The Cage By Ruth Minsky Sender

As I began to hear the testimony, I recalled all the various wars that have created us into what we are today. Brother against brother, kings that ruled the land, and dictators that overtook anything they desired. Survivors from various disasters have had a chance to let others hear and feel what they have gone through when they were younger like us. Cesia Kingston, one of the many survivors of the disastrous Holocaust, shares her many experiences throughout her life. Some too precious to forget, but others filled with pain and sorrow. Through every word Cesia spoke, they filled my thoughts like a wave, but at the same moment I remembered the times when pain and fear overtook me.

They have been stripped from everything from material items to culture and humanity. In this section, it is shows how the Nazi’s are trying to strip everything away in a horrible mannerism that the concept is difficult to explain in any language and a new language is brought from the pain and suffering that is happening. Another exampling of the dehumanization in Auschwitz is prisoners being stripped from everything they had, including their identity. “I have learned that I am Haftling. My number is 174517”(pg 13). Haftling in German means prisoner. The final step has been acted on. Those in the prison are officially stripped from their identity and given a number. This not only shows how they are being seen, which is basically nothing since they are just a number now, but also this show the ultimate plan to dehumanize their prisoners. They have been taken away from families, culture and life. Once someone takes away your identity, does one really

The Holocaust, or a jewish sacrificial offering that is burned on an alter, largely refers to the massacre and slaughter of over 6 million european jews from 1933 to 1945. One of the largest genocides took place less than 100 years ago. A recently fresh event on the historical timeline, and yet there would be little known on exactly went on inside the camps without the testimonies of survivors. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, produced the book “Night” as a way to cope with his time in the labor camps and to shed light on the reality of the inhumanity that engulfed numerous concentration camps across europe. After ten years of silence, the book was written by Wiesel to express his personal experiences inside the labor camps, as well as his testimony to horrifying and inhumane actions inflicted upon his beloved family and bunk mates. In “Night”, Elie Wiesel explores the evils in humanity by sharing his personal experiences and personal witness of inhumanity, and shares his own moral values of man.

The Jews had been starved while being detained in forced labor camp. Those who weren’t fit to work were killed and cremated. The most eye-opening description of the Jewish peoples’ state in the concentration camp came at the very end of the book. After being freed, Wiesel looked in a mirror for the first since his arrival at the camp. Wiesel described his reflection as a “corpse” and stated “the look in his eyes… has never left me.” (Wiesel 115). Not only had the Nazis carried out a brutal campaign on the Jews’ physical being, but they had also infiltrated deep into their psyche. Upon arrival at camps, all Jews’ were forced to hand over all of their clothes and wearing matching uniforms. After that, the prisoners’ were sent to the barber. Wiesel described the process, stating, “[The barbers’] clippers tore out our hair, shaved every hair on our bodies.” (Wiesel 35). After this process, every Jew was tattooed with a number. This process lead to the ego-death of every prisoner. They were no longer people: they were numbers. Nothing differentiated one Jew from another, besides the numbers tattooed on them. This horrendous act could only be classified as psychological torture, carried out by monsters who had lost control of their own

The quote, “We were told to roll up our left sleeves and file past the table. The three “veteran” prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name” (42), Eliezer was assigned a number in order for the Nazis to call him using that instead of his real name. The Nazi took away their main source of identity. Getting an identity taken away is something that only a few people experience. The line, “Three days later, a new decree: every Jew had to wear a yellow star” (11), is describing how the Jew were marked so that they stood out from the rest. The yellow star was a way to mark them as outcasts of the community. Their new identity was to be criminals or people at fault for the problems. The Jews’ identities were changed completely in order to show that they were lesser than the Nazi and their supporters. It’s hard to imagine how that must have felt unless someone experiences that

The concentration camps from World War II are part of a painful and tragic incident that we have learned about in school for many years. And while we are taught the facts, we may not fully understand the emotional impact it had upon the humans involved. Upon reading Night by Elie Wiesel, readers are given vivid descriptions of the gruesome and tragic behaviors that the Jews were forced to endure inside he treacherous concentration camps. Among all of the cruelties that the Jews were exposed to, a very significant form of the callous behaviors was the demoralization of the prisoners. Each inmate was given a tattoo of a number, and that tattoo became their new identity within the camp. Every prisoner was presented with tattered uniforms that became

