"As for me, I had ceased to pray. I conjured with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice"(p.45). At this point in the book, Elie has given up praying to God because he sees him as silent and not lifting a finger to help His people. Elie is not alone in believing God has gone deaf to their prayers. There are those who still have faith in God. Akiba Drumer is just one of those people. "God is testing us. He wants to see whether we are capable of overcoming our base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves. We have no right to despair. And if He punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us that much more…"(p.45). Elie doesn’t believe faith will help him now. He has become independent of God. He still believes that God is there but that he is just not helping any. Later on Elie's foot began to swell to the point where he couldn't stand on it. He went into the infirmary where he found out that he would have to have surgery to remove a sack on his foot. A rumor was going around camp that the Red army was racing toward Buna and it would be only a few hours before they reached the camp. Elie had the chance to stay in the infirmary with the others while everyone else left. The doctor said that he could pretend that Elie's father was either a patient or a doctor. Elie and his father had decided to leave the infirmary and go off with the others. Later on Elie learns that everyone in the infirmaries was liberated. Another chance for freedom was gone.  Before they left the Blockälteste order the men to clean their blockade. He said "For the liberating army, let them know that here lived men and not pigs"(p.84). Elie and the others have been treated like nothing more than dirt their entire time at the camps and now all of a sudden they are considered men?