Malia
Over the course of only twelve years, the Nazis managed to gradually convert a large portion of the Jewish nation from citizens to livestock in the eyes of almost an entire nation. Twelve years does not seem like a long time for such an atrocity to occur, especially in the middle of the 20th century, long past the barbaric days of the Jews being persecuted for their religion. Every move the Nazis made was cold, calculated, and significantly gradual. They knew that if they were to start sending people to concentration camps immediately that there would be riots, resistance, and the German people may not stand for something so uselessly horrific. Instead, they took their time, slowly and carefully stripping the Jewish people of their rights, and the people took little notice at the tide lapping at their feet until the waves had consumed them, and they had already drowned. Hitler seized power in 1933, and in 1945, up to 6 million Jews had perished at his command before the war finally ended. During that time the German people had come to see the Jewish people as little more than a virus, invading their country and destroying their lives from the inside. Elie Wiesel recounts 5 years of abuse at the hands of the Nazi party that he endured in his critically acclaimed novel Night. Over the course of the book he describes, from a first person perspective, the calculated and gradual dehumanization of the Jewish people.
Elie Wiesel is a young boy of only 13 when we first meet
Dehumanization is the process of denying a person or group of positive human qualities. During the Holocaust, the Nazis reduced the Jews to little more than “things” which were a nuisance to them. In the novel Night there are many examples of dehumanization throughout the novel.
Imagine, losing the part of you that makes you unique, or being treated like you were worth absolutely nothing. Think about losing all that you hold on to: your family, friends, everything that you had. Imagine, being treated like an animal, or barely receiving enough food to live. All of these situations and more is what the Jews went through during the Holocaust. During the period of 1944 - 1945, a man by the name of Elie Wiesel was one of the millions of Jews that were experiencing the wrath of Hitler’s destruction in the form of intense labor and starvation. The novel Night written by the same man, Elie Wiesel, highlights the constant struggle they faced every single day during the war. From the first acts of throwing the Jews into
In Elie Wiesel’s novel Night, Wiesel writes about the experiences of Eliezer, his family, and fellow Jews, he explained how the Nazis gradually changes the way the Jews lived little by little. Dehumanization is the process of stripping a person of every quality that makes him human and changing them to fit their needs. Dehumanizing started when Eliezer and other Jews in his community are evacuated from their homes in Sighet. They were transported in cattle cars which related the Jews to no more than livestock. After the harsh transportation the Jews arrived at Auschwitz a concentration camp where Eliezer spent many months of his life. They were whipped, ran, and starved till some of the Jews could not take it. In Elie Wiesel book he explains how he found the stamina to survive these cruel conditions.
Dehumanization is the act of taking one’s human qualities away from them, this can be done using voice and also using actions. During the time of the Holocaust, the Nazi’s used their power to abuse and dehumanize the Jewish people. They would beat and kill them, they would yell at them and they stripped the Jews of their dignity and rights. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, one recurring theme is the dehumanization of the Jews. Throughout Night by Elie Wiesel, one can see the theme of dehumanization through the way the Nazi’s treated the Jews, spoke to the Jews, and how the Jews treated one another.
Elie Wiesel uses metaphors, Rhetorical questions and personification to demonstrate that dehumanization ultimately causes negative, mental, physical changes in victims.
Throughout the duration of the Holocaust, many Jews witnessed the worst of humanity. In concentration camps, over six million people were killed and tortured. Among the people imprisoned in these camps was Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor. In his memoir Night, the many acts of dehumanization and cruelty that Wiesel witnesses ultimately leads to his loss of faith in both his god and humanity.
Greater than any war, plague, or catastrophe and it’s potential damage to human life is beyond calculation, the feeling of dehumanization is a feeling beyond description. Elie Wiesel a Jew Holocaust survivor from Sighet, Transylvania writes a memoir Night. In his memoir he writes about his own experiences in 1944 during the holocaust. Throughout this story Elie goes through lots of challenges that ultimately challenge his faith as a human. In resemblance, Jakob Blankitny a Jew from Maków Mazowiecki, Poland writes his take on his experiences in 1944 throughout the holocaust and how he and his family are treated by the Nazis and degraded as humans. In dire circumstances, these texts argue that dissolving one into a primitive with savage, animal characteristics are necessary for survival under inhumane conditions.
“He was so terrible that he was no longer terrible, only dehumanized.” Elie and his family just wanted to live a normal life. They didn’t have very much money, but were happy with the state they were in. One day, SS officers showed up and took Elie and his family away. Not knowing where they were going, they were obviously scared. Once they finally got there, they realized what they were in for, and that Moishe the Beadle was right. In Elie Wiesel’s book, Night, the German Army dehumanizes Elie Wiesel and the rest of the Jewish prisoners by depriving them of love, safety, and physiological needs.
Twelve-year-old Elie Wiesel spends much time on Jewish mysticism. His instructor, Moshe the Beadle, returns from a near-death experience and warns that Nazi aggressors will soon threaten the serenity of their lives. Even when the family and Elie were pushed to ghettos they remained calm and compliant. In spring, authorities begin shipping trainloads of Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. In a cattle car, eighty villagers can hardly move and have to survive on minimal food and water.
At this point, the Jews are very comfortable and go so far as to recognize
Dehumanized. Tortured. Starved. Those three words are referred to how the concentration camps were like. The memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel tells the story of his memory of the concentration camps and how it all turned into a big nightmare. Sighet is a little town in Transylvania where Elie spent his childhood. As a young boy Elie was very religious. Shlomo, Elies father was as well very religious. Religion meant a lot to him, however through out the Holocaust Shlomo and Elie soon realize what really is important.
Writing Task One Elie Wiesel uses metaphor and simile to demonstrate that dehumanization causes severe changes, mental and physical, in the victims. In chapter 4 Wiesel demonstrates how dehumanization makes the prisoners lose their own identity (Wiesel pg.49). This quote demonstrates how there getting treated like cattle or merch, there loss of identity is replaced with that of an animal or groceries. “Each one began to chose the men that they liked: you...you...
Dehumanization played a big role in the holocaust the Nazis reduced the Jews from living human beings to objects and numbers. “Night” by Elie Wiesel published in 1958. In the novel “Night” is about Elie and his time in a concentration camp and how he survived the holocaust. Being separated from his mother and sisters and only left with his father.Dehumanization the process in which the Nazis reduced the Jews from people to objects and numbers.
A Crime Against Humanity “One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live” (Wiesel 109). In Eliezer Wiesel's memoir Night, Wiesel goes through a life changing experience in which he loses his faith in humanity. Wiesel experiences all the stages of genocide throughout his teen years. Although Wiesel does not use the word “genocide”, his account of his experience shows that it was definitely genocide that he witnessed.
In his book Night, Elie Weisel describes the cruel, dehumanizing treatment of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany. The soldiers treated the Jews like possessions that could be disposed of for any reason, either by being sent to the gas chambers, torn away from family members, or deprived of food, warmth and medical care. The Nazis sent a clear message to the Jews from the moment they captured them, by cramming them into cattle cars. “We walked toward the station, where a convoy of cattle cars was waiting. The Hungarian police made us climb into the cars, eighty persons in each one (Weisel 22).