“Every few yards, there stood an SS man, his machine gun trained on us. Hand in hand we followed the throng.” ( pg. 29) Eliezer's instinct for survival outweighs everything else. Although Eliezer and his family did not want to go to Auschwitz, they went because they were threatened if they did not comply. The SS guards would have killed anyone who did not follow orders, so they left their home and everything they have every known in order to survive. “Their clippers tore out hair, shaved every hair on our bodies. My head was buzzing; the same thought surfacing over and over: not to be separated from my father.” (pg.35) Surviving means different things for different people for some it meant staying alive and for others it meant staying with