In the heavy, clotted mass of the living and dead, Elie begins to lose hope of survival. By daylight, he locates his father's slumped form but gets no answer to his call. The train halts in a deserted field for the removal of several hundred corpses. Elie slaps his father awake to save him from the "grave diggers," a euphemism for an unfeeling crew who merely dump cadavers on the ground and abandon them. The prisoners live on snow for ten days of travel through Germany. A German workman precipitates a stampede by tossing bread to starving men, who fight for scraps. A crowd of Germans repeat the gesture and initiate more deadly scrambles for food. A son named Meir beats his father and snatches a crust from his grasp; both men die as others join in the deadly scuffle for bread.
During an unexplained attack on Elie, his father and Meir Katz drive off a would-be strangler. Despite his strength, Meir Katz falls into despair over the selection of his son for death. Elie's father is unable to revive his spirit. Facing icy winds, the prisoners realize they will die if they don't keep active. An outcry from one inmate elicits a mutual wail throughout the convoy. Meir Katz prefers a bullet to continual misery. On arrival at Buchenwald late at night, out of the hundred prisoners in his train car, only Elie, his father, and ten others survive.
