Dehumanization was the process the Nazi’s used to reduce Jews to a little more than just “things”. This process was seen used many times during the holocaust, causing many Jews to give up while in the camps. Night shows a lot of examples of dehumanization. Many examples were when the Jews were forced to gaze upon the death of innocent children. Elie gives a good example of this by saying, “Yes, I did see this with my own eyes. . . Children thrown into the flames”(32). As he stated, he saw the children being thrown into the fire, this would likely traumatize anyone who would have seen it. The Nazis would also beat the Jew’s. Elie makes a statement of one morning when he awoke. Elie says, “Around Five O’Clock in the morning we were expelled from
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.
Recently, I read the book Night by Elie Wiesel. In this book, there are three themes: survival, silence, and dehumanization. The theme I find most prevalent throughout the book is dehumanization. Elie Wiesel was a survivor of the Holocaust, and he shared his time in the concentration camps he was placed in. Night is an important and informative book to read because it shows what really happened during the Holocaust and what people living in the concentration camps dealt with.
According to webster's dictionary, dehumanization is treating someone as though he or9 she is not a human being. In"Night"written by Elie Wiesel, the Germans treated the jews like animals, and over time they started acting like it. While many fall victim to the fate of becoming a brute, Elie retains his civility. No matter how viciously they treated Elie, he never loses his love for his father. For example, Elie had a choice to stay in the infirmary and become liberated, or go with his father on the march to Buchenwald and risk death.
Wiesel uses a Rhetorical Question to demonstrate that dehumanization causes people to not care whether they live or die. For example Eliezer states that it would not matter when he died: “Here or else where- what difference did it make? To die today or tomorrow, or later? The night was long and never ending” (Wiesel 72). This quotation demonstrates that it did not matter when he died because he knew it was going to happen and Eliezer was careless. The use of the words die today or tomorrow, or later implies that No matter what day it is either way he will eventually die.
In Elie Wiesel's Night, the event of the young boy's hanging in the concentration camp serves as a powerful example of the dehumanization experienced by the Jews during the Holocaust. Witnessing the boy struggle on the gallows, with other prisoners forced to watch, illustrates the cruel and inhumane treatment inflicted upon them. The man's question, "Where is God now?" highlights the spiritual crisis faced by the prisoners as they grapple with the suffering and evil surrounding them. Additionally, the stripping of the prisoners' identities, replacing their names with numbers, further degrades and dehumanizes them. This act reduces them to mere objects, erasing their individuality and humanity.
Elie Wiesel uses metaphor, euphemism, simile, and connotation to demonstrate that dehumanization causes severe changes mental and physical in the victims.
“Never shall I forget the small faces of the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transform into smoke under the silent sky.” - Elie Wiesel. This quote is very important to dehumanization because children are being burned during the holocaust. The holocaust was in WWII. The jewish race was being exterminated. In the memoir, Night, Wiesel reveals the theme of dehumanization throughout the book. Dehumanization affected Elie’s identity; however he still wrote the book because he wanted his readers to understand how bad this time period was.
From the insults we deliver to the acts we commit, dehumanization, the act of depriving people of human qualities, is not a new concept. History has shown the tragic acts of dehumanization and the inflictions it can have upon a race. The most significant example of dehumanization in modern history occurred during World War II through the Nazi regime. With the rise in Nazi eugenics popularity, the ideology involved with “life unworthy of life” led to the formation of the Holocaust. In concentration camps, Jewish life was reduced to almost nothing with malnourishment, degradation, and amorality encompassing their known existence.
Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis gradually reduced the Jews to little more than "things" which were a nuisance to them. Altering the jews physical appearances, violently removing the jews from their homes and families, and treating them like vermin are the specific examples of events which dehumanized Eliezer, or his fellow Jews. These events changed Elie’s attitude, outlook, and identity. First, the Nazis alternate the Jews physical appearance. When they walked into concentration camp the had there hair shaved off, gold-capped-tooth taken out, and tattoo for identity.
Elie Wiesel's "Night" serves as a poignant memoir, recounting his haunting experiences during the Holocaust and shedding light on the dehumanization inflicted by Nazi soldiers. The narrative starkly depicts the brutal treatment of prisoners, reducing them to animals, and mercilessly subjecting innocent children to unspeakable acts of cruelty. In "Night," Wiesel masterfully exposes the transformation of these soldiers into instruments of brutality, emphasizing the profound impact of the degradation of humanity on their decisions and actions. The dehumanization of Nazi soldiers is evident in their treatment of prisoners, notably through the heartless commands of the Hungarian police. In the chilling quote, "Faster! Faster.
Dehumanization took many different forms during the holocaust and you saw multiple examples of these forms in Night. One of the first things that would take place is the Nazis taking the identity of the Jews away. The Jews would have to get numbers tattooed into their left arm, no longer calling them by their first name or surname, but by the random, Nazi chosen number inscripted into them by a dirty, old tattoo gun. Everyone got a tattoo. Everyone also got their hair cut short by an old, dull, dirty razor that hadn't been cleaned in who knows how long and had cut countless others had before them. This made gender identification difficult by just looking since they had women and men separated a lot of the time. Which leads to the separation of families.
Throughout the Holocaust, the severity of the violence increased drastically. By the end of the Holocaust, people were beaten, starved, and pushed to their physical limits. Elie Wiesel experienced these actions first hand. The Jewish were treated more severely by the soldiers and by each other during their marches, convoys, and when they were ill. This was all due to the dehumanization of the Jews.
Dehumanization is to deprive of human qualities such as individuality, compassion, or civility. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, Wiesel’s experiences of dehumanization are reflected through starvation, physical abuse, and mental abuse. Wiesel was put through dehumanization many times in the book Night. The other Jews were put through dehumanization also. Let’s get into more detail about how they were dehumanized.
Dehumanized its a very strong word but also a very strong thing. Being dehumanized is being controlled, and also being scared of the person who is controlling you.
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.