“Here, you must work. If you don’t you will go straight to the chimney. To the crematorium. Work or crematorium- the choice is yours” (39). This quote stuck out to me because of how powerful it was. This SS officer was trying to tell the men that they had a choice on how they would die. Whilst in reality, their faint was already sealed. They would die while working and then be thrown in the crematorium like they didn’t matter. This quote is important to Elie because it shows him how cruel the Nazi were. How they didn’t care about their lives, they were focused on their goal, complete extermination of the Jewish population. The quote also is important to Elie because it helped him understand that he would have to cooperate. If he didn’t he would