Summary

Overcome by grief and trauma, Elie lies still, his spirit beyond feeling pain. Desensitized and disillusioned, he joins the six hundred inmates of the children's block and merely exists as he awaits the front to arrive at the camp. Thoughts of satisfying his hunger alone saturate Elie’s mind. Rumors swirl that the Germans are planning a mass execution. On April 5, an organized resistance refuses orders to assemble. Elie returns to the block with the other rebels. The camp is systematically emptied of captives, thousands each day being released. No food is distributed to the twenty thousand remaining deportees for the next five days.

On April 10, camp officials plan to discharge 20,000 prisoners and blow up the buildings but the evacuation is delayed. The captives sustain life by eating grass and discarded potato peelings foraged from the ground. The following day, the resistance exerts pressure on their...