Night (p.47-84)

After enduring much pain and torture at the various concentration camps Elie has been kept in, his journey is not over. His father and he are moved once again to a labor camp known as Buna. At this camp, a dentist was removing any gold fillings the Jews had in their teeth. Elie had one gold filling. Trying to desperately to find a way to avoid the dentist, he claims that he has a fever. The dentist agrees to meet him again when he is feeling better, but to not make him coming looking for him. Elie goes back a week later, but says he still isn't recovered. The dentist appreciates him coming back on his own and agrees to see him once again when he is finally over his fever. A few days later, the dentist was thrown in jail because he was keeping the gold for himself. Elie got to keep his gold filling for a few more weeks until his gold crown was taken from him by Franek, the foreman. He manipulated him by torturing his father. Since Elie was extrememly attached to his dad at this time, he couldn't stand to see his dad suffer, especially because of Elie's stubborness. Elie finally gave in after a few days and his gold crown was removed with a rusty spoon. When the Russians bombed Buna, the inmates weren't even scared because they no longer feared death. With every bomb that hit, they were filled with excitement and hope of escaping this terrible place. In most circumstances, any person would be extremely terrified of being near bombs, but since these people were treated so inhumanely, their instinctive fears of death had disappeared. Elie also talks about many people who began to lose their faith and had no desire to live. According to him, those were the ones who were picked for selection the quickest. Elie's neighbor in the infirmary said to him, "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people. What a sad statement. This man really shows the emotional and mental effect the concentration camps had on their inmates. Although Elie knew how important it was to keep his faith alive, he often struggled with doing so. How could God let this happen to them? What had they done to deserve this? Although he was often questioning his faith and upset with God, he still had a strong enough faith that he still believed. Elie incorporates irony into his story once again when his father and he have the choice to stay behind in the infirmary or to be evacuated with the others. Fearing they would be exterminated if they stayed, the decided to march on with the others despite Elie's swollen foot. After the war, Elie found out that those who remained in the infirmary were liberated by the Russians two days later. They were so close to being liberated, but by once simple choice, their liberation took a lot longer.
As I read this story, I can feel Elie's pain and anger as if I was right there with him. I can't imagine the emotional toll these events had on Elie. How could you enjoy life after living through something so horrendous? How could you forgive the world for remaining silent while you suffered endlessly? On page 51, Eli talks about Ekiba Drumer discovering a translation into numbers from a verse in the Bible that allowed him to predict redemption in the weeks to come. If all Jews would have been able to hear this prediction, maybe they could have forced themselves to hang on just a little bit longer. Maybe this helped Elie have strength to endure the awful situations he faced at Buna. I can't believe the inmates were forced to watch people be hanged. Even after they witnessed the hanging, they were all forced to look straight at the corpse as they walked by. How morbid is that? I can't imagine how all of the inmates felt as they stood their watching helplessly as their fellow Jews were hanged. There was nothing they could do stop it or escape from watching it. This is another example of how Hitler instilled terror in the Jews so it was easier to control them.