When the train stopped and we were expelled, I stood on the stations platform sipping the air as if I were taking a long drink. Shaking off the feeling of confinement, I felt free. Yet, I was not free, we were not free, none of us were free. What was this place I asked myself? There was nothing here but barbed wire and watch towers, snarling dogs and Nazis. It seemed as if the train had deposited all of Europe’s Jews to this same location. Are we all here to work? There were also the others, men in striped uniforms and shaved heads and sunken faces. Some of them handled the belongings we were told to leave on the platform while others yelled at us like the Nazis, ordering people here and there.

When the train arrives at Auschwitz, they smell burnt flesh, and they can see the smoke. They know now that it is too late and that Mrs. Shachtner was right about the fire.

The terrors of the Holocaust are unimaginably destructive as described in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The story of his experience about the Holocaust is one nightmare of a story to hear, about a trek from one’s hometown to an unknown camp of suffering is a journey of pain that none shall forget. Hope and optimism vanished while denial and disbelief changed focus during Wiesel’s journey through Europe. A passionate relationship gradually formed between the father and the son as the story continued. The book Night genuinely demonstrates how the Holocaust can alter one's spirits and relations.

Almost immediately upon arrival to the concentration camp the orders “Men to the left. Women to the right.” echoed over all of the sacred ears and trembling bodies of the Jews. This is an example of dehumanization because the Nazis did not treat or think Jews to be humans, but rather animals. On page forty-two it says “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other identity.” The tattooing of numbers on the Jews shows

Everyone experiences emotional and physiological obstacles in their life. However, these obstacles are incomparable to the magnitude of the obstacles the prisoners of the Holocaust faced every day. In his memoir, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, illustrates the horrors of the concentration camps and their mental tool. Over the course of Night, Wiesel demonstrates, that exposure to an uncaring, hostile world leads to destruction of faith and identity.

While the Jewish people were held prisoner, all of their personal identities were taken away. Elie Wiesel writes, “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.” Elie and all the other prisoners had a number tattooed on them when they arrived at the concentration camp of Auschwitz. A name is an important part of a person, it makes you, you. With that being taken away, it

The holocaust can be regarded as one of the most awful events in history and the swastika continues to be a constant reminder of the horrendous acts of hate that were bestowed onto human lives. More than 1 million people were brutally murdered at the hands of an evil dictator named Adolf Hitler. Some of the vivid events and actions that took place during this time have been highlighted in the poem “The Trains” written by William Heyen. Heyen discusses the trains of Treblinka which carried the prized possessions of the many people who had been dropped off to death and/or concentration camps. In the poem, the author attempts to appeal to audiences of the 21st century around the world who do not fully understand the horrific incidents that occurred during the holocaust and the tragedy inflicted on its victims.

"The three 'veteran' prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name".(42) By taking away their names and giving them a number, they made them feel unworthy. ​ ​ As the book went on every person in the concentration camps began to lose compassion for one another. As Ellie's father began to get sick, he had to start taking care of him like he was own child instead of the other way around. Ellie then became very tired of caring for his father. "And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!..." (112)Ellie was very upset that his father had passed but he was glad he was finally free. He did not say it aloud but on the inside he was glad he did not have to take care of his father. ​ The conditions in the concentration camps were absolutely horrific and it made every single person concerned for their survival. As the men were running for selection many men fell. Everyone else just kept running like there was no one falling, getting hurt. All the men cared about was their safety. Ellie saw the men but decided to look out for himself. "Beneath our feet there lay, men crushed, trampled underfoot

One thing that the Nazis did was once the Jewish people arrived at the camps they were given tattooed numbers and those numbers were there new names. Instead of being called by their names they were now identified by their numbers. “ In the afternoon we were made to line up.Three prisoners brought a table and some medical instruments.With the left sleeve rolled up, each person passed in front of a table. The three ‘veterans’ with needles in their hand engraved a number on our left arms.I became A-7713. After that I had no other name” (39).The Jews were no longer by there names but by their names to show that they are weak and have no right to have a name. The Jews having number to replace their names was one of the ways the Jews were dehumanized.