Quote 1
Another time we were loading diesel motors onto freight cars under supervision of some German soldiers. Idek was on edge, he had trouble restraining himself. Suddenly, he exploded. The victim this time was my father.
"You old loafer!" he started yelling. "Is this what you call working?"
And he began beating him with an iron bar. At first, my father simply doubled over under the blows, but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning.
I had watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent. In fact, I thought of stealing away in order not to suffer the blows. What’s more, if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn’t he have avoided Idek’s wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me … (4.78-81)
Concentration camp turns father against son and son against father. Though Eliezer never becomes as hardened as other people do, because of the situation he has been forced into he struggles with resentment against his father, even when Eliezer rationally should direct his negative feelings against those who imprison him.
"A-7713!"
I stepped forward.
"A crate!" he ordered.
They brought a crate.
"Lie down on it! On your belly!"
I obeyed.
I no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip.
[…]
"Twenty-four…twenty-five!"
It was over. I had not realized it, but I had fainted. I came to when they doused me with cold water. I was still lying on the crate. In a blur, I could see the wet ground next to me. Then I heard someone yell. It had to be the Kapo. I began to distinguish what he was shouting:
"Stand up!"
[…]
"Listen to me, you son of a swine!" said Idek coldly. "So much for your curiosity. You shall receive five times more if you dare tell anyone what you saw! Understood?" (4.117-140)
Idek, the Kapo, uses violence as a threat to keep Eliezer silent after having watched Idek have sex with a Polish girl.