I believe that he prayed because he felt praying was his only hope towards a better life. When your enslaved you feel helpless so all you can do is pray.

People's hearts were so filled with pain and sorrow that all they could do was pray but at the same time weep. They all knew that nothing good could come from Auschwitz.

Everyone had thought Madame Schachter had gone out of her mind, but in reality she was a prophet. She knew that terrible things were in their future.

The prisoner knew the consequences of being a young or an old man going into Auschwitz. So he was telling Eliezer and his father to say different ages to keep them alive. Being too young or too old meant going into the gas chambers because you were categorized as being unworkable, which made you useless.

A fellow prisoner tells the Eliezer to never lose his faith even when the sword of death is over his head were the encouraging words spoken because he knew there were going to being some difficult times there in to keep faith. With all the pain, suffering and killing going around him keeping faith would be the furthest thing on his mind and in his heart.
He was also told him not do any thing foolish because the wage would be death. It was frighting to even think about death at the age of 14 for Elie but at the same time it could happen anytime with no warning.

At this point of the story Eliezer's father got up and politely asked the gypsy where the bathroom was. The gypsy took that question as disrespect so he hardly hit him in the face. He then told his son "it doesn't hurt". He didn't want to show his son that he was weak so he just took the hit like a man. Eliezer hated to see he father hit like that.

This quote is important because the guards wanted to know if the prisoners were in good health so they could know if they were able to do the work and they would die. If the work for the Germans isn't done there would be no food and no supply's for war, which means they would lose. If they lose they wouldn't be as powerful as they think.

At this point of the story Eliezer had to have an operation on his leg. Before anything was done the doctor let him know the possibility that if it got any worst his leg would be amputated. But after his operation he couldn't feel his leg which made him think then ask is my leg amputated? which led to the doctor to say "Do you trust me, my boy?" without his leg he wouldn't be able to do all the work he does in the concentration camp.

I choose this quote because it really touched me. This show that Eliezer's father cares about him very much, which is expected because that's his father. At this point in the story the prisoners were all in the snow, forty-two miles away. But

The SS guards were about to throw all dead bodies out the carriage at this part of the story. The next body was about to be Eliezer's father. Eliezer quickly jumped on top of him to wake him up. The SS guards really I choose this quote because it shows how much Eliezer and his father look out and care for one another.

This point of the story is the saddest part. They were taken to a new camp. The SS guards were then telling everyone to be quite. This is the chapter when Eliezer's father dies due to exhaustion. This was extremely hard for him because his father was the only person he had left in his life.