Madame Schächter A quiet fifty-year-old deportee whose husband and two sons were carried on an earlier convoy, Madame Schächter is left with a ten-year-old son. Her manic state progresses from moans to hysterical cries of "Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh, that fire!"
Bela Katz The son of a Sighet tradesman, Bela is selected to load the crematory and ordered to put his father's corpse into a crematory oven.
Yechiel The brother of Sighet's rabbi who, on the night that Elie arrives at Birkenau, weeps for their doom.
Akiba Drumer A deep-voiced singer who stirs the hearts of inmates with Hasidic melodies sung at bedtime, Drumer applies cabbalistic numerology to scripture and predicts deliverance from Buna within weeks. After the selection at Block 36, he departs in despair, his faith destroyed. His fellow inmates forget his parting request for a Kaddish.
Juliek A bespectacled Polish musician in Buna's orchestra block, Juliek smiles cynically at Elie. Later, he shares crucial information about Idek, the manic Kapo, and, in the dark barracks at Gleiwitz, Juliek gives a final performance from a Beethoven concerto, a violinist's blessing. The next morning, he is dead and his violin trampled.
Louis A distinguished Dutch violinist in the orchestra block, Louis complains because Jews are not allowed to play Beethoven's music.
Hans A Berlin musician in the orchestra block, he eases Elie's concern about his assignment to the electrical warehouse.
Franek A former student from Warsaw who plays in the orchestra block and serves as foreman of the electrical warehouse, Franek keeps Elie near his father while they work, then drops his friendly treatment by demanding Elie's gold dental crown. Franek's willingness to torment Elie's father suggests that the foreman has lost his humanity in the daily supervision of inmates.
