"We were masters of nature, masters of the world. We had transcended everything-death, fatigue, our natural needs. We were stronger than cold and hunger, stronger than the guns and the desire to die, condemned and wandering, doomed and rootless, nothing but mere numbers, we were the only men on earth." pg. 87

"I shall always remember that smile. From which world did it come?" pg. 90

"How could I forget that concert, given to an audience of dying and dead men!" pg. 95

Chapter 7

"When they withdrew, next to me were two corpses, side by side, the father and the son. I was fifteen years old." pg. 102

"We were all going to die here. All limits had been passed. No one had any strength left. And again the night would be long." pg. 103

Zalman: Zalman is introduced to us in chapter 6 when Elie and his father along with other men were forced to run to Gleiwitz, On each side of Elie is his father and Zalman, Zalman worked in the electrical material depot in Buna. People mocked him because he was constantly praying or meditating. Zalman shows the struggle of constantly running and the overuse of the human body to fatigue he collapses from an stomach cramp and is tramped on until mush by the soldiers behind him who are all focused on running.

Rabbi Eliahu: Rabbi presents himself at the abandoned village where all the men and the SS rest for the night he is a old man who had headed a small congregation in Poland. Rabbi was a kind man, beloved by everyone. He seeks Elie and his fathers assistance and knowledge of his lost son who had gone missing along the run. Elie doesn't recall any memory of seeing this mans son and dismisses it, later to remember the boy who had been running next to him was Rabbi's son, Zalman.

Juliek: Elie encounters Juliek the boy from Warsaw who played the violin in the Buna orchestra, at the doors of Gleiwitz in a fitz the men all hurled themselves towards it and crushes and smother fellow men Elie was crushing Juliek. As Julek fades to death Elie suddenly hears Juliek playing his violin not knowing if it a hallucination or not. Elie wakes at daybreak to see Juliek facing him hunched over dead. near him his trampled violin.

Chapter 7

Meir Katz: Meir's name introduced in chapter 7 when Elie is in a carriage with hundreds of other men, bypasses throw bread into the carriages amused by the fighting and struggles of hundreds of men try to grab and taste the bread, a old man is ravaged by his own son in a fury of trying to obtain bread that had become more valued over a human life. The old man dies by the hand of his own son Meir, Meir is soon also killed by other men who try to obtain the bread.

The prisoners manically run through the bitterly cold snow long into the night. The SS shoot any prisoners the fall behind. With Eliezers' foot injury he welcomes the pain of death. He begins to feel separated from his body and starts to have thoughts of giving up. With his father running along side Eliezer, he continues to reassure him that he must keep on going to survive.

After a grueling night of running an SS finally announces that they can finally stop and rest. Eliezer immediately drops to the ground to sit but his father gathers him and leads them to a shed. Once inside Eliezer collapses to the ground and begins to fall asleep in the snow that he described as a thick blanket, his father almost immediately wakes him as they are surrounded by people that a falling into a sleep of death. They agree to take turns in resting to ensure both of them surviving.

Whilst on watch Eliezer is approached by Rabbi Eliahou whom is searching for his son. They had been separated for the first time in three years since being transported from camp to camp. After Rabbi had left Eliezer realizes that he remembered seeing his son running away from him in the pack after realizing his father was becoming weak. Elizer then prayed to God to have the strength to never act in the way Rabbi Eliahou's son did.

The prisoners continued to march in the thick snow until the finally arrive in Gleiwitz. They are all crowded into barracks, Eliezer begins to feel as if he is being suffocated by the mass of people on top of him. In the crowded room Eliezer realizes that he is on top of Juliek, a boy who played the violin in the band a Buna. Eliezer is glad to find that he is still alive but shocked that he cared so much to bring his violin. Eliezer then shortly begins to suffocate as a man becomes on top of him putting him in a struggle to find an air pocket. After being free Eliezer is on the surface of the decaying bodies near his father and in the distance hears the sounds of a violin. Eliezer was amazed that Juliek had crawled free from all of the bodies that laid on top of him. Juliek plays the music of Beethoven with all of his soul and passion but to only an audience of dead and dying men. The sound of the violin puts Eliezer to sleep but when awoken at dawn he finds Juliek sitting infront of him dead with his volin crushed next to him.

They all stayed in Gleiwitz for three days without food or water waiting before being deported to the center of Germany. On the third day they all march towards a train station and awaited the train to come that they would be packed into carts of 100.

Chapter 7

Inside the train carriage the bodies of both dead and alive started to become one. Eliezer called to his father but had no response, as he began to panic that his farther was dead the train stopped and an SS order all corpses to be stripped and thrown from the carriage. Two men began to collect Eliezers father to throw from the cart but he viciously hits and slaps his father until he is awake. After the drop the train continued for ten days with the prisoners only eating snow.

After some time German workmen began throwing pieces of bread into the cart and watched the prisoners fight like vicious animals over a few crumbs as amusement. Eliezer witnesses a man kill his own father for a piece of bread and then that man be killed for the same piece. They both lie dead next to Eliezer as he notes that he is only sixteen years old. 

On another night Eliezer is awakened by someone randomly strangling him. This is when he is at last minute saved by a man named Meir Katz who knew his father back at the Buna camp. Meir loses his will to live only a few days later and continues to cry.

On the last day they finally arrive at Buchenwald, and only those who could stand could leave from the carriage that was originally filled with 100 men had dropped to only 12 men including Eliezer and his father.

Similar situations of the fear of suffocation have happened all around the world and in this example a group of three men were sitting at their campsite when a deadly earthquake occurred and in retaliation their was an avalanche that trapped many people underneath the thick white snow with the thoughts of suffocating.