to their deaths.

Kraus

• It's now November, and it's been raining a lot, so the camp is like a swamp.

• The prisoners are miserable, working without any protection from the weather and digging a
big hole in the mud in the cold rain.

• Primo is working with a guy named Kraus, who is Hungarian and doesn't understand German
or French. He also works way too fast, and is in danger of exhausting himself.

• As the group starts to march back to the huts, marching to the beat, Kraus loses time because
he's trying to chat in German with Primo.

• To help keep Kraus in time, Primo tells him of a dream he's had: that they're both together at
Primo's place in Italy, and they're warm with plenty of food to eat.

• Kraus chatters to him in Hungarian (which Primo doesn't understand). He seems to be more
energized.

• Primo has made up this entire dream. He doesn't think Kraus will last very long in camp.

Die Drei Leute Vom Labor (The Three People from the Laboratory

• There are only 21 men left of the 96 Italian Jews who arrived with Primo at Auschwitz.
• It's the middle of winter, and snowing regularly. Take a guess whether or not the Jewish
prisoners get coats like the German or English prisoners? Hint: No.

• The Chemical Kommando has been working at moving sacks of the chemical phenylbeta. This
is a nasty chemical that burns their skin and makes it come off in patches.

• What an irony that those who took the Chemical Examination thought they would have a
cushier job. They're doing harder work than everyone else, and don't even get warmer
clothes.

• It seems like nothing is going to come of the Chemical Examination, and Primo isn't sure he'll
make it through the winter because of the backbreaking labor and freezing working
conditions.

• Not only is the main rubber factory shut down because of all the air raids, but they can also
hear the front lines of the war approaching.

• New prisoners have brought horrifying news: the Nazis have "liquidated" at least one Jewish
ghetto, and no one will ever know about it. In case you're wondering, "liquidating" is a term
that in this context means "killed everyone in the place." (The Nazis were experts
at liquidation.)

• Suddenly, the Kapo of the Chemical Kommando announces some unexpected news: Three
men have been chosen to work in the Laboratory.

• Primo is one of them.

• Right away, Primo starts to get treated slightly better: he gets a new shirt and new
underwear, and gets a weekly shave.

• Dr. Stawinoga hooks Primo up with a workstation in the laboratory. It's clean and warm.

• Primo immediately sees opportunities for getting by SS by stealing items like soap and
smuggling them out to exchange for food.

• He tries not to get his hopes up too high, because he knows that the first mistake he makes,
he'll be sent back out into the cold, or even worse—to the Chimney.

• Plus, the Russians are on their way. But the Germans don't seem to care, because they're
again making plans to fire up the rubber factory.

• For now, though, Primo has a much easier time. He's out of the cold, has access to books, and
may even get a pair of leather shoes.

• As an added bonus, there are some women in the laboratory, and Primo hasn't seen women
dressed like women in a long while. The prisoners have only been around a few women
prisoners, who are dressed like men and doing hard labor.
 • These women, though, aren't very nice, and try to blame their own accidents (breaking
glassware) on the Jewish men. One of them even calls Primo a "Stinkjude."

• Primo hears them chattering on about how Christmas is coming up, and how the year has
gone by so quickly.

• Obviously, he doesn't agree.

The Last One

• It's almost Christmas in the camp.

• In a stroke of good fortune, Primo and Alberto get some extra soup each day from Lorenzo.
The pair have a special pot, called a "menaschka," made to carry it.

• This extra soup makes Primo and Alberto superstars in the camp for awhile. People who
previously didn't pay them any attention now want to be their friends.

• The duo also has some other action going on.

• Primo has been smuggling brooms into the camp to the Blockältester.

• "Operation File" is Alberto's idea. He checks out one file from the tool-store and exchanges it
for two smaller files at the Exchange Market. He then sells one, and returns the other to the
tool-store.

• Alberto's major achievement, though, is how he's recently started stealing colored labels from
his work detail and selling them to the all the Blockälteste. The price is pretty steep, too: ten
rations of bread.

• In the middle of a seemingly normal return from work, the work Kommandos are stopped in
the big roll call square. And this seems quite ominous, because there's a gallows nearby.

• One month ago, one of the crematoriums in the Birkenau camp was blown up, and nobody
knows who did it.

• Under suspicion is the "Special Kommando," the group of Jewish prisoners assigned to work at
the Birkenau death camp, and who are themselves regularly exterminated.

• Apparently, the SS have captured one prisoner who was involved in this plot, and are going to
execute him.

• After one SS officer rattles of a bunch of German (which many of the Jewish prisoners don't
understand), the condemned man shouts out: "Kamaraden, ich bin der Letzte!" (which means,
"Comrades, I am the last one!")
 • Even this cry doesn't prompt a general uprising among the prisoners. The poor man is hanged
and the day goes on as usual.

