This, imo, is the best scene in his book. I recently quoted part of it in another thread, but I post the longer excerpt here. Around page 110.
The atmosphere in the room was one of immense gravity. Most of the people now began to undress, but some were still hesitating. As soon as the executioners perceived this they pushed and shoved the crowd into the gas chamber, irrespective of whether or not they had taken off their clothes. Anybody offering resistance was mercilessly beaten to a pulp. Husbands, helpless themselves, crowded round their wives and children to protect them from blows and also from the savage teeth of the dogs. There was chaos as in the narrow space people pushed and shoved each other, SS men shouted and used their truncheons, and dogs barked and snapped ferociously.
Suddenly a voice began to sing. Others joined in and the sound swelled into a mighty choir. They sang first the Czechoslovak national anthem and then the Hebrew song ‘Hatikvah’. And all this time the SS men never stopped their brutal beatings. It was as if they regarded the singing as a last kind of protest which they were determined to stifle if they could. To be allowed to die together was the only comfort left to these people. Singing their national anthem they were saying a last farewell to their brief but flourishing past, a past which had enabled them to live for twenty years in a democratic state, a respected minority enjoying equal rights. And when they sang “Hatikvah’, now the national anthem of the state of Israel, they were glancing into the future, but it was a future which they would not be allowed to see.
To me the bearing of my countrymen seemed an exemplary gesture of honour and national pride which stirred my soul. I proudly identified with them. After all that I had gone through I felt that to go on clinging to my hopeless existence was totally senseless. I knew that next spring would not fulfil my expectations either. After all, had we not been told by the Resistance only a few days ago that an escape was not feasible as long as the front was still a long way off?
Now, when I watched my fellow countrymen walk into the gas chamber, brave, proud and determined, I asked myself what sort of life it would be for me in the unlikely event of my getting out of the camp alive. [ …] Strange to say, at that moment I felt quite free from that tormenting fear of death which had often almost overwhelmed me before. I had never yet contemplated the possibility of taking my own life, but now I was determined to share the fate of my countrymen.
In the great confusion near the door I managed to mingle with the pushing and shoving crowd of people who were being driven into the gas chamber.
The atmosphere in the dimly lit gas chamber was tense and depressing. Death had come menacingly close. It was only minutes away. No memory, no trace of any of us would remain. Once more people embraced. Parents were hugging their children so violently that it almost broke my heart. Suddenly a few girls, naked and in the full bloom of youth, came up to me. They stood in front of me without a word, gazing at me deep in thought and shaking their heads uncomprehendingly. At last one of them plucked up courage and spoke to me: ‘We understand that you have chosen to die with us of your own free will, and we have come to tell you that we think your decision pointless: for it helps no one.’ She went on: ‘We must die, but you still have a chance to save your life. You have to return to the camp and tell everybody about our last hours,’ she commanded. ‘You have to explain to them that they must free themselves from any illusions. They ought to fight, that’s better than dying here helplessly. It’ll be easier for them, since they have no children. As for you, perhaps you’ll survive this terrible tragedy and then you must tell everybody what happened to you. One more thing,’ she went on, ‘you can do me one last favour: this gold chain round my neck: when I’m dead, take it off and give it to my boyfriend Sasha. He works in the bakery. Remember me to him. Say “love from Yana”. When it’s all over, you’ll find me here.’ She pointed at a place next to the concrete pillar where I was standing. Those were her last words.
I was surprised and strangely moved by her cool and calm detachment in the face of death, and also by her sweetness. Before I could make an answer to her spirited speech, the girls took hold of me and dragged me protesting to the door of the gas chamber. There they gave me a last push which made me land bang in the middle of a group of SS men. Kuschuss was the first to recognize me and at once set about me with his truncheon. I fell to the floor, stood up and was knocked down by a blow from his fist. As I stood on my feet for the third or fourth time, Kurschuss yelled at me: ‘You bloody shit, get it into your stupid head: we decide how long you stay alive and when you die, and not you. Now piss off, to the ovens!’ Then he socked me viciously in the face so that I reeled against the lift door.
The musical number is a nice twist on the usual gas chamber scene. A bit theatrical, but very moving. And him trying to gas himself in solidarity also very moving. And then being miraculously rescued right after he's told he needs to live so he can tell his story.
