1941 Elizer is a 12 year old boy living in Transylvanian town of Sighet. He is friends with a man named Moshe the Beadle who is later exiled out of the town and the then later returns to say that the train had been handed over to the Gestapo and the Gestapo were killing all the men, and of coarse they did not believe him. Later the Gestapo arrested all the Jewish people and placed them in ghettoes, then they packed them on trains and departured them to Auschwitz.
After another long night of Madame Schachter yelling about fires they finally reached Auschwitz where they were told they were going to stay. Later that night at around midnight the train began to move again and arrived at Birkenau, the reception place for Auschwitz where when they got out of the train they smelt burning flesh in the air.
After the women and the men were separated a man came up to Elizer and his father and told them to tell the SS guards that he was 18 and his father was 40. After they separated those men Elizer found that his father was placed in the same group as he was in. they were later stripped and took hot showers and sent to the barracks. After that they walked over to Auschwitz where they stayed for the next 3 weeks. Then they walked for 4 hours to their new concentration camp where they would be staying, Buna. .
Elizer and his father go through a medical inspection. Later Elizer finds out that his father works in the same building unit with him. They were then housed in the musicians block. Elizer meets a boy names Juliek and both of his brothers Yosi and Tibi. Elizers gold crown then becomes a problem in this selection. He visit's the dentist but does not get it removed because he pleads ill. He gets whipped for witnessing Idek having sex in the barracks. Elizer also witnesses a young boy being hung in this selection. Elizer now believes that God has been murdered on the gallows with the child.
On Rosh Hashanah Elizer can not find a reason to bless God with all this suffering going on.