Night 4

 The last pages (from 81 - 109) really touched me. I almost cry on page 106, when Elie's father dies. It is a very sad death, considering all they went through, and the bond you created with the character through the story. I really liked Elie's father. He was a sweet, responsable and caring person, who sacrified for his son. And only 3 months before being liberated, he died. Not fair.

In these pages Elie describes how they changed camp and his experiences there, but most importantly: How they got there. Prisioners were forced to march - or actually - RUN for their lives for more than 40 miles on a freezing night! Hundreds died of cold, hunger or simply exhaustion. After that they arrived to a new camp: Glewitz. There they were thrown into a small room, all piled up, with no food, and little air. Many suffocated, or got crushed and died. After three days, the Nazis took them to another camp, but first they had to make another selection: Weak to the left, strong to the right. Elies was on the right side, but his father on the left one. Fortunately, Elie went running to the left side to create confussion and disorder, and the Gestapo took him back to the right side along with his father. They survived.

Later that day, they had to wait for a train that would take them to their last destination: Buchenwald. In the train they put one hundred Jews in a single wagon. When they arrived to the station, the dead stayed on the wagon and the alive survived. Elie's father stayed still in the wagon and wouldn't open his eyes, but just before the Gestapo threw his "corpse" Elie slapped him in the face, and he woke up. He beated death, again.

In Buchenwald Elie's father was extremely weak and depressed. He begged his son for mercy, to let him die, but Elie didn't allow it. After saving his dad from death several times, Elie took charge of him. He brought him part of his food, gave him water and affection. But one night, January 28, 1943, Elie's father got beaten up by an officer. He called was calling Elie to bring him water, and didn't listened the officer's orders to remain silent. After this, Elie went to sleep in the bunker rith above his father. Next morning, his father wasn't in his bunker anymore. The Gestapo took him (probably to the crematory) and maybe he wasn't even dead, just tired and weak. His last word was "Elie":

"I awoke on January 29 at dawn. In my father's place lay another invalid. They must have taken him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may still have been breathing.                                                                                                                                                          There were no prayers at his grave. No candles were lit to his memory. His last word was my name. A summons, to which I did not respond"

Elie was transfered to the kid's block, and stayed in the camp until April. On April fifth, the Gestapo announced they were going to be freed by Hitler's commends. But after 6 days of nothing happening, no food at all, the resistance movement decided to attack the camp. On April eleventhat six o'clock, a U.S tank entered through the doors of the camp. They gave food and aid to the -now free- prisioners.

Three days after his liberation, Elie got sick from food poisoning and almost died. In the hospital he decided to look at himself in a mirror. He didn't recognize himself. He saw a skinny, weak, fragile boy. A boy that survived the world's worse situation. A boy that beated hunger, cold and loneliness. A boy he admired, in a strange way. A boy that will never leave his memory.