Night: Section 8

At the camp the prisoners are counted as usual and told to go to the showers. However, they are so weak that it is difficult for the guards to get them to move. Eli's father goes over to a pile of snow with his son and tells him that he can no longer go on. Eli is enraged that his father is ready to die after having survived for so long and he argues with him for a long time not to stay in the snow. When the sirens go off, Eli is driven to the blocks and everyone immediately falls asleep in the beds. Not even realizing the soup couldron.
In the morning Eli remembers that he has to look for his father. Part of him wants to forget about his weak, burdensome father and he feels ashamed at these thoughts. Eli looks for his father for hours and finally finds him in the coffee line. Eli brings him a cup of coffee. Later on, Eli's father tells him that the guards are refusing to feed the sick because they think they will die soon anyway. Eliezer unwillingly gives him the rest of his soup and realizes that he is no better than that rabbi's son. On the third day of their arrival everyone has to go to the showers. Eli sees his father in the distance, but when he goes to meet him the man runs by him. The man was actually somebody else.
Eli's father is becoming increasingly weak in his bunk. He tells Eli where he buried the gold and money. Eli manages to bring his father to see a doctor, but the doctor refuses to look at him. Another doctor comes into the block, but Eliezer's father refuses to get up again. When Eli returns from getting bread his father tells him that his bunkmates have been hitting him. Eli promises them extra bread and soup, but they simply laugh at him. The next day his father tells Eli that his neighbors stole his bread and hit him again. He begs piteously for water and he gives him some.
The head of the block gives Eli advice regarding his father. He tells him that in the concentration camps, it is every man for himself and that ties of family and friendship no longer count. He advises him not to give his food rations to his father and to instead his father's for himself. For a moment Eliezer agrees with him, but then immediately feels guilty. Eli's father begs repeatedly for water one night, and the SS guards shout at him to be quiet. When he keeps calling out to Eliezer, the guard hits him violently on the head with his truncheon. Eliezer is afraid to move from his bunk. His father once again says, "Eliezer," and is still breathing. After roll call he looks at his father's face for over an hour. When it is time to go to bed, his father is still alive. The next day, January 29, 1945, his father has been replaced by another invalid and taken to the crematory. Eliezer does not weep and admits that deep down inside himself he feels freed by his father's death