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Germans arrive in Sighet and enforce new rules
Jews are banned from leaving their houses after six or visiting resturants, had to hand over valuables and where the yellow star on their clothing. "Anguish. German soliders – with their steel helmets, and their emblems, the death's head." -
Period: to
Elie Wiesel's timeline
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Jews of Sighet are deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Elie is seperated from his mother and sisters on arrival and has his prisoner number tattooed on his arm. "Tzipora held Mother's hand. I saw them disappear into the distance; my mother was stroking my sister's fair hair, as though to protect her, while I walked on with my father and the other men." -
Elie and his father are moved to Buna
"The camp looked as though it had suffered an epidemic: empty and dead. There were just a few well-clad prisoners walking about between the blocks." -
Death march to Gleiwitz, transported to Buchenwald
The prisoners are forced to run 80km without stopping, or else they are shot and left for dead in the snow. "To break the ranks, to let oneself slide to the edge of the road... My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me [...] I has no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support. -
Shlomo is taken to the crematorium, after suffering from dysentery
"Then my father made a rattling noise and it was my name: 'Eliezer.' [...] I could see his lips trembling as he murmured something. Bending over him, I stayed gazing at him for over an hour, engraving into myself the picture of his blood-stained face, his shattered skull." -
Buchenwald is liberated by the Americans
Elie becomes ill later on, and sees his own reflection for the first time since leaving Sighet. "From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me."