Themes

Sometimes, we don't realize what evil things the human race is capable of.

-burning people alive in the crematoriums
-throwing babies in the air and shooting them
-trying to anhilate a whole race
-starving people to death and forcing them to live in unhealthy living conditions
-hanging the young pipel and the other people in front of anyone
-cramming many people into a cattle car

Chapter 6

The Jews ran 20 kilometers to their next location. Elie got separted from his father when they finally got there because he wanted to rest and take a shower. Juliek dies

Chapter 5

It was Rosh Hashanah. Elie got transferred to a new camp away from his father. There was a selection for the unhealthy and Elie passes but his father didn't. His father passed the next selection. Elie needed surgery on his foot because he couldn't move it. The Russians were coming so they decided to evacauate.

Chapter 4

Elie and his father are taken to an electrical factory. Akiba Drumer says that they will be saved, and God is teaching them a lesson. Elie has to give his gold teeth the to Idek. He spies on Idek with a womand, and then gets beat for it. Then he meets a a French woman and sees her later in his life. Elie's father is beaten by Idek because he got in Idek's way. Three men are hung for trying to steal soup. Also, a young Pipel was hung. His soup tasted like a dead corpse.

Chapter 3

The Jews objects were taken away from them. They went through a selection and both Elie and his father lied about their ages so they were sent to the work lines instead of the death lines. They were allowed to take a shower, then right away were sent to the next camp. Elie saw his father getting beaten but he did not stand up for him. Stein Antwerp (their relative) sees them and asks about his family. Elie lies about his family and says they are ok. Eventually he finds out about them, and Elie never sees him again.

Chapter 2

The Jews were cramed into cattle cars. Mrs. Shacter would not stop yelling about the fire that she supposedly sees. The men beat her so that she will shut up. Th train stopped again in Auschwit. They then arrived in Birkenau. They can see the smoke from the crematorium.

Chapter 1

Moishe the Beadel was taken by the Germans in Sighet. He escaped and came back to warn the Jews about what was happening. Nobody believed him. Expensive valuables were taken away from them, and they had to wear the star of David. They were put into a ghetto and transeferred to another one. Then they were put into the cattle cars to be deported. This was the start of the injustices against Elie and his family.

Father/Son Relationship

-Pg. 58 I looked at him...I was thinking of my father. He would be suffereing more than I.
-Pg. 30 My hand tightened its grip on my fahter. All i could think of was not to lose him.
-Pg. 44 We mustn't eat all at once; tomorrow is another day. (Father saves ration for him)
-Pg. 37 I glanced over at my Father, his eyes were veiled...
-Pg. 106 Father, I have been looking for you for so long...
-Pg. 105 Father I said, you cannot stay here.........
-Pg. 104 Just another moment. Soon you will be able to lie down. You will be able to rest
-Pg. 75 I felt sick at heart...even now my father was helping me
-Pg. 86 & 87 My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me...sole support( keeps going )
-Pg. 96 The SS officers were doing a selection, my father was sent to the left, and I ran after him
-Pg. 104 I tightened my grip on my father's hand...
-Pg. 112 Deep inside me...free at last.
-Pg. 70 My father, I first thought of him now
-Pg. 107 I gave him what was left of my soup, but my heart was heavy
-Pg. 112 His last words had been my name
-Pg. 91 Rabbi Eliahu and son
-Pg. 89 Don't worry son, go to sleep I will watch over you
-Pg. 82 As for me, I was thinking not about death, but not to be separated from my father.

