chapter 8 - how did Elies father die ?

Elie's father was suffering from dysentery and other maladies. On the night of January 28th in 1945, Elie goes to his bunk in exhaustion with his father still alive and still in the bunk below him.

I had to go to sleep. I climbed into my bunk, above my father, who was still alive. The date was January 28, 1945 ....

In the morning, another inmate is in Mr. Wiesel's bunk. Mr. Wiesel had been taken in the night--whether dead or still alive--to the crematorium. Elie felt no tears, only relief "deep inside":

if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!