(Picture from: http://www.jewishmag.co.il)
In the novel fire symbolizes the cruelty of the Germans. Elie believed that God punished the evil by fire but in the camps the innocent are being punished by fire. It turns Elie's world up-side-down and he doesn't know what he should believe anymore or even if he should believe in anything. The picture above shows a crematorium during the Holocaust. It would have been impossible for me to keep from going crazy if I knew that people were being burned. To have to smell that smoke every day would be impossible for me.