What does Elie say about being indifferent, or a bystander?

Indifference is one of Night's dominant themes, and it permeates the whole book. The Nazis of course show complete indifference to the welfare of the Jews upon whom they inflict such appalling suffering and death. But among the Jews of Sighet and those of Elie's fellow inmates in the camp there is also widespread indifference to what is happening. When Moshe the Beadle returns to Sighet to tell them that the other people he was taken away with have been murdered, he's met with disbelief as well as indifference:

Behind me, someone said, sighing, "What do you expect? That's war."

A constant refrain of the book is the indifference of Sighet's Jews to what's happening in the world around them, even though they're in imminent danger:

Of course, we had heard of the Fascists, but it was all in the abstract. It meant nothing more to us than a change of ministry.

In the camp, the Jewish inmates are reduced to shadows of their former selves. There's very little material difference between the dead and the living. In such an environment, there's nothing that the living can do but survive as best they can. This breeds an indifference of its own, more passive and instinctual than that displayed by the Jews of Sighet, but still notable, nonetheless:

Pressed tightly against one another, in an effort to resist the cold, our heads empty and heavy, our brains a whirlwind of decaying memories. Our minds numb with indifference. Here or elsewhere, what did it matter? Die today or tomorrow, or later? The night was growing longer, never-ending.