• Primo realizes that the Germans have succeeded in utterly destroying all of the men there;
they have no strength whatsoever to act or react.

• When they return to their hut, Primo and Alberto can't even look each other in the eye. They
realize that the hanged man didn't allow himself to be conquered.

• They are ashamed.

The Story of Ten Days

• The Russians keep getting closer to the camp.

• In early January, Primo falls sick with scarlet fever and goes back to a special section of Ka-Be.

• He gets to stay in the medical clinic for forty days.

• After being there for only three days, Primo hears some news from the barber: The next day,
everyone's going to be evacuated.

• This seems to confirm the rumors in the camp. The Russians are now only sixty miles away.

• Even the doctor tells all the patients that the camp will be evacuated the next day. Everyone
able to walk will be given shoes, and the sick ones will stay in Ka-Be. Everyone will get a triple
ration of bread.

• Something seems odd about the doctor—he's much too cheery with this news and seems
almost drunk. Oh: He really thinks the Germans are going to kill the prisoners.

• Two Hungarian prisoners in the medical clinic with Primo decide to try to get out with the
healthy prisoners. They manage to scrounge together some broken down shoes and some
rags, and leave.

• Primo finds out later that they were killed by the SS after the march began.

• The doctor returns and gives Primo a French novel, telling him that he can return it to him
after he gets out. This doesn't make Primo happy at all because he knows the doctor realizes
that the sick prisoners are sure to be killed.

• Alberto is among those to be evacuated. Against the rules, he comes to tell Primo goodbye,
but has to do so from outside the window.

• That night, all the healthy prisoners—about 20,000 of them—leave during the night.

• January 18, 1945:

• On the night the prisoners are evacuated, there are still a few SS men around, and they put
non-Jews in charge of each hut. Late that night, there's a bomb attack on the camp, and
several huts catch fire. The people in Primo's Ka-Be hut refuse to let some prisoners in,
because there's just not enough room inside.

• So they walk through the freezing cold, trying to find shelter.

• The Germans are now nowhere to be seen in camp.

• January 19:

• Primo heads out with Arthur and Charles, two French political prisoners in Ka-Be, and they
find an appalling sight. There are sick, freezing, emaciated prisoners crawling around
everywhere, looking for food, water, and shelter.

• The trio finds a stove and some food to take back to their hut.

• They divide up among themselves the tasks of getting the stove started and cooking the food.

• Once they get the stove going and the hut is warmer, several other prisoners give them some
bread for the work they have done.

• Even though there's the danger of getting sick, because so many sick people are all crowded in
the room with the stove, no one really thinks about this.

• Instead, they feel like they've accomplished something.

• January 20:

• People are fighting over what little food remains in the camp. Primo and his friends have to
chip ice away from a pile of frozen cabbages and turnips. But, there's a ton of these—they
carry away over 100 pounds and leave much more behind.

• Primo is able to scavenge a car battery, and their hut ends up with electricity that night.

• That night, groups of Germans flee down the road, some on bicycles, some in cars, some in
tanks, and some on horseback.

• January 21:

• The guys in Primo's hut make a giant pot of soup out of the cabbages and turnips, but
sanitation is a problem, since all the toilets are overflowing and there's excrement
everywhere because of the sick people.

• One guy, a tailor by trade, exchanges his services for some soup. The next day, Primo and his
friends have some warm clothes made out of blankets.
 • Everyone can hear the approaching fighting, and Primo tells the men in his hut that they need
to start thinking about going home now. It looks like they're going to make it.

• He cautions everyone to not share their bowls or spoons, and to use dirty utensils, instead of
risking washing them in contaminated water.

• January 22:

• Primo and Charles explore the SS portion of the camp, and find lots of luxuries: frozen soup,
beer, down blankets, booze, and medicine.

• Others had the same idea, and had taken over one of the SS huts. Unfortunately, a group of SS
returned for some reason and killed them all before departing again.

• There are now frozen bodies everywhere: in the huts and piled up in trenches. No one can dig
graves because the ground is frozen solid.

• In the medical hut next door to Primo's, the situation has become really bad. This is where
the dysentery patients are staying, and the floor is literally covered with frozen excrement.

• Primo can hear two Italian patients through the wall, and he finally breaks down and takes
them some water and soup.

• A bit later that night, a Dutch prisoner in Primo's hut gets really sick, and soils his bed and the
floor. Charles kindly cleans the man up, cutting the filth-covered areas from his mattress, and
returning him to bed.

• January 26:

• Things continue to become more and more uncivilized in the camp, with death all around.

• Sómogyi finally dies, and he falls to the ground from his bunk.

• Primo and his friends cannot carry his body out of the hut, so they just go back to sleep

• January 27:

• The next morning, they leave the body in the hut while they eat and clean up.

