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Everything they owned, they had been ordered to leave behind. They were then ordered to congregate, men to the left and women to the right. This was when Eli was separated from his mother and sisters, but he was still with his father. They were walking down the road as some of the youngsters talked of revolt the elders talked them down, that thought soon diminished. They came to a man, Dr. Mengele, who looked to be a typical SS officer. He was asking their ages, Eli told him he was eighteen, to the right the man said. He awaited the direction of his father, to the right the man said, Eli was relieved. They were walking, wondering if they had been directed in the better direction of the two when they were informed they were headed for the Crematoria, and soon they came upon a flaming pit.
They were then taken into a barrack where an SS officer came in and picked many of the strong looking men, they later found out that those men were sent to work in the Crematoria. They were then striped of their clothing, but told to keep their shoes and belts. They were then soaked in disinfectant and rinsed in a hot shower, all very quickly then placed into another barrack. They were given a pile of clothing to sort through amongst themselves. They were then forced outside through the gates outside of the concentration camp right into the gates of another concentration camp, Auschwitz.
Here they were ordered to run to a block housing were they would sleep two to a bunk. They came to a man who told them that work meant freedom and they were all victims of the same fate, but must have hope and faith by working to earn their way to the next day. Here they were given black coffee in the mornings, soup in the evenings, and a ration of bread later on at night. One day wile socializing with the new deportees, a man came to Eli and his fathers rank and shouted, Wiesel from Sighet, Eli's father replied, it was Stein from Antwerp. Stein wanted to know if they heard any word from his wife and two young boys, Eli told him he had heard from them and they were doing well. He visited them for the next few weeks until he heard of a transport coming in from Antwerp, that's when he got the real news, they never saw him again. Eli and his father were informed that they were the next to be deported, they were then sent to a camp called Buna.