When all the foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet, Moishe the Beadle was among them. After pretending to be dead among a number of Jews being left for dead among many Jews who had been shot, Moishe returns to Sighet. There he tries to warn the towns citizens of the atrocities he has seen. He tries to warn them of the horrific deeds being done, and tells them of the mass graves they were forced to dig. Knowing what was in store, Moishe desperately tried to convince the town's people to heed the evil that was rearing its ugly head and take steps to avoid tragedy, but most people were more content to think he was crazy rather than believe that true evil could taint the existence.

The deportation of Moishe is bad, and quite horrific.  Yet, where Wiesel seems to be making a critical point about his assessment of the Holocaust is not in his deportation.  What matches this level of cruelty is the disbelief and discrediting that happens when he returns to Sighet to let others know of what he saw.  Rather than accept his experience and validate his voice, the Jewish individuals of Sighet dismiss him as crazy and refuse to acknowledge his experience as truth. This indifference is a sin, according to Wiesel, because it empowers the aggressors and severs bonds between individuals.  Within Moshe's story, there is the presence of someone who understood and saw what was going to await so many, but was given no voice.  In the final analysis, this is what Wiesel thinks is one of the worst aspects of the Holocaust:  The denial and dismissivenes of others that severed bonds, making it easier for the Nazis to commit atrocities in an unchecked manner.

Moishe is deported from Sighet because he is a foreigner, unlike Elie and his family.  Elie's family and the other Jews of Sighet feel sorry for Moishe, but don't protest his deportation because they believe that he is going to a "work camp."  Moishe's deportation experience is beyond comprehension.  He is grouped with the other deportees, and most of them are slaughtered.  Moishe plays dead, but in doing so, he witnesses the soldiers tossing infants into the air and using them for target practice.  When Moishe escapes and returns to Sighet because he knows that he must warn them of what deportation really means, no one will believe him.