How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
[R]agged, decrepit, skeleton-like patients at all able to move dragged themselves everywhere on the frozen soil, like an invasion of worms. They had ransacked all the empty huts in search of food and wood; they had violated with senseless fury the grotesquely adorned rooms of the hated Blockältese, forbidden to the ordinary Häftlinge until the previous day; no longer in control of their own bowels, they had fouled everywhere, polluting the precious snow, the only source of water remaining in the whole camp. (17.49)
Keep in mind that the prisoners left after the evacuation were predominantly ill from various communicable diseases. One of these is dysentery, which is a horrible disease with the major symptom of bloody diarrhea. The conditions of the camp get even worse (if that can be imagined!) after the Nazis leave, because the ill men are scrounging around for anything that might help with their survival, and they aren't in control of their bodily functions. They are reduced to a barely human level of functioning, driven only by the search for food and warmth.