The quote is important to Elie’s experiences because it shows the severity of what he had been through while inside of the wagon. Having One hundred men crammed inside a single cart and only twelve remaining is a significant difference. It’s important to his experiences because out of all those who died, he and his father managed to come out alive. However, since his father was so old Elie had to help him survive by putting him first and protecting him when others thought he was dead. This quote is important to the book as a whole because it shows how normalized death was for the Jewish people, it shows how disposable the Jews were to the Nazis. To the Jewish people, the more who died on the train, the more room they would have to live while