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Concentration Camp Dehumanization Essay

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Dehumanization of Jews in Concentration Camps During the Holocaust of World War II, millions of Jews in concentration camps became the targets of dehumanizing techniques accomplished by Nazis. However, this wasn’t the first occurance of dehumanization done by the Nazis prior to concentration camps; dehumanization of Jews had been building up for quite a while, but continued into concentration camps . Taking away a Jew’s entire identity, treating them similarly to animals, creating an environment where it became a fight for the fittest, all were methods of dehumanization initiated by Nazis. The amount of Jewish people killed in concentration camps can be attributed to these techniques, as denying that Jews were less than human made it easier …show more content…

Discipline was a constant with the Nazis, and they never failed to demonstrate their charge over the Jews and prisoners, whether or not they actually did something worth punishing. Consequences came in various forms, from corporal punishment, to public humiliation in front of fellow captives in the camp. The most common form of punishment was lashing, performed publicly during the evening roll-calls (Punishments). Sometimes, the Nazis in charge instructed them to stand still for hours at a time between two electrified barbed fence wires, just for the pure torture of it. Everyday consisted of a strict daily schedule, and if not followed, punishments were handed out freely. Both the SS-men and the functionary prisoners striked and whipped inmates at every coming opportunity, or submerged and drowned them in fire basins or sewage pits, as well as sent hounds to attack the victims (Punishments). Most concentration camps held broken-down barracks with leaking roofs that prisoners slept in. They were crammed into tiny bunks, often without blankets, or directly onto muddy floors (Nazi Concentration Camps-Daily Life). The living conditions mirrored the same treatment Nazis gave Jews, as in their living spaces were below the human standards of a home. The Nazis believed that Jewish prisoners deserved no better than those harsh living conditions, and regarded the Jews as enemies deserving brutal punishment. They managed to accomplish everything they could to deprive the Jews of human treatment not unlike animals, and deprived them of a home that was worthy of living

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Prisoners were first beaten brutally later hanged up and left to die. In the camp prisoners would be examined by SS man, Wiesel said “ Whenever he found a weak one, he would write his number down: Good for crematory” (38). The Nazi were capable of doing anything they wanted with the prisoners, according

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Weisell explains what life was like in a concentration camp; “ Hunger- thirst- fear- transport- selection- fire- chimney: these words all have intrinsic meaning, but in those times they meant something else (Weisellix).” The Jews were treated not as humans because they were not viewed as such in the eyes of the Nazi’s.

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Dehumanization made people feel like they are worthless. When they came to the camp, they were dehumanized by giving