Elie and his father have a changing relationship in the memoir. At the beginning, their relationship is a typical older father--know-it-all son relationship. Elie's father doesn't have much use for Elie's interests (Cabbalism), and Elie sees his father as distant from him and nonchalant about the warning signs of the approaching deportation.
In the book's middle chapters, Elie and his father become equals. Elie, the physically stronger of the pair, ensures his own survival, and his father tries to encourage Elie emotionally and psychologically.
Finally, near the end of Night when Chlomo's health deteriorates, Elie takes over the "adult" role by caring for his father and making life-or-death decisions.
Ironically, in the midst of something as abnormal and horrific as the concentration camps and Holocaust, Elie and his father's relationship follows the typical pattern of most father-son relationships, just at an advanced speed, for many adults in today's society find themselves in roles of authority over their aging parents, providing for them physically and emotionally, just as Elie had to do for his father, even when he was just a teen.
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