Witnessing pain and suffering can cause the loss of religious faith.

Before being sent to the concentration

camps, Eliezer is very devoted to Judaism. He studies and prays daily, and he finds a teacher to teach him Jewish
mysticism. Many other people from his town and at the concentration camps are also devout Jews. As he witnesses
cruelty at the concentration camps, he begins to lose his faith in God. He sees babies being thrown into flames,
people starving, and people being beaten, and he stops believing in God because he doesnt believe that if he
existed he would allow this suffering. Many other people he meets in the camp also come to believe that it is not
possible for God to exist when all of this suffering is possible.
Death can be avoided for a while but is inevitable. Whether a prisoner is killed or allowed to live is
determined by whether or not the SS officers think they are able to work. If they are determined to be useful they will
live, and if they are not they will be sent to the crematorium to die. They can avoid being killed by lying. Eliezer says
that he is 18 years old and a farmer so that that the SS officers think that he is strong rather than too young and too
weak to work. Eliezers father says that he is 40 instead of 50 so that the SS officers think that he is not too old to be
able to work quickly. Even though they avoid death then, eventually Eliezers father becomes too sick and is taken to
the crematorium. Even though Eliezer doesnt die in the camp, he will eventually die later in life as well as everybody
else who avoids death in the camp.
Being treated inhumanely causes people to be behave cruelly. Now that the prisoners are treated poorly,
they treat each other poorly as well. In the camps, the prisoners are separated from their families, beaten, and
forced to watch others suffer. Crammed into a cattle car on the way to Auschwitz, a woman starts to scream, and
people hit her to quiet her down, which they never would have done at home. When Eliezers father becomes too
sick to stand up and go outside to relieve himself, people begin to beat him up because they are angry that he
smells bad.
A lot of pain is sometimes inflicted on people just because of their beliefs. The reason that Eliezer and all of
the other people from his town of Sighet are forced to leave their town and go to the concentration camps is that
they are Jewish. Just because they are Jewish, they are separated from family members, some are burned to death,
some are beaten, and they have to witness a lot of cruelty. There are other types of people in the concentration
camps besides Jewish people who also had to go through all of this suffering because of their beliefs, such as
Gypsies.
Freedom can be slowly taken away without the victims knowing. When freedoms first begin to be taken
away from the Jews of Sighet, they think it may be for their own protection. They dont realize what is really
happening. They are first confined to their homes, then they are moved to the ghettos, then they are transported in
cattle cars to the concentration camps, and at this point they are no longer allowed to bring any of their belongings
with them, and all of their freedom is gone.
Family is the most important thing until times are desperate. At first, the prisoners in the concentration
camps try as hard as they can to stay with their family members. However, when they start to suffer and have to
choose between their own needs or their families, they have to choose themselves. A piece of bread is thrown onto
a car transporting prisoners, and a son kills his father in order to get some of the bread so he doesnt starve. When
Eliezers father dies, he does not feel the extreme sadness that he expects. Instead, he feels relieved that he doesnt
have to take care of him anymore.