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In chapter 3 of Night, what task was Bela Katz chosen for due to his strength?
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In Chapter 3 of Night, due to his strength, Bela Katz was selected for the grim task of working in the crematorium as a Sonder-Kommando, a Jewish unit responsible for the disposal of bodies. One of his most harrowing duties was having to put his own father's body into the crematory oven.
Because of his great strength, Bela Katz was forced to be a part of the Sonder-Kommando, the Jewish unit that worked in the crematories. One of his first jobs had been to put his own father's body into the crematory oven.
In Chapter 3, Elie and his father have just survived the selections upon arriving at Birkenau. For the present, they are alive, but as some SS officers move around their barracks looking for "strong men", they debate within their own minds the best means of ensuring their further survival. Elie wonders if, since the officers are so interested in strong individuals, it might be best to "pass oneself off as sturdy", but his father does not agree. Elie's father believes that above all, it is better not to draw atention to oneself.
Later on, Elie learns that his father's inclination was correct. Bela Katz, the son of a tradesman...
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from Sighet, had arrived at the camp a week previously, on the first transport. His strength had been quickly noticed, and he had been forced into the most odious of jobs, carrying the dead into the crematories.
In Auschwitz, the only way to survive is through working. Those deemed unfit for work are immediately sent to their deaths in the gas chambers. So when the SS start looking for strong, sturdy men, Elie thinks it might be a good idea to volunteer. However, his father cautions him against this, thinking it best that they don't draw attention to themselves.
His instincts prove correct, as strong inmates such as Bela Katz are conscripted into the Sonderkommando, a unit of Jewish prisoners assigned to work in the camp crematoria. Like the other members of his unit, Bela is forced to carry the corpses of gas chamber victims and put them in the industrial-sized ovens, where their bodies will be disposed of. Not long after he starts his grisly new assignment, Bela is forced to undergo the traumatic experience of putting his father's dead body into the oven along with many others murdered in the gas chambers.