Chapter 4

Many of the occurrences in this chapter exemplify the depravity which Elie must endure, suffering beyond what humans should even experience. The magnitude of the events is even unrealized at the time by the young Elie. His experience in the camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Buna changed his attitude and outlook on life for the rest of his life, but he did not come to realize this until after he had escaped the confines of such an evil environment, gave his mind time to unwind, and his conscience time to stabilize again.

Chapter 4 begins with the entrance into Buna, a new camp where Elie and his group of fellow inmates would be staying. After receiving the routine showers upon entry, the group was given new clothing (if it could even be called that, rags more specifically) and placed in two tents to wait for their block assignments. Once given the blocks they would be staying in, the inmates waited for the Kommando leaders to select their work crews. Word spread quickly that overall, Buna was a good labor camp, one could easily hold their own, that is, as long as they didn't get assigned to the construction Kommando. Elie was given an opportunity to secure a good Kommando, even getting a place for his father too, but the price was his pair of shoes. One of the shifted-eyed aides in the camp offered to give Elie the good slot, but the price was too high for him. Ironically, his shoes were later taken from him with nothing in return, a sorry end to a deal which could have gotten him another pair of shoes and a ration of bread with margarine. This little occurrence shows the deeper unsettlingness of Elie's situation, where he really has no control of his own life's direction.

Elie and his father got selected for the electrical warehouse crew, a position that wasn't difficult or dangerous. They worked diligently when the SS were around, but the normal circumstances were relaxed and slow-paced.

One day at the warehouse, the overseer, Idek, was venting his anger on the workers and Elie happened to cross his path. Idek beat him severely and when Elie was able to get away from him, he was only crawling. A nice, young French woman came over to Elie and wiped his bloodied face with a cool cloth, talking to him and reassuring him that it would be okay. Elie, years later, met the woman again in Paris, spending the whole day talking with her.

Amongst other events which adversely affected Elie was the hanging of a young boy, a boy called pipel, who was hung for suspected involvement in a sabotage plot on the central electric plant in Buna. The pipel, along with two other prisoners, was hung one days the workers were returning to the camp. The horrible part of the hanging was that the young child, the innocent pipel, was too light, and remained alive for over half an hour, struggling and writhing before the entire camp's population. That would forever change Elie, causing him to lose sleep at night and to question the very existence of a loving God.

After the triple hanging, Elie remarked that the soup of the evening "tasted of corpses."