When Elie is sent to concentration camp, he goes through a lot of emotions. At first he is in denial that human beings could do such cruel things to other people. This stage however is short lived because very suddenly he must adapt to the harsh environment around him. Although eventually the atmosphere takes him over. When Elie first enters Birkenau, he goes into denial, as we all would, at the inhumane acts he sees in front him. Birkenau was the first camp Elie saw, he didn’t know what was going on, and was unable to accept the savage like acts he saw before his eyes. Elie thought he and his father were on their way to die at the crematoria which thankfully wasn’t the case. He couldn’t fathom the idea of people burning other human beings. “Still I told him that I could not believe that human beings were being burned in our times; the world would never tolerate such crimes…” (33). He was in disbelief at the capability of the Nazis. Nonetheless he soon adapts to his almost unlivable conditions. …show more content…
His motivation to endure through the pain was his father but to strengthen his chances of survival he was forced to adapt to the barbarous culture of the various concentration camps he attended. For instance on page 39 he thinks to himself, “My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent.” Elie knew that if he were to say something, him and his father both would suffer worse consequences. Elie did know it was wrong though and felt remorse. Despite the overwhelming cruelness surrounding him, the camp did not yet take him over, he knew his actions were