Chapter 2

Chapter 2 starts out with Eliezer and the rest of the jewish town members crammed in a cattle car. The conditions were inhuman and the air was bad-tasting and it was incredibly hot. "Lying down was not an option, nor could we all sit down. We decided to take turns sitting. There was little air... After two days of travel, thirst became intolerable, as did the heat." (Wiesel 23) Under these harsh conditions many of the men and women crack and begin to openly flirt with one another like nobody is around. The train then comes to a stop after several days and a Nazi officer comes aboard and takes charge and told everyone that if they tried to escape that they would be shot. Then he left and the doors to the cattle car were nailed shut to prevent escape further. In the middle of the night a woman named Mrs. Schachter screamed and said that she saw fire. People throughout the cattle car were in a state of panic. Some people looked out of the window but there was no fire, it was just the dark night sky. "It was as though she was possessed by some evil spirit." (Wiesel 25) The rest of the jews in the car then classified her as crazy like they did with Moshe the Beadle. Some of the boys in the car were encouraged to beat Mrs. Schachter to make her stop screaming. Some of the blows she received could have been lethal. They then arrived at Aushwitz, not knowing what they were in for. "In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau."

Chapter 1

In the opening chapter the reader learns about the narrator, Eliezer who is 12 years old and living in Sighet, a Transylvanian town. He is the only son in a jewish family with two older sisters. His father is a very respected member of the jewish community and many elders seek his advice on different things. 

Eliezer wanted to study Cabbala, a study of the jewish mystical texts. He finds a teacher named Moshe the Beadle. Moshe the Beadle was a local man who was very poor and always stayed out of the way of everyone. Moshe was captured by the axis powers and he returned several months later explaining how the jews were forced to dig mass graves for themselves just before they were shot. Nazi leaders soon came to the town and take over. All of the jews were forced to wear yellow stars and their goods were confiscated. Then the Germans confided them into small areas called ghettos and had many curfews and restrictions. Then, gradually the Nazis shipped the jews off on cattle cars bound for Aushwitz. 

Preface and Forward

In the preface and the forward, Elie Wiesel describes how he didn't know how he survived. He described himself as "weak, rather shy; I did nothing to save myself" (vii). He then came to the conclusion that the only reason he survived was to write this book itself. 

In the forward by Francois Mauriac, it talks about how Wiesel came to Mauriac with a book and asked him to get it published. With a lot of effort and hard work he was able to get it published. Mauriac was bewildered to learn about Nazi's extermination methods. He wanted to spread the word so that everyone would become aware of the cruelties the Jews faced.