Elie, his father, and the other Jewish people from the ghetto are made to ride in the cattle car of a train that departs from Hungary. They mistakenly believe that they are going somewhere else in this country to work in a brick factory. On this train is Madame Schächter, who has suffered the trauma of having been separated from her husband and two older sons who were mistakenly deported with the first transport. Now, with only her small son accompanying her, Madame Schächter is a broken woman. As the eighty people who are crammed into the cattle car move in the dark, Madame Schächter suddenly cries out, "Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!" Some of the men try to look out into the night, but they see nothing.

Despite efforts to quiet the poor woman—some even strike her—Madame Schächter repeats her cry. A few men tie and gag her because she has greatly disturbed and frightened many of the passengers. Finally, when the train stops at Auschwitz, the people hear that it is a good work camp because families are not separated, and only the younger Jews work in the factories. Some of the people even give thanks to God. The occupants then try to rest and some doze until suddenly Madame Schächter cries out in the dark, "Fire! Look at the flames! Over there!" Again, the others try to quiet her, and one man asks a German officer that she be moved to a hospital; the officer replies that she will soon be taken off the train. 

Around eleven o'clock at night the train begins to roll slowly. Suddenly, there is a scream, and Madame Schächter calls out:

"Jews, look! Look at the fire! Look at the flames!" 

This time the others do see flames jumping from a tall chimney into a black sky. There is the stench of burning flesh in the air. They have arrived in Birkenau.

When Elie and his family are on the train to Auschwitz, Madame Schacter is a woman whose mind has shattered from the brutality of what is happening to the Jews. Her husband had already been taken, and now she and her young son were on the train. She would talk crazily, as some of the people thought. While they are on the train, she starts to scream about the fires. She asks everyone if they can see the smoke and the fire. Of course, it is night and no one can see anything. They all say that she is crazy and try to ignore her.

The whole train ride there, Madame Schacter becomes more and more insistent that there is a fire. No one can see a fire and some of the men even start to hit her about the head. Elie wonders about her fractured mind at this point and talks about her young son, just hanging onto his mother. 

When they finally arrive, the first thing Elie sees is the big smoke towers. He can smell the smoke and realizes it is the smell of humans. He realizes that Madame Schacter's warnings have gone unheard and that she was foreshadowing the horrific events that were taking place.

Madame Schacter's screams and nightmares predict their fate--even before they reach Birkenau.  She claims to see a fire, and this greatly disturbs those around her.  They try to calm her, but mostly they do this to comfort themselves.  Her screams don't help any of the tension they already feel. There's something ominous in her insane behavior.  As they get closer to Birkenau, they see the flames and realize how true and terrifying her nightmare really was.  Her visions and screams foreshadow them being burned at the camps.