Night

I think that there was a sense of desperation and even futility among the Nazis. It was no secret the Germans were losing the war and the allies were coming. Many guards and camp commandants knew the end was coming. The only outlet they knew was to inflict even more suffering on the prisoners. The Nazis were drowning in their own hate and the camps disintegrated into chaotic sadism. In this section Eliezer and the other remaining prisoners are pushed to the very limits of human capacity, both physically and mentally. Forced to run at least forty-two miles, Eliezer's mind feels like it is becoming disconnected from his body, and he continues to run mechanically without really realizing that he is doing so: "I was dragging with me this skeletal body which weighed so much. If only I had got rid of it! In spite of my efforts not to think about it, I could feel myself as two entities my body and me. I hated it."