Chapter 5

The prisoners in Buna celebrate Rosh Hashanah by praying and praising God, but Elie's loss for faith grows. He does not see why he should bless God while there is so much suffering. Elie makes fun of the idea that Jews are God’s chosen people. This denial of faith leaves him alone among all the others in Buna. He eventually finds his father. He decides to eat on Yom Kippur, when Jews traditionally fast. After the Jewish New Year, another selection is announced. Elie and his father are seperated. He worries that his father will not pass the selection, and after it turns out that his father is one of those tagged as too weak to work. This means that he will be executed. He brings Elie his knife and spoon, which is his only inheritance. Elie is then forced to leave, and never see his father again.

When Elie returns from work he finds out that a second selection has taken place among those condemned as too weak to work, and his father makes it through the selection. However, Abika Drumer does not survive the selection. Others begin to lose their faith. It becomes winter and the prisoners begin to freeze in the cold. Elie's foot swells up, and he has an operation. While he's in the hospital, there is a rumor of the approaching Russian army. The Germans decide to evacuate the camp before the Russians can arrive. Elie and his father choose to be evacuated with the others. It turned out that those who remained did not evacuate were freed by the Russians a few days later. In the middle of a snowstorm, they begin evacuating Buna.