"March of the Dead"

I would title this chapter “March of the Dead” because the Jews had to march, and then run, forty two miles to yet another concentration camp. The Jews only had a little to eat everyday: some water and a ration of bread. They became so thin and fragile that they were literally just skin and bones that could be injured, or even killed by the simplest force. Many died along the way. The SS officers would simply shoot anyone who could not keep up. All around them, countless corpses lied in the snow.

“The march began again. The dead stayed in the yard under the snow…without burial. No one said the prayer for the dead over them.” (Wiesel 87) The Jews were sometimes given an order to rest. When the break was over and it was time to march again, many never returned. There were many people who fell asleep in the snow, and because of the cold, there was a great number of them that never woke up. So many people died a painful death, but a prayer was not said for them. The conditions they endured caused them to become more concerned with their own survival, not others.