Inhumanityf

-Pg. 6 Infants were tossed in the air and used as targets for machine guns
-Pg. 33 The world is not interested in us, anything is possible, even the crematoria
-Pg. 26 She receive several blows to the head, blows that could have been lethal.
-Pg. 37 In a few seconds we had ceased to be men
-Pg. 39 He slapped my father with such force that he fell down then crawled back to his place on all fours
-Pg. 24 There were 80 of you in the car. If any of you go missing you will be shot like dogs
-Pg. 36 The Kapos were beating us again, but I no longer felt the pain
-Pg. 35 The clippers tore out our hair.
-Pg. 11 A new decree: every Jew had to wear a yellow star to identify himself
-Pg. 89 Beneath our feet lay men, crushed, trampled, lying underfoot and dying.
-Pg. 70 It was more hour then we would know the verdict, death or reprive.
-Pg. 93 There crushing me, have mercy
-Pg. 95 Days without food or water; they were forbidden to leave the barrack
-Pg. 97 The SS shoved us inside, 100 per car. We were so skinny.
-Pg. 85 If one of us stopped for a second, a quick shot eliminated the filfthy dog.
-Pg. 65 And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death.
-Pg. 96 A thick layer of snow was accumulating on our blankets... (keeps going)

Silence

-Pg. 26 Silence fell again (Mrs. Shacter)
-Pg. 39 I watched and kept silence (father being beaten
-Pg. 34 Never shall i forget the nocturnal silence...
-Pg. 34 NEver shall i forget the children...under the silent sky
-Pg. 7 He no longer mentioned God or Kaballah
-Pg. 94 A silent death, suffocation (heap of bodies)
-Pg. 69 I no longer accpeted God's silence
-Pg. 53 He must have mistaken my silence for defiance.
-Pg. 64 Total silence in the camp (pipel being hung)
-Pg. 111 Silence over there (SS officer is beating his father) (father cannot remain silent)
-Pg. 104 I myself was so weary that is silence left me indifferent

Religion Quotes

-Pg. 3 The few snatches I caught here and there spoke divine suffering, of the Shekinah the Exile......(Moishe the Beadle)
-Pg. 20 O God Master of the Universe, Have MErcy on us... (liquidated from the ghetto)
-Pg. 7 He (Moishe the Beadle) no longer mentioned either God or Kabbalah
-Pg. xx (God is dead)
-Pg. 64 Where is He? This is where hanging from the gallows. (shows that God is dead)
-Pg. 5 I pray to the God within ime to ask the real questions (Moishe the Beadle)
-Pg. 34 Never shall I forget these things even if I was condemned to live as God himself
-Pg. 34 Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith...
-Pg. 37 The student I was of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames
-Pg. 69 I did not fast. (Rosh Hashannah)
-Pg. 76 It's over. God is no longer with us. (Akiba Drumer)
-Pg. 77 If only he could have kept his faith in God, if only he could have consideredthis suffering a divine test.
-Pg. 77 Three days after he left, we forgot to say Kaddish
-Pg. 77 Where is God's mercy? Where is God...
-Pg. 81 I have more faith in Hitler than anyone else, he alone has kept his promise, all his promises, to the Jewish people
-Pg. 91 A prayer formed inside me; a prayer to this God I no longer believed
-Pg. 112 No prayers were said over his tomb (father's death)
-Pg. 67 Blessed be God's name, but why would I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled
pages 65-70
-Pg. 65 For God's sake, where is God? (start of doubt in God)
...This is where, hanging here.

Stein of Antwerp

-Family member of Elie
-Wanted to know what happened to his family
-Elie lies saying his family is ok and happy
-Stein eventually dies because of known truth

Dehumanization

-Shaved their heads
-All expected to wear prison garb
-Made to stand in mud
-Tattooed numbers- lost identity, name
-Removed objects
-People were treated as objects- only of use for work
-Detached from family
-Make prisoners run- fear tactic, break spirits, overcome by fatigue, lose logical train of thought
-Had to deal with death themselves

Concentration Camps

-Dr. Mengele- in charge of selection process, baton, monacle
-Sky hazy with smoke
-Flames in the crematorium
-Transformation in the prison garb
-Gray and dark
-People's faces turning into ash
-Babies thrown into the flames.

Picture

1. the crematorium
-fire, smoke, and flames coming out of it
-babies being thrown into the flames
-the smoke