1 sentence summary.

2 sentences of commentary explaining why this event is important and how it connects to a theme in the book.

Eliezer Wiesel talks to Moishe the Beadle about Kabbalah since his father didn't want to teach him as he was too young to learn about it and Moishe questions Wiesel about his faith in God, later on Wiesel gets sent to a ghetto and has to follow a set of rules.

Moishe the Beadle is an important character for the 1st chapter because he questions Wiesel's faith in God and teaches him about Kabbalah, this ties with the theme struggles with religious faith because Wiesel was questioning his faith in his religion. Wiesel getting sent to a ghetto was important to mention because this is where his hatred for the Hungarian police grew and this is the place where he would get transported to a concentration camp.

Eliezer gets sent to a cattle car packed with people, there was barely food and air to breathe, it was also very hot inside the car, a woman, Mrs. Schächter, screams in the middle of the night that there is a fire, some checked outside the window and saw nothing but darkness, before she started screaming we, the reader, find out that she has lost her husband and 2 older sons when the first deportation happened, this makes some people in the car believe that she has gone mad with the separation that happened, Mrs. Schächter kept screaming every night until they gagged her and hit her a few times.

This is related to the theme, State-sponsored violence, because if it wasn't for the state had elected the Nazi party to rule Germany, Mrs. Schächter could have kept her family together and she would have been stable. But since she was separated by force from her family, she had gone crazy and started seeing things.

Eliezer got separated from his mother and sisters, he had to stay with his father from now on, while they were walking to their destination, an inmate tells them that they are going to be sent to the crematoria and be burned alive, later on, Eliezer and the other inmates saw a truck unload a bunch of children and babies in the fire pits, then they saw another fire pit full of adults, his father and other inmates begin to recite Kaddish, Eliezer is angry at God for not doing anything to stop people from being burned alive.

Eliezer being angry at God ties along with the theme Struggles with Religious Faith. I think this because Eliezer is wondering why people are still sanctifying God's name even though He has done nothing to help these people.

Eliezer and other inmates watched hangings happen, one of the hangings was a young pipel, the pipel was loved by the people, according to Eliezer, the young boy had the face of an angel in distress, the young pipel was was sent to death after his Oberkapo was arrested for hiding weapons and for sabotage, while watching the young pipel die, a guy behind Eliezer said "For God's sake, where is God?".

The young pipel being hanged relates to the theme of State-sponsored violence. This is because the young pipel was originally hanged because his Oberkapo hid weapons to maybe start a rebellion against the Nazis and all of the hangings that happened that day could have been stopped if Germany didn't support the Nazi party.

Its Rosh Hashanah and Eliezer feels that he has no need to pray to God because He has done nothing for the people except for death and maltreatment, then the Day of Atonement came, Eliezer did not fast as a sign of rebellion towards God.

This relates to the theme struggles with religious faith because Eliezer is angry at God for bringing despair to the people even though the people worshipped and praised Him. Also Eliezer didn't want to accept God's silence, so he decided to rebel against Him.

Eliezer and the prisoners were forced to evacuate the camp and march to Gleiwitz, but then the SS officers forced the prisoners to march faster and started to shoot at the people who weren't keeping up the pace, Eliezer was forced to run on a injured foot that went numb after a while of running.

This chapter ties along with the theme state sponsored violence because the SS officers were threatening the prisoners to run faster or die. Also the officers were shooting prisoners on the spot if they were slowing down a bit.

The prisoners were put into cattle cars, one day when they were at a stop, a worker threw a piece of bread into the car, then the men in the car fought for life and death to get a piece, Eliezer already knew that he wasn't strong enough to join the fight, so he just watched the men fight, an old man decided to hide and get managed to get a piece, his son though, thought the old man was going to eat it all to himself, so the son killed his father but then a group of guys attacked the son leaving both the son and father dead.

This ties along with individual survival vs. the collective good and family loyalty and obligations because it obligated that you need to stay loyal to your family but the son only cared for himself and killed his own father just to get a piece of bread. Also the other men in the cattle car fought for crumbs of bread to keep them for themselves.

Eliezer's father got sick and was dying, but Eliezer didn't want to let go of his sick father, so he decided to take care of him even though Eliezer had some thoughts of abandoning him and only using his strength to take care of himself only.

This relates to family loyalty and obligations because Eliezer stayed loyal and took care of his father. But it also relates to individual survival vs. the collective good because he also had thoughts of leaving his sick father to die and only take care of himself.

Eliezer no longer cared about anything after his father's death and only desired to eat, one day as the prisoners were waiting for the roll call, the SS who always did it came unusually late, days later the sirens started to ring and the prisoners went back to their blocks as it was too late for an evacuation, later on the first American tank came to the gates of the camp, the prisoners were free.

This relates to state-sponsored violence. I think this because after years and months of maltreatment and torment the Jews were finally free.