• As they are carrying Sómogyi's body out, the Russian soldiers arrive.

• Of the eleven men in Primo's Ka-Be hut, Sómogyi was the only one to die in the past ten days.
Five more died in the following weeks in the Russian hospital that was set up in Auschwitz.

• The remaining five, including Primo, Charles, and Arthur, survive and return home. Primo has
exchanged letters with Charles and plans to visit him one day.

Themes:
 Vision of Auschwitz

 Confinement and Freedom

 Dehumanization and Suffering

 Language and Communication

 Race

 Absurdity

 Strategies and Choices

 Silencing etc.

Night by Elie Wissel Chapter 1

• Meet Moishe the Beadle. He’s a poor Jew in the town of Sighet (now in modern-day
Romania), where our author and narrator, Eliezer Wiesel, lives. Moishe the Beadle is awkward
and shy, but 12-year-old Eliezer likes him anyway.

• Eliezer, who’s also Jewish, is very religious. He studies the Talmud and goes to the temple
every night, but he also wants to study Kabbalah.

• Eliezer’s father thinks his son is too young to learn Kabbalah, and that Kabbalah isn’t
something that Eliezer should spend his time on. He keeps saying to his son, "There are no
Kabbalists in Sighet."

• Moishe the Beadle sees Eliezer crying while praying at the synagogue, and they have a kind of
connection. They end up talking most evenings at the synagogue.

• Eliezer confides in Moishe his desire to learn Kabbalah, and to Eliezer’s surprise, Moishe
knows all about Kabbalah and starts to teach him.

• Then one day, the Hungarian police expel all the foreign Jews from Sighet. Moishe the Beadle
is actually a foreigner, so he and the others like him are packed into train cars like cattle.

• The Jews of Sighet think it’s a shame that the foreigners are carted away, but quickly forget,
clearly not seeing this as a warning for their own futures.

• Life goes back to normal.

• Many months pass and Moishe the Beadle returns. He tells Eliezer his story: he and the other
foreign Jews were carted off into Poland, where the Gestapo took over and forced them to dig
their own graves. Moishe escaped because he was shot in the leg and left for dead.
• Moishe warns the people of Sighet to leave because death is coming their way.

• Nobody listens. This is at the end of 1942.

• Now it’s spring of 1944 and the people of Sighet listen with incredulity to radio reports. How
could one man (Adolf Hitler) possibly wipe out an entire people? Impossible!

• News comes from Budapest that the Jews there are subjected to attacks by the Nazis. But the
Jews of Sighet are optimistic that the Nazis won’t come all the way to their little town.

• Then the Germans arrive.

• At first the Germans don’t seem so bad. They are billeted in people’s homes and while they’re
not exactly friendly, they’re not rude or violent. Some of them even buy chocolate for their
host families.

• The Jews in Sighet just don’t want to see what’s coming. Wiesel sums it up pretty well: "The
Germans were already in town, the Fascists were already in power, the verdict was already
out—and the Jews of Sighet were still smiling."

• People celebrate Passover and as the celebration ends, the restrictions begin. First, Jews
cannot leave their houses for three days or they’ll die. Then, Jews are no longer allowed to
keep valuable items, or they’ll die. Next, Jews must wear the yellow star.

• Important community members come to talk with Eliezer’s father (who has connections with
the Hungarian police) about what should be done about the situation. Eliezer’s dad is still
optimistic.

• Next, the police set up two ghettos and move all the Jews there.

• The Sighet Jews become optimistic again. The scary barbed wire isn’t all that bad, and they
have their own Jewish Republic within each ghetto. They don’t even have to deal with
outsiders.

• If this is as bad as it gets, the Jews think, this isn’t too bad.

• Eliezer’s dad is summoned to a special Council meeting (he’s a member of the Jewish Council
in his ghetto). Everyone’s anxiously waiting to find out what new information Eliezer’s dad will
bring.

• Eliezer’s dad comes back from his meeting after midnight. He’s accosted by people begging to
find out what he learned in the meeting. And it can’t be good news because he looks awful.

• The news is terrible: deportation, starting tomorrow.

• The Jews in the ghetto get more information out of Eliezer’s father: everyone can take only
one bag of belongings. They’ll board trains and driven to an unknown destination.
• Eliezer’s dad tells the people to go wake up their neighbors because everyone should pack and
be ready for tomorrow.

• The ghetto is a bustle of activity: women cooking food for the trip, people packing, Eliezer’s
father consoling friends left and right.

• The police show up to the ghetto at 8am and call all of the Jews out.

• The train begins to move.

• The police empty the houses, club people with their guns, and do a roll call.

• The Jews are marched to the synagogue and searched for valuables.

