Then why did Elie and his father get to stay? One of the prisoners told them to lie about their ages and they sis. They were both very lucky because they would have been killed from the beginning.
People who were in concentration camps were treated very badly. For example, prisoners had to work very hard almost everyday of the year. They did that because they feared death. They wanted to survive. People were being killed because they stopped working for one second or committed a minor crime. If people in the US are to commit the same minor crimes they would get a slap on the wrist or a very small fine. He got very little to eat. For instance, inmates at the camps were only allowed one ration of bread and soup a day. Therefore, Elie became weaker and weaker. Sometime the some of the prisoners did not eat anything because other prisoners would steal their food or the Kapo, the keepers of the concentration camps, did not feel like feeding them. How can you let a person starve like that? Additionally, prisoners were experimented on. They were used like lab rats. Occasionally, a person's arm or leg would have to be amputated. These experiments were so fatal that it took thousands of lives. That was very cruel and inhumane. In the video, "The Last Days"" one hundred people were killed because one individual committed suicide. They would not let the person whom took their own life die peacefully. At concentration camps, there is something called "selections."" Everybody was scared of this. During selections doctors would examine every prisoner to see if they are weak or not. If it is obvious that a person could not endure any more pain then they would be experimented on and they would eventually die or they would be taken to the gas chambers and be killed immediately. For instance, Mr. Wiesel failed the first selection and he got very scared and worried because he thought he was going to die.