Night: Section 3

Now when we last left off the Jews were being taken to Birkenau, when they arrived there they found that some of the weaker individuals are going to be weeded out to be killed, Yet Eli and his dad remain together at this point. Sadly Eli's mother and younger sister are never seen again by Eli and his dad. As the weeding out is taking place, a prisoner tells them to lie about their age saying that Eli, who is almost 15, to say he is 18 and his dad, who is 50, to say he is 40. When the head officer asks him he takes the advice saying he is 18 and that he is a farmsmen. His dad takes the advice also and thankfully they are motioned in the same direction and are still together.
Traveling through the camp the find several huge pits full of adults, children, and babies all being burned. Eli and many other cant accept how people can be doing this, but someone in the group starts saying a prayer, called the Kaddish or prayer for the dead, yet Eli begins to question God and asking what to thank God for. When Eli and his dads group are near the edge of a empty pit they are the switched to move into the barracks. The barracks was a really nice place, while in there the Jews were stripped of their clothes, heads were shaved, disinfected with gasoline, showered, and clothed in prison uniforms.
Coming out of the barracks they were given two options: very hard work or death. Eli and his dad chose hard work and are marched to Auschwitz, where they are quartered for three weeks. They then recieve their prison number tattooed on their arms. While there Eli meets a distant relative from a neighboring town. His name is Stein and he tells them new of his family. In return ELi tries to comfort him by saying that his family is alive and well, but he soon fines this out to be a lie.