Chapters 4 and 5

Chapter 4 starts off with Elie and his father in Buna. The prisoners are put into different Kommandos. One Nazi came over to Elie and asked for his shoes in exchange for them being put in a good Kommando. Elie refuses, clinging to his shoes as the only remnants of his old life, one where he did not have to worry about death every day or suffer through horrible conditions. Later, he would have these shoes stripped of him, proving that the Nazis obliterated any chance of these prisoners having hope. Later, he goes for a medical checkup where the dentist notices his gold tooth. Both Elie and his father are put in the musicians block. They work in an electrical factory where they are able to work near each other. Elie, while at work one day, meets two brothers, Yossi and Tibi. They have no parents and the author states that they "lived for each other, body and soul". This shows what a significant role family can play in moments of grief and fear. The only thing they have to live for is each other. Soon, Elie is called to the dentist to get his gold tooth extracted. He feigns an illness to avoid this extraction and manages to keep his gold tooth, as the dentist is hanged for dealing gold teeth. It's a bit funny (as in morbidly unfair) how one man is hanged for stealing gold while countless others are praised for committing mass murder to millions of innocent victims. In the factory one day, Elie is attacked by Idek, the the Kapo, in one of his mad fits. When he huddles himself in the corner, beaten and bloody, the French girl he works next to comes over to him and offers him some bread as well as comforting words. Elie talks about how years later he met the girl on a Metro in Paris. She explains to him that she was a Jew with fake papers to make her look Aryan. She spoke German, but hid it because it would cause suspicion. She said that she spoke to Elie in German because she trusted him. Back in 1944, Idek has another mad fit, this time at Elie's father. Elie watched helplessly at his father getting beaten by an iron bar, and even got angry at his father for being unable to avoid Idek's wrath. This shows how Elie's emotions have been destroyed as a result of the concentration camp. Instead of initially feeling compassion, his instinct takes over and he feels disappointment at his father's mistakes. Franek, the foreman, asked Elie for his gold crown. Elie refuses, and as a consequence, Franek harasses his father. Elie eventually relinquishes his beloved gold crown. This gives evidence that he still loves his father and still looks out for his well-being. While wondering around the camp one day, Elie comes across Idek having sex with a Polish girl. As a result of this accidental discovery, Elie is taken in front of all the prisoners and whipped 25 times. Idek tells him that if he tells anyone of the affair, then he will receive the punishment again, five-fold. One day, the officers put out barrels of soup in the open. The inmates are too afraid to go out and take some soup and when someone finally musters up the courage to do so, they are shot. Immediately afterward, Allied forces begin to bomb the camp. This fills the prisoners with joy. Elie witnesses many prisoners being hanged in the gallows, but seems unaffected by all of them, except for one. Most of the victims do not cry when they are being hanged, they had "forgotten he bitter taste of tears". There was, however, a little boy who was the pipel, a prisoner in service to the leader. He was loved by all and had the "face of an angel in distress". When his master is found to have possessed weapons, the pipel is hanged in front of all the prisoners. While the noose is put around his neck, prisoners cry out for their merciful God to not abandon them. The boy was light and he hung from his noose for half and hour, choking and unable to die. When someone asks where God is, Elie thinks "Where He is? This is where--hanging here from this gallows".

In this chapter, Elie and his father are stationed at the musicians block. Here is a link to a description of music during the Holocaust http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/arts/MUSVICTI.htm . One stunning statistic was the fact that the musicians, who had to play music while they watched countless people, some whom they knew, walk to their death, had a higher suicide rate than other workers. The emotional anguish and utter hopelessness they experienced must have been to unbearable for many of these musicians.

Chapter 5 puts a large emphasis on how this Holocaust experience has deformed Elie's faith. He blames God for the suffering that he witnesses around him on a daily basis and even refuses to fast of Yom Kippur, as a sign of rebellion. Although it seems wrong to blame God for this horrible injustice of man, who can blame him. If there is a God, especially the God he used to believe in, why would He abandon them? Why would he allow this to happen to those who believe in Him? These are the questions that perturbed the very belief that Elie once held so strongly. Another selection soon takes place. Dr. Mengele stands by to determine who was fit to work and who was to be sent off to the ovens. Elie is spared from death, but his father, he finds out a few days after selection, was not so lucky. Elie parts with his father in what he thinks is their last moment together. Elie's father even gives him a knife and spoon as inheritance. However, that night, Elie finds out that his father was saved from death. It was a glimpse of heaven from their hell on Earth. Elie is not the only prisoner who has lost his faith. Many, like Akiba the Drummer and a rabbi from Poland, lost their faith and even go so far as to say "God is no longer with us". Akiba, who had given up hope, asked for the prisoners to say the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, for him in three days. They forget. This shows the insignificance of death in that environment. Elie's foot begins to swell from the cold, and he has it operated on, without anesthesia. While he is recovering, he hears rumors that the Red Army was close to the camp. His neighbor assures him that Hitler will annihilate all of the Jews, just like he promised. When Elie accuses this man of treating Hitler as a prophet, the man responds, "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people."This quote truly reflects the hopelessness of the Jews' situation. The only man who has kept his promises to the Jews is Hitler, and he promises death and genocide to the Jews. Elie, fearing that the sick in the infirmary will be put to death before the camp flees from the Russians, decides to leave the infirmary. He finds out that the sick were not executed, and they were liberated by the Russians. The camp leaders begin to lead the prisoners to an unknown destination. Elie trudged through the gathering snow with an open wound and an empty soul.