Concentration camps changed people. Especially Elie.

“ Idek was on edge, he had trouble restraining himself. Suddenly, he exploded. The victim this time was my father. “ You old loafer!” he started yelling. “ Is this what you call working?” And he began beating him with an iron bar… Why couldn't he have avoided Idek’s wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me…”(54)

In this passage, Elie and his dad were loading diesel motors onto freight cars when Idek had another explosion. The victim was Elie's dad. The thing that surprised me was that Elie just stood there and watched. Also that Elie was mad not at Idek after he just beat up his dad, but was mad at his own father for not avoiding Idek. The part that really hit me was the part were Elie said, “That was what life in a concentration camp had made me.”(54) That part hit me very hard because throughout the book you really see how much Elie changed as a person, and how living through the holocaust and living in a concentration camp changed him. I think that moment showcases how deep in knowledge and firsthand experience this book was written. This passage really shows how the Jews felt from the beginning, when they were deported and placed in these camps, to this moment. It shows that in the beginning they were all scared of being separated from their families and being killed. Most importantly they still had faith. But now, after all that they had been through, they are no longer scared of death, they no longer have faith. It's just their normal way of living now.