Chapter 3

In chapter three, Elie and his family arrive to the camp of Auschwitz. The first thing they did was the selection. The women and children were to go to the left and the men to the right. The women and the children were going do the chambers and the men were going to be selected to work but some were going to be killed if they were weak or too young for work. Elie and his father were saved but some of the inmates told them that they were heading to the flames. Elie was scared of a slow death and decided that throwing himself to the barred wire would be a nicer death. He was rebelling against the Nazis, he was going to die but not in the way the Germans wanted. However, he was taken to his barrack, but was moved to the barber. The barber would shave the prisoners head and showered in hot water. His father and him were also moved from camps, they ended up moving to Auschwitz. It was a nicer camp than the one before and Elie felt comfortable. The prisoner in change was polish and he was very kind to them, the inmates would always work for a little and would sleep during the midday and the night. Elie and the prisoners also got a new name, a number. they were being dehumanized that way. Elie and the others were also experiencing something new, they were starting to only care about themselves because they had the mind that they had to survive. Elie and his father were also working together and met a relative. Stein, was a distant relative from them and he was asking if they had seen his wife and kids. Elie told him that they had and that filled Stein with joy, his family was his reason to keep on going. But Elie was pretty sure that they were killed in the chambers, that they had headed right to the crematorium. Stein, believed him but he eventually got the news and Elie never saw him again. Stein had probably been sent to the chambers when he refused to work.

In my opinion its very sad to see what the people in the camps were going thorough. I couldn't imagine being separated from my family. I couldn't of bared to see babies and toddlers being thrown to the flames like they were nothing. And as a female, it would have also been my fate which is scary to think because a lot of girls my age were being killed. I also think and know that it was probably very traumatizing to see this happen. To see your family being killed like nothing. The prisoners were being starved and many died of disease. However, I think that the saddest part is that all of the prisoners only cared about themselves. They didn't do anything to help one another and did things that only helped themselves, like be cruel to the other prisoners for extra portions of food. The horror the people must have lived in the camps. I find it amazing that Elie talks about the Holocaust, I could say that I would leave that in the past, I would try to forget about it because each time it happened it would of been a nightmare.