This is a book about one young Jewish boy's experience in the holocaust. He survives the nightmare, and goes on the write the book ten years later, after a self-imposed vow of silence. .
It begins in the town of Sighet, Transylvania where Elie is studying the cabbala under the instruction of Moshe the Beadle. You can see that Elie is very devoted to his beliefs. Then Moshe is removed from the town because he is a foreign Jew, and Elie's studies are abruptly cut short. This is the first time we see the effects of the war, and also the apathy of the people to their own situation.
When Moshe returns, it is the first warning received, and they ignore it. Even Elie is full of disbelief, but he will at least listen to his old teacher. Elie even later attempts to convince his father to leave, but to no avail. They hear the bad news, but reassure themselves that they are in no danger.
The Germans arrive, at first they are civil and the residents of the town are happy. Then things change: their possessions are taken and they are moved into the ghetto. Then they are sent the message of deportation, and miss the warning of a Hungarian police inspector to tell them they were in danger. Their last chance in when Martha the servant comes to get them and take them to her village, but they refuse.
They are shipped out on a train, crowded in with 80 people in a car. Madame Schacter begins to yell about fires and the furnace, and the others are nearly driven mad themselves by her yelling. They are finally let out at Birkenau, and for the first time they see the flames that Madame Schacter has perhaps foreseen.
The younger men are held back from any attempt to revolt by their elders" pleas to remember the teachings of their religion, ironically what has made them a target in the first place. The men and women are separated and they begin their lives in concentration camps. Elie begins to feel the weakening of his faith, and questions why he should praise a god who would allow these things to happen.