Night book characters5/30/2023 In this passage the Nazis succeed in completely destroying the bodily integrity and capacity for rational thought of their prisoners. I hated it." Eliezer is barely conscious, yet keeps moving though exhausted and malnourished, he and the other prisoners miraculously summon the superhuman energy to run for miles and miles. If only I had got rid of it! In spite of my efforts not to think about it, I could feel myself as two entitiesmy body and me. Forced to run at least forty-two miles, Eliezer's mind feels like it is becoming disconnected from his body, and he continues to run mechanically without really realizing that he is doing so: "I was dragging with me this skeletal body which weighed so much. In this section Eliezer and the other remaining prisoners are pushed to the very limits of human capacity, both physically and mentally. Finally, a train arrives, and they are loaded in, a hundred per car. The prisoners wait standing for a train in the middle of a snow-covered field, and because they are deprived of water and forbidden from bending over, they begin eating snow from each other's backs using spoons. On the third day there is a selection, and although Eliezer's father is sent to the crematory group, Eliezer creates a disturbance so that he manages to sneak back into the other group. The front is following them, but the prisoners do not believe that the Russians will ever arrive in time to liberate them. They stayed at Gleiwitz for three days without food or drink, and then are going to be deported into the center of Germany. The next morning he finds Juliek dead and his violin crushed. The music is so pure amidst the silence of the night, and Juliek puts his whole self and being into his music, which is only heard by an audience of dead and dying men. That night Juliek miraculously extricates himself from the tangle of bodies and begins to play Beethoven soulfully on his violin. He calls to his father, who is also still alive. Then Eliezer begins to be suffocated by a man on top of him and has to fight his way out to get some air. Eliezer is glad that Juliek is still alive and shocked to discover that he brought his violin with him. People are crushing each other to death because it is so crowded, and Eliezer suddenly finds himself on top of Juliek, a boy who played the violin in the band at Buna. When they finally arrive at Gleiwitz, they are crowded into barracks, and Eliezer feels like he is going to be suffocated by the mass of people lying on top of him. Eliezer's foot seems completely frozen, and he resigns himself to having one leg in the future. The prisoners continue to march, and even the SS officers seem tired and offer encouragement. Eliezer prays to God for the strength never to act in the same way that Rabbi Eliahou's son did. He had been trying to get away from the burden of looking after a weak father. The son had seen his father falling behind in the pack, but he had continued to run farther and farther away from him. Eliezer tells the Rabbi that he hasn't seen the man's son, but after he leaves, he realizes that he actually had. Rabbi Eliahou is a good man, admired by all, and he and his son had remained together for three years in the concentration camps. Then his father inexplicably smiles, and Eliezer says that he will always remember that smile.Īn old man named Rabbi Eliahou comes into the shed looking for his son, who was separated from him while running. Eliezer whispers into his father's ear, and his father is startled, trying to figure out where he is. He tries to wake up a neighbor, but the man refuses to heed his advice. Eliezer and his father agree to take turns sleeping, and Eliezer stays awake first, watching people sleep and die around him. All around them people are falling asleep and dying in the snow. Eliezer falls asleep, but his father wakes him up almost immediately. When they finally stop to rest, Eliezer and his father go inside a shed. They keep running through the night, even after an SS officer announces they have already come 42 miles. It is impossible to slow down because there are so many people in the mob. Eliezer wants to die to stop feeling the pain, but knows that he must keep going in order to help his father. A man named Zalman suddenly gets a stomach cramp and has to go to the bathroom he falls and is trampled by the crowd. He begins to run mechanically and starts to lose his sense of self. Eliezer feels separate from his body and wishes he could get rid of it because it is so heavy to drag along. The SS officers make the prisoners run through the snow, and they shoot those who fall behind.
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