Hitler’s goal for the Holocaust was to exterminate all Jews. Night, a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, is about a Jew’s life during the Holocaust. It tells his life story from when he was living in his own house, to when he was put into ghettos, the ride to the camps and so on. Elie Wiesel experiences dehumanization by disinfection, abuse, tattoos, and being treated like merchandise. All of the new prisoner arrivals are put through a sort of cleaning process. They are stripped of all clothing, except their shoes and belts. The Kapos have them go to the “barber” to have all the hair on their bodies shaved off. The prisoners run to the next barrack where they are disinfected and showered. Then to the next barrack where they get their prison uniforms. The process was so barbaric that they“. . . had ceased to be men”. (37) It is inhumane because they are taking away all their rights and belongings, and they're treating them as if they are infected with a contagious disease. …show more content…
They thought so lowly of the prisoners that they often beat them for talking directly to them. When Elie’s father asked the Gypsy if he could use the restroom, he “. . . wished to ascertain that the person addressing him was actually a creature of flesh and bone. . .” The Gypsy stared at his father for a while and “. . . as if waking from a deep sleep, he slapped my father with such force. . .”(39). This is when Shlomo, Elie's father, is being dehumanized because the Gypsy slapped him for asking to use the toilet. He thinks so lowly of the Jewish prisoners that they aren't allowed to speak directly to
The novel Night by Elie Wiesel tells a devastating tale of a young man in concentration camp in World War II. Concentration camps were used in World War II to dehumanize and terrorize Jews. Dehumanization is the act of depriving humans of their rights and treating them as if they were worse than animals. Humans had been fighting for so long to get equality for everyone, but then Hitler rose to power and undid the work society had done. Many examples of how World War II used dehumanization were Hitler and his actions, leaving family members behind, and the labor camps in themselves.
His attitude went reversed from being confident, as a religious and prestigious person within the Jewish community, to being scared with the inmates giving poor treatment to him. Wiesel was separated split from his mother and sister along with given the bare minimum to eat and drink. Therefore, it was not surprising when he felt scared and uncomfortable with his surroundings as he was not used to it. Furthermore, during the time when his father was slapped by a Gypsy inmate, Wiesel stood petrified with fear instead of retaliating back against his father’s adversary. He explored the rationale behind his lack of action through the text stating, “my father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent” (39). Even though the Gypsy inmate slapped Wiesel’s father, Wiesel did not stand up for this father considering how scared he was of the authority in Auschwitz, a concentration camp. This incident reflected on his change in character since the authority at Auschwitz dehumanized his father in front of everyone, and he did not do anything to defend his father. Earlier, the Jewish people were allowed to sit down at the second barrack of the Auschwitz camp. Wiesel’s father got up to ask to use the bathroom since he had a colic attack; however, the gypsy inmate in charge did not answer his question and slapped him. Because of Wiesel’s his
At midnight on the third day of their deportation, the group looks at flames rising above huge ovens and gags at the stench of burning flesh. Guards wielding billy clubs force Elie's group through a selection of those fit to work and those who face a grim and improbable future. Elie and his father lie about their ages and depart with other hardy men to Auschwitz. Elie's mother and three sisters disappear into Birkenau, the death camp. After viewing infants being tossed in a burning pit, Elie is now against God, who remains silent. Elie and his father manage through all the pain and horrific sights and fight through it all. In the novel “Night” Elie Wiesel shows dehumanization in many occurrences throughout the book. Pg 13 “ The gestapo had threatened to shoot him if he talked.” Pg 36 “ He was weeping bitterly. I thought he was crying with joy at still being alive.” Pg. 53 “ Beating me in the chest, on my head, throwing me to the ground and picking me up again, crushing me with ever more
“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.
In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel portrays the process of dehumanization inflicted upon the Jewish people by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The dehumanization process had a profound impact on Eliezer’s attitude, outlook, and identity. Through three instances of dehumanization. One example of the process of dehumanization at night is the Nazis’ practice of forcing Jewish prisoners on death marches. These marches involved long and grueling journeys, often resulting in the death of most of the prisoners.
Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis gradually reduced the Jews to little more than “things” which were a nuisance to them. In the book “Night by Elie Wiesel”, the reader learns about the acts of dehumanization against the Jews. Elizer and the other Jews experienced acts of dehumanization such as starvation, having their identity taken away from them, and being forced to go on death marches. Those acts of dehumanization had a great change in the way Elizer and other Jewish peoples outlook on life. Starving the Jews was a big thing that the Germans would do to make the Jewish people live in misery.
In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel writes about his experience inside the concentration camps of Germany during World War II. He realizes how his humanity changes after he is free. Elie ponders about if he can be re-humanized after he passes trials, when he looks at a mirror. Wiesel uses a gloomy tone to reveal how Elie succeeds in survival through dehumanization.
