Summary

Buna is practically desolate. Elie and Chlomo receive showers and clothing, and are forced to wait, per usual. Their overseer seems humane, however, and veteran captives warn them to avoid the building unit. After a three-day quarantine, three doctors examine the hundred inmates, one of which searches for gold teeth. A band of merry Jewish musicians plays instruments as prisoners trudge to the warehouse to work. Elie enjoys the Hebrew chants and songs with other Zionist youth and discusses immigration to Haifa.

As the barbarism increases, the captives grow despondent. The camp dentist demands Elie's gold crown; he saves it by pretending to have a fever. Without warning or cause, Idek launches into a murderous rage, attacking Elie in the warehouse. Elie restrains himself and remains silent. A French Jewess who passes as an Aryan soothes his bloody face (Decades later, he encounters her in the...