It seems to me the second quote, "After my father's death, nothing could touch me any more" is a significant part of the theme of desensitization in Night. These are men who started out as human beings--they felt emotions, experienced relationships, had needs and wants and hopes and dreams. Soon, though, the humanity was beaten out of them, both literally and figuratively. We have an chilling example of a son who eventually got to the point where he tried to deny his father even existed because it just took too much emotional energy to care about someone as much as one's self and one's survival.
Elie fought this very emotion with his own father over and over;when his father was beaten once, Elie didn't even flinch. In fact, he actually walked away from his father at one point. The son got another chance to respect his father, and he did remain a faithful son until his father died. This line, though, speaks of Elie's inability to expend any more emotional energy on anything--including himself. Fortunately for him, rescue arrived soon.
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