Chapters 2 & 3

Chapter 2 chronicles the journey of the Jews of Sighet in the cattle cars to the concentration camps. They are shoved into the small cattle cars with little room to breathe and no source of light or fresh air except for a small window. Later, they stop and a German officer stops the cattle car and threatens to kill anyone who tries to escape. The train continues as the passengers are forced to endure inhumane conditions. One of the passengers, Madame Schachter, begins to shout hysterically about a fire she sees in outside. The others passengers call Madame Schachter crazy and tie her up and gag her to stop her from talking. Eventually, she breaks loose of her bonds and begins to scream again. They beat her to the relief of the other passengers. A couple of passengers are sent to go get water and they come back with some information from the locals. They tell the other passengers that there are good conditions at the camps and that families would not be separated. The passengers become confident and relieved, but their moment of happiness is interrupted by the sharp cries of Madame Schachter who points at a chimney and screams about the fire. The fire she is pointing at was the human furnace at Birkenau.

Here is a video about a Holocaust survivor's tale about his escape from the cattle car. It is a very heart-wrenching story.

Here's a link to a website that has some pictures and descriptions of Birkenau/Auschwitz:
http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Camps/AuschwitzEng.html

This was the crematorium where the corpses were burned. This caused the smell of burning flesh that Wiesel described.

Chapter 2 offers a stark contrast between the two views of ignorance. The town is faced with people like Moishe the Beadle or Madame Schachter who offer the possibility of a horrid event happening at these concentration camps. This is, of course the reality, but the townspeople refuse to even consider it. They follow the philosophy of "ignorance is bliss". They make excuses, such as calling Madame Schachter crazy, to fuel their own self-delusions of safety and happiness. This has even gone so far as to hinder their chances of escaping.

Chapter 3 describes the prisoners' first experiences in the camp. When they arrive, Elie and his father are separated from his mother and the sisters. This was the last time Elie would see his mother and youngest sister They are forced to face the notorious Dr. Mengele (who is described in more detail below) and are separated into two groups, one that will die and another that will live. Elie is put in the same group as his father and they head in the direction of the crematoria. In the distance, Elie sees huge flames rising from a ditch. He witnesses a truckload of babies being thrown into this pit of fire. As the line of people approach the pit of fire, he becomes "face-to-face with the Angel of Death". Everyone thinks they are going to die. They begin to recite the prayer of the dead. Just as he can no longer bear the agony of looming death, the line turns to the right into the barracks. They have their clothes removed, their hair cut, and are disinfected by gasoline. They are soon told by the Nazi officers that they can either work or be killed in the crematorium. When Elie's father asks where the bathrooms are located, he is struck in the face. Elie stands there motionless and is stunned at his own inaction. His father reassures him by saying that the hit didn't hurt. While at the camp, Elie meets up with one of his relatives. He asks whether his wife and kids were alright. Elie lies and says that he heard from them. The man is relieved, but later finds out the truth. This scene conveys the repeating theme of ignorance. For him, ignorance is bliss in that he finds hope in the fact that his family is still safe. When the truth comes out, however, his hopes become shattered and he loses the will to live. This is an example of ignorance being a good thing, in delusions fueling a man's will to survive. Elie, his father, and numerous other prisoners are transported to Buna, another concentration camp.

Throughout the book, a man named Dr. Mengele is mentioned. I was curious as to who this was, so I did some research on him. He was a cruel, deranged, and merciless monster who performed medical experiments on many of the concentration camp prisoners. He had a special fascination with twins because he believed if he could discover the genetic reason why twins were born, he could double the Aryan race. When the Jews arrived at the camp, he would pick out the twins and take them to his own building. The sets of twins would be treated nicer than the other prisoners initially, but then would be taken to the medical experiments he performed. One example was injecting one twin with a deadly disease and when the disease killed the twin, he would murder the other one and perform an autopsy on both bodies to compare results. He would also perform amputations, surgeries, and even put chemicals in the eyes of the children. Here is the link I used to get this information: http://isurvived.org/2Postings/mengele-AUSCHWITZ.html