Summary: (11-20) The Nazis then begin to deport the
Jews in increments, and Eliezer’s family is among the last to leave Sighet.
They watch as other Jews are crowded into the streets in the hot sun, carrying
only what fits in packs on their back.s. Eliezer’s family is first herded into
another, smaller ghetto. Their former servant, a gentile named Martha, visits
them and offers to hide them in her village. Tragically, they decline the
offer. A few days later, the Nazis and their henchmen, the Hungarian police,
herd the last Jews remaining in Sighet onto cattle cars bound for Auschwitz. Packed
into cattle cars, the Jews are tormented by nearly unbearable conditions. There
is almost no air to breathe, the heat is intense, there is no room to sit, and
everyone is hungry and thirsty. In their fear, the Jews begin to lose their
sense of public decorum. Some men and women begin to flirt openly on the train
as though they were alone, while others pretend not to notice. After days of
travel in these inhuman conditions, the train arrives at the Czechoslovakian
border, and the Jews realize that they are not simply being relocated. A German
officer takes official charge of the train, threatening to shoot any Jew who
refuses to yield his or her valuables and to exterminate everybody in the car
if anybody escapes. The doors to the car are nailed shut, further preventing
escape. Madame Schächter, a middle-aged woman who is on the train with her
ten-year-old son, soon cracks under the oppressive treatment to which the Jews
are subjected. On the third night, she begins to scream that she sees a fire in
the darkness outside the car. Although no fire is visible, she terrifies the
Jews in the car, who are reminded that they do not know what awaits them. But,
as with Moshe the Beadle earlier in the memoir, they console themselves in the
belief that Madame Schächter is crazy. Finally, she is tied up and gagged so
that she cannot scream. Her child, sitting next to her, watches and cries. When
Madame Schächter breaks out of her bonds and continues to scream about the
furnace that awaits them, she is beaten into silence by some of the boys on the
train, with the encouragement of the others. The next night, Madame Schächter
begins her screaming again.
Characters
Madame
Schachter
Madame's Son
Dr. Mengele
Symbols
“The
furnace”
“The fire”
Words
Pious-
devoutly religious- adjective
Truncheon-
short stick carried as a weapon