In the memoir, Night , by Elie Wiesel is about Elie’s experience with the Holocaust. In the many work camps he traveled, he witnessed many cases of dehumanization. The word “Dehumanization” means a group of people assert the inferiority of another group. The humans that are inferior think that race of people shouldn’t deserve of moral consideration. When the Wiesel’s arrived at Birkenau, reception center for Auschwitz; Wiesel experienced his first case of dehumanization when he gets separated from his mother and his daughter. When he arrived at Auschwitz he gets tattooed a number; this is where the SS officers striped his birth name away. At Buna, Wiesel witnessed many followings because his fellow jews have committed crime. Throughout
In Elie Wiesel’s autobiography, “Night” there are many examples of dehumanization from start to finish. Dehumanization is stripping a person of every quality that makes them human. This includes their identity, individuality, and soul. The Night shows the process by which the Nazis reduced the Jews to little more than “things” which were a nuisance to them. The book takes place in World War 2, in the Holocaust. Eliezer and his family are very much directly affected by actions taken by the Nazis as well as all the other Jews. Throughout the whole book, the Nazis use practices such as beatings, starvation, theft of possessions, separation of families, crude murders, forced labor, and many more actions represented through the text of this book that are all examples of dehumanization. Eliezer, the narrator of the story, arrived at the concentration camp of Auschwitz when he was fifteen years old. He arrived by the transportation of cattle cars. Within the various camps, Eliezer spent ten months of abuse and dehumanization. He lost so much due to the Germans.
Throughout Night, Elie illustrates the change of the Jewish people from a unified race to self-reliant beasts who only look out for themselves and must fight for their own well-being for survival. As Elie and his father are welcomed to Auschwitz by SS guards shouting “ Men to the left! Women to the right!” (Night 29), immediately separated from their family, and having no time to acknowledge that they will never see each other again, they begin to realize this isn’t any ordinary camp. During their first night at Auschwitz they are ordered to, “Strip! Hurry up! Raus! Hold on only to your belt and your shoes”(Night 35). Their clothes representing their dignity and
Elie Wiesel describes numerous ways people are stripped of their humanity. Elie and his father and those around him were dehumanized. I think this happened because they had lost hope to live on and because they experience such horrible thing in the concentration camp. I think this lasting impact had the people who in the concentration to forget who they were and forget that they are human.
The dehumanization of the Jewish people by the Nazis in the form of starving them, stripping them of their identification, and beatings affected Eilizer’s outlook on life. Jews were turned into animals, they were severely starved and neglected, leaving them the only thing they could do. They were served a certain amount of rations a day, sometimes none. They craved whatever little food they could and made sure to put up a fight for it. “Men fought desperately over a few crumbs” (Wiesel 100) Forgetting their morals, people attached and turned on one another for just a crumb.
Dehumanization is the denial of human rights. Night by Elie Wiesel depicts the events that dehumanized the Jews during the holocaust. Hitler dehumanized the Jews by stripping them of their identities, treating them like animals and making them turn on one another.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, he tells his story of the Holocaust and how the Nazis tried to destroy the jewish race.. In the Holocaust, the Nazis thought the Jews were less than them. Elie tells the story of how the Nazis tried to eliminate the Jews. . The Naizs treated the Jewish people badly because they dehumanized them, they treated them as they were nothing, and the Nazis destroyed the Jews from the inside out.
First, Elie gets beaten by Idek the Kapo for witnessing him with a girl. “Idek jumped, turned and saw me, while the girl tried to cover her breasts. I wanted to run away, but my feet were nailed to the floor. Idek grabbed me by the throat. Hissing at me, he threatened: ‘Just you wait, kid …You'll pay for this later…’” (Wiesel 57). This shows that while in the camps, the normal treatment was only what Elie received. He got whipped 25 times and was left half unconscious. Next, Franek the foreman wants Elies gold crown but Elie refuses to give it to him. So in return, Franek is beating Elie’s father to get the gold crown. “Unfortunately, Franek knew how to handle this; he knew my weak spot. My father had never served in the military and could not march in step... That presented Franek with the opportunity to torment him and, on a daily basis, to thrash him savagely” (Wiesel 55). Because Elie didn't want to give up his gold crown, he had to watch his father get beaten by Franek. This negatively impacted Elie because he had to watch someone he loved get attacked for what he did. Finally, again Idek the Kapo was angry one day and Elie just so happened to be near. Idek attacked Elie and he didn’t even do anything. “One day when Idek was venting his fury, I happened to cross his path. He threw himself on me like a wild beast, beating me in the chest, on my head, throwing me to