• The Wiesels are not in the first groups to leave; they won’t leave until Tuesday (in two days).

• Tuesday comes and the Wiesels’ deportation has been delayed; they will first be moved to a
smaller ghetto to await transport, but they still have to go through the roll call and leave their
home.

• Eliezer feels empty. His father cries.

• The police start clubbing Jews and force the whole group to run. Eliezer realizes that he hates
the Hungarian police.

• The Wiesels and the other Jews arrive at the smaller ghetto, which had been evacuated three
days before. The small ghetto shows signs of the Jews being forced to leave in a hurry—
there’s even a half eaten bowl of soup on the table where the Wiesels are staying.

• The Wiesels’ former maid, Maria, comes to see them. She says she’s prepared a hiding place
for them in her town. Eliezer’s dad won’t go into hiding but gives Eliezer and his older sisters
the choice of leaving. The family refuses to be separated.

• Optimism returns, again. Some think that the Germans are only out to steal the Jews’
valuables, so they’re sending the Jews on "vacation" while they snag their stuff. Others think
they’re being deported "for our own good."

• Saturday morning all of the Jews are out on the street and ready to leave.

• They all go to the synagogue, which has been converted into a sort of over-crowded train
station, to await transport. It’s the Sabbath, so it’s rather ironic that they’re at the synagogue,
considering its current use. They wait there for a full 24 hours.

• The next morning, the Hungarian police load the Jews into cattle cars, seal the cars, and check
to make sure the bars on the windows are secure.
 • Packed inside cattle trains, the Jews of Sighet are on their way to an unknown destination.
They are crammed together so tightly, it’s impossible to lie down and they can only sit by
taking turns.

• Still, young people somehow manage to find a way to "caress" each other.

• Two days pass and so does the Hungarian border. The Jews are not staying in their country
after all, and in fact they are now under German jurisdiction.

• German officers inform them that there are eighty people in the cattle car. If anybody goes
missing, they will all be shot—"like dogs."

• In the middle of the night, a woman, Mrs. Schächter, begins to moan, cry, and scream because
she has been separated from her husband. At last, she begins to scream that she sees fire, a
terrible fire.

• People try to calm her but she will not be calmed. She tells them she sees a terrible furnace.

• The Jews in the cattle car try to explain Mrs. Schächter’s vision away—she must be thirsty,
they say.

• At long last, people get fed up and they start to beat her with blows strong enough to kill her.

• The next night, though, she begins to scream again about the fire.

• The train stops somewhere for a little while. Two men go for water and come back with news
that they’re at Auschwitz, where life is apparently pretty good. Everyone rejoices.

• But that night, Mrs. Schächter begins to scream again, and again she’s beaten. At long last she
is silent.

• The train continues to move. Suddenly Mrs. Schächter screams again. This time, through the
windows, everyone can see the crematoria smokestacks. Fire. The smell of burning bodies.

• The Jews get out (read: are beaten and forced out), only to encounter those smokestacks, that
smell, in front of them.

• They have arrived in Birkenau. (Note that Birkenau is adjacent to Auschwitz and sometimes
called Auschwitz-Birkenau).

Chapter 2

• Packed inside cattle trains, the Jews of Sighet are on their way to an unknown destination.
They are crammed together so tightly, it’s impossible to lie down and they can only sit by
taking turns.

• Still, young people somehow manage to find a way to "caress" each other.
 • Two days pass and so does the Hungarian border. The Jews are not staying in their country
after all, and in fact they are now under German jurisdiction.

• German officers inform them that there are eighty people in the cattle car. If anybody goes
missing, they will all be shot—"like dogs."

• In the middle of the night, a woman, Mrs. Schächter, begins to moan, cry, and scream because
she has been separated from her husband. At last, she begins to scream that she sees fire, a
terrible fire.

• People try to calm her but she will not be calmed. She tells them she sees a terrible furnace.

• The Jews in the cattle car try to explain Mrs. Schächter’s vision away—she must be thirsty,
they say.

• At long last, people get fed up and they start to beat her with blows strong enough to kill her.

• The next night, though, she begins to scream again about the fire.

• The train stops somewhere for a little while. Two men go for water and come back with news
that they’re at Auschwitz, where life is apparently pretty good. Everyone rejoices.

• But that night, Mrs. Schächter begins to scream again, and again she’s beaten. At long last she
is silent.

• The train continues to move. Suddenly Mrs. Schächter screams again. This time, through the
windows, everyone can see the crematoria smokestacks. Fire. The smell of burning bodies.

• The Jews get out (read: are beaten and forced out), only to encounter those smokestacks, that
smell, in front of them.

• They have arrived in Birkenau. (Note that Birkenau is adjacent to Auschwitz and sometimes
called Auschwitz-Birkenau).

Chapter 3

• The Jews must leave all of their cherished possessions—and optimistic illusions—in the cattle
car as they move forward to be admitted to the concentration camp.

• Men are sent to the left, women to the right. Although he does not know it at the moment,
this is the last time Eliezer will ever see his mother and youngest sister Tzipora.

• Eliezer’s one thought is not to lose his father.

• Already, some Jews are being beaten and shot.

• A kind prisoner comes up to Eliezer and his father, asking them their ages. On hearing that
Eliezer is 15 and his father is 50, the prisoner tells them they should be 18 and 40. Age can
mean the difference between life and death.

• Another prisoner tells them they would have been better off hanging themselves than to
come here. Hadn’t they heard of Auschwitz in 1944? The new prisoners all have to admit that
no, they hadn’t heard about Auschwitz.

• The prisoner points to the smokestacks and asks if they know what’s being burned there?
Basically he says: that’s where you’re going to die. (But in more words and some curses.)

• The male prisoners are in a line being questioned by Dr. Mengele and divided into two groups:
one group, presumably, is going to be working; the other group will head straight to the
crematorium. (Dr. Josef Mengele was an infamous Nazi doctor who selected which prisoners
would be sent to labor and which would die.)

• When Eliezer is questioned, he lies and says that he’s 18 and a farmer, rather than 15 and a
student.

• Near Eliezer, there’s a pit of fire into which small children are being dumped—alive.

• Eliezer comments, as the narrator, "Is it any wonder that ever since then, sleep tends to elude
me?"

• It seems for a while that death is imminent. The male prisoners, including Eliezer’s father, are
weeping. Some are even saying the prayer for the dead, but saying it for themselves.

• Within himself, Eliezer begins to feel the first stirrings of rebellion against God.

• Eliezer contemplates killing himself by throwing himself onto the electric wire rather than be
burned alive, but his group is directed away from the fires.

• Both Eliezer and his father are assigned to labor units, so death is not immediate.

• They wait through a long night, during which Eliezer loses faith in God’s justice and mercy.

• The new male prisoners are beaten, forced to strip off their clothes, beaten, and sent to the
barber to get their hair shaved off.

• After the barber, all of the men are standing around, naked, finding acquaintances and old
friends. They are joyful at finding each other still alive.

• The naked men are forced to run outside in the cold to a bath of disinfectant, and then forced
to run again to the storeroom to get striped prisoner’s clothes.

• In the striped outfits, the men look like something other than human. "We had ceased to be
men," Wiesel says.
• Aside from looking completely different all shaved and in awful, identical uniforms, Eliezer
feels he has lost his identity; he is no longer a child or a student of Talmud.

• At daybreak, they see prisoners at work, digging holes and carrying sand.

• They wait some more—while standing—for who knows how long.

• An SS officer arrives and lectures them about the realities of the concentration camp. It’s not a
"convalescent home," he says. It is a place where you are expected to work hard. It’s a
concentration camp. If you don’t work, you can expect to go straight to the smokestacks. To
sum it up: work or die.

• Eliezer and his father are moved to a new barracks where they are at least allowed to sit, but
Eliezer has to watch his father be beaten, and is horrified that he’s watching this without
rebelling.

• They continue marching, for half an hour, to another camp (they’ve left Birkenau). The iron
gate to this camp has an inscription: "work makes you free." They are now in the Auschwitz
concentration camp.

• The prisoner in charge is Polish. He is kind when he greets them and he tries to encourage
them that liberation is on the way. He also tells the new prisoners that the only way to survive
is to help each other.

• They sleep and the next day their spirits are improved. They even get a bowl of soup for lunch.
The next day, they are given numbers, tattooed on their arms. Eliezer becomes A-7713.

• They look for friends and relatives among the latest arrivals.

• A relative named Stein comes looking for Eliezer and his father after they’ve been in
Auschwitz for about a week. Stein is Eliezer’s cousin, and he is looking for news about his wife
and children.

• Eliezer lies to Stein, saying he heard they are well.

• The nice Polish prisoner who was in charge of Eliezer’s group (or Block 17) is removed because
he’s too nice. The prisoner who replaces him is vicious.

• Stein continues to visit occasionally, and he often brings some of his own food ration for
Eliezer. He tells them that the important thing is to stay healthy and avoid "selection."
(Selection is when the group is divided between those that are healthy enough to work and
those destined for the crematoria.)

• Stein says the knowledge that his wife and kids are alive gives him enough hope to keep on
living.
 • A new transport comes to Auschwitz and Stein hopes to hear some more news about his
family. When Stein hears real news about his wife and children, he does not return. We
assume that he gave up hope and died.

• In the evenings, the men in Block 17 discuss their faith. Eliezer doesn’t pray. He’s not an
atheist, but he no longer believes that God is absolutely just.

• Eliezer and his father try to reassure themselves that his mother and Tzipora are all right.

• They finally receive their work orders and they depart with the next transport. They march
through German villages where their guards flirt with giggling German girls. Four hours later,
they reach Buna. The doors close behind them.

Chapter 4

• Buna seems dead, empty.

• Eliezer’s group starts asking around to find out which is the best work group to be assigned to.
The word on the street is that you just want to stay away from the construction "Kommando"
or (work group).

• A fat German is in charge of them. One of his assistants tells Eliezer that, in exchange for his
shoes, he will make sure Eliezer gets into a good labor unit. Eliezer refuses to part with his
shoes.

• The next day there is a medical and a dental examination, only the doctors simply ask you if
you’re in good health and the dentist is just looking for gold crowns. If you have a gold crown,
he writes your name (read: number tattooed on your arm) on his list.

• Eliezer has a gold crown.

• Eliezer and his dad are assigned to work in a warehouse for electrical equipment. Idek is their
"Kapo," or work leader. They learn that Idek is a little crazy and it’s best to stay out of his way.

• The work isn’t bad, it’s just counting pieces of electrical equipment. There are even civilians
working there—Polish people and some French women.

• Eliezer becomes friends with Czechoslovakian brothers, Yossi and Tibi, whose parents had
been killed in Birkenau.

• Their new block leader is a nice German Jew. Eliezer and his father now get a blanket, soap,
and a washbowl.

• Eliezer uses trickery to keep his gold tooth. He keeps telling the dentist that he’s sick and puts
off the tooth removal. At last, the dentist is punished because he’s been pocketing some of
the gold crowns. Eliezer’s tooth is, for the moment, safe.
• At the warehouse, Eliezer works near a young French girl who seems to him to be Jewish
although she passes herself off as Aryan.

• One day, Idek (the crazy Kapo) gets angry and beats Eliezer. The French girl is kind to him and
gives him a little bit of bread. She tells him not to give up hope.

• Many years later, Eliezer sees the French girl (now a woman) on a train in Paris. She
remembers him too, and he discovers that she is indeed from a religious Jewish family but she
managed to hide her identity to keep herself alive.

• Back in Buna in 1944, Idek goes crazy again and beats Eliezer’s dad this time. Eliezer reflects on
how inhumane the concentration camps made him; as his father is being beaten, rather than
being mad at Idek, Eliezer is mad at his father for not avoiding the Kapo.

• Franek, the foreman, decides he wants Eliezer’s gold crown. Eliezer won’t give it to him. But,
Franek discovers Eliezer’s weakness—his father.

• Franek begins to torment Eliezer’s father during their marches.

• At last, Eliezer gives in and his tooth is extracted with a rusty spoon in the bathroom.

• Idek marches them to work one Sunday (when working isn’t required) and leaves them in
Franek’s care, saying he doesn’t care what they do; he just doesn’t want them in the camp.

• Eliezer goes exploring and discovers why Idek didn’t want anyone in the camp: he’s sleeping
with this young Polish girl. Eliezer laughs, thinking about the absurdity of moving 100
prisoners to the warehouse just so he can get laid.

• Idek discovers Eliezer and gets angry. He gives Eliezer 25 lashes with the whip in front of the
whole block and tells him he’ll get five times that if he tells anyone what he saw.

• Some Sunday (time seems to blend) there’s an air raid. The SS officers take cover, while the
prisoners remain in their bunks.

• One man dares to venture out to get some soup, as the soup has been left out. For most
people, terror is stronger than hunger, but not for this man. The man is killed, though, when
the Allies start bombing Buna.

• All of the prisoners are glad to hear the bombs; they have renewed hope.

• A week later at roll call, everybody notices the gallows that have been set up in the middle of
camp.

• The SS officers drag a young Polish man out of solitary confinement; he’s going to be hanged
for stealing something during the air raid. The Polish man cries "A curse on Germany! Long live
liberty!" as the rope goes around his neck. Then he is killed.
 • Eliezer witnesses other hangings. But the worst is the hanging of a young boy who is involved
in resistance activities. Because he is light in weight, the hanging doesn’t result in
instantaneous death. The inmates are forced to watch as the boy on the end of the rope
struggles for half an hour before he dies.

• That night, everything, including the soup they eat, tastes of death.

Chapter 5

• The Jews inside Buna come together for a service to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.

• Eliezer wonders, angrily, where God is and refuses to bless God’s name because of all of the
death and suffering He has allowed.

• Eliezer thinks that man is strong, stronger than God.

• During this year’s Rosh Hashanah, unlike all previous years, Eliezer is not asking forgiveness
for his sins. Rather, Eliezer feels himself to be "the accuser, God the accused."

• The services conclude with the Kaddish and Eliezer goes in search for his father, who is
standing as if a heavy weight is upon him. In that moment, Eliezer realizes his father is already
beaten.

• On Yom Kippur, Eliezer refuses to fast—not only to please his father, who says they should not
fast when they need to keep up their strength, but also to mock God.

• Eliezer is no longer in the same block as his father because he was transferred to the
construction Kommando—that’s the bad job where you haul huge stones around.

• During dinner one evening, the word spreads that selection is coming up.

• Eliezer’s block leader gives the prisoners some advice about passing selection: basically, look
vigorous and don’t be scared. Thanks, that wasn’t very helpful.

• Eliezer and all of the other men undress as Dr. Mengele and some SS officers arrive.

• They go through the selection process. Dr. Mengele, a notorious doctor in the Nazi
concentration camps, is the one who inspects them.

• Though terrified, Eliezer passes the inspection, as does his dad. They’re relieved. (That was an
understatement.)

• Several days pass and they learn that a new list of prisoner numbers has been selected for
death. Eliezer’s father is on that list.

• Eliezer’s dad tries to reassure him, saying that the selection wasn’t decisive; there will be
another one today that he might pass.
 • His father is rushed, trying to tell his son everything he wants to say before he dies. As they
say goodbye that day, his father gives him a knife and a spoon—the family inheritance. Eliezer
doesn’t want to take them. He doesn’t want to admit his father might have been selected. But
at last, he takes them and marches off with the construction group.

• The day’s work is hard and Eliezer dreads going back to camp to find he is alone.

• That night, he returns to find his father is still alive, having passed the second selection. Eliezer
gives the knife and spoon back to his dad.

• Akiba Drumer, one of their fellow prisoners, is selected. He asks them to remember to say the
Kaddish for him after he dies. They promise… but they forget to say the Kaddish.

• Winter arrives and makes everything worse, more unbearable.

• The prisoners get Christmas and New Year’s off, plus the present of a "slightly less transparent
soup."

• In January, Eliezer’s foot begins to swell. It’s so swollen, he goes to the doctor—a Jewish
doctor and a prisoner—who tells Eliezer that he needs an operation or his foot will have to be
amputated. So Eliezer enters the hospital.

• Life in the hospital is a bit better—more food, thicker soup, and even sheets on the beds.

• What Eliezer fears most is that he will be selected at the hospital while recuperating.

• The operation is successful and the doctor tells Eliezer he just needs to rest for two weeks.

• But Eliezer can’t feel his leg and he’s afraid it’s been amputated—which would mean
selection. He’s relieved to learn that his leg is still very much attached.

• While he waits in the hospital, rumors fly that the Russians are not far away and the camp is
going to be evacuated. Those who are in the hospital will probably be "liquidated," that is,
killed.

• So Eliezer, even though his foot is still recovering, goes in search of his father. He doesn’t want
to stay behind in the hospital and be separated from his father during the evacuation.

• Later, Eliezer learns that the Russians liberated the hospital two days after he left.

• The prisoners are forced to evacuate, but only after mopping the floor of the barracks (literally
crazy, huh?).

• Off the prisoners go, marching through the snow.

Chapter 6
• The prisoners aren’t marching, but running through the snow while the SS yell at them to go
faster faster faster! The SS will kill anyone who can’t keep up.

• Eliezer’s friend Zalman gets a stomach cramp. He stops for a second to try to relieve it and he
ends up getting trampled to death by all the prisoners.

• The road seems endless, but finally (after many hours) they are at last ordered to rest.

• Eliezer’s father directs him to a shed to sleep in.

• When Eliezer falls asleep, his dad wakes him and warns him not to fall asleep—it’s dangerous
to sleep in the snow. To sleep means death.

• Death is all around them. Many people do in fact die while they sleep. Snow falls on the
corpses.

• Eliezer and his dad work to keep each other awake.

• Eliezer’s father smiles at him, and Eliezer wonders from which world the smile comes. This is
his admission that his father hovers between life and death. It is only a matter of time.

• Rabbi Eliahu comes looking for his son. Eliezer says he hasn’t seen him but after the Rabbi
leaves, Eliezer remembers seeing the Rabbi’s son running beside him, looking back and leaving
his old, weak father behind.

• Eliezer utters a prayer that God will never let him be so cruel to his own father.

• They continue marching. It continues snowing. Eliezer can’t even feel his wounded foot.

• At last, they reach a camp, Gleiwitz, and they enter the barracks to sleep. There are so many
people that they are stacked on each other to sleep.

• Eliezer’s friend, Juliek, is also struggling but the worst thing, for him, is that his violin is getting
smashed.

• Eliezer feels himself being crushed. He is seeking air. At last he fights until he reaches some
air.

• Then he hears the violin—Juliek playing Beethoven through the long night.

• When he wakes up, Juliek is dead and his violin is crushed beside him.

• They stay at Gleiwitz for three days without food or water. SS officers guard the doors to the
barracks.

• On the third day, they are driven out of the barracks.

 • A selection! Eliezer’s father is sent to the left (bad side). Eliezer manages to slip into the left
side and, in the middle of confusion, move his father back to the right.

• Those on the right leave the camp. They march until they are told to stop and wait for the
train. They wait for hours.

• Finally, the train arrives and they are pushed in

Chapter 7

• The prisoners are crammed together in the train car for the night.

• The train stops and the SS officers order the prisoners to toss any dead bodies out of the train.
The prisoners are happy to get rid of the dead to make more room in the train car.

• Eliezer’s father, who looks pretty dead, is almost thrown out, but Eliezer manages to revive
him (by hitting him repeatedly) just in time.

• They resume their journey. There is no food—only snow. They travel for ten days, sometimes
through German villages.

• A German workman by the train tracks throws some bread into the train car. The German
watches, amused, as the men fight each other to the death to get the bread.

• A son kills his own father for a piece of bread.

• The bread incident is so interesting to the German workers that they begin tossing more bread
into the train cars.

• During the night, somebody tries to strangle Eliezer. The man in charge of the wagon (who
also happens to be a friend of Eliezer’s dad), Meir Katz, manages to save him.

• On the last day of the journey, an icy wind blows through them. It seems that they can’t
possibly survive such a cold wind.

• When somebody cries out as they die, everybody begins to wail.

• Meir Katz wonders why the Germans don’t just shoot everybody. It would be more merciful.

• The train at last arrives at Buchenwald. A hundred prisoners had gotten on the train—only a
dozen get off. Eliezer and his father are among that dozen.

Chapter 8

• At Buchenwald, Eliezer and his father go to take a hot shower. But there are so many
prisoners crowding around the baths that his father goes to lie down in some snow. He says
he’s tired and Eliezer can wake him when it’s their turn.
 • Eliezer refuses to let his father sit down and rest because he sees the ground covered
in corpses who tried to do just what his dad wants—to rest and give in to death.

• They are sent to the barracks to sleep. When Eliezer wakes up, he realizes he lost his dad in
the confusion to enter the blocks.

• Momentarily Eliezer wishes that his father would die so Eliezer would only have to look over
himself (this is just like Rabbi Eliahu’s son), but he immediately feels ashamed.

• Eliezer searches for his father for hours but can’t find him. He prays for a minute: "Don’t let
me find him." Then he feels guilty.

• At last Eliezer finds his father at the block where they are giving out coffee. He’s burning with
fever and he just wants a drop of coffee. He’s calling out his son’s name.

• Eliezer brings him some coffee and later gives his father some of his own soup ration.

• Eliezer keeps him alive for days, but his father has dysentery. Eliezer no longer thinks his dad
will survive.

• Eliezer takes his father to the doctor, but is turned away because the doctor is a surgeon and
not concerned with dysentery.

• The men in the neighboring bunks hit Eliezer’s dad when Eliezer is out. Eliezer tries
threatening the men, then he promises them soup and bread if they will just leave his dad
alone. They laugh at him.

• The block leader tells Eliezer that he should stop taking care of his father—here in the
concentration camps, it’s every man for himself. Eliezer feels guilty that he even considers
this.

• An SS officer hears Eliezer’s father moaning, "Eliezer, a drop of water." The SS delivers a blow
to his head.

• Eliezer stays awake with his dying father for a while, as his father moans, "Eliezer." But
eventually, Eliezer goes to bed.

• In the morning, his father’s body is gone. Eliezer hopes that his father wasn’t taken to the
crematorium before he stopped breathing.

• Eliezer cannot cry, which disturbs him. But he knows that if he searched his mind, what he
would find is the feeling—"free at last!"

Chapter 9

• Eliezer is at Buchenwald for a couple more months, until April 11th. Eliezer says that during
those months after his father died, nothing mattered to him.
• The Allies are approaching and it seems like the Germans will fulfill their promise to
"liquidate" the world of Jews.

• The SS officers begin to evacuate the camp and start moving thousands of prisoners out each
day. After all prisoners are removed, the camp will be blown up.

• But Eliezer and others in the camp are lucky. An underground resistance movement in the
camp acts and gains control.

• At six o’clock that night, American tanks are at the door of Buchenwald.

• The first thing everybody does as free men is stuff themselves with food.

• Eliezer gets food poisoning and spends a couple of weeks recovering in the hospital, hovering
between life and death.

• When he is better, Eliezer looks at himself in the mirror. He sees a corpse.

• That vision of himself has stayed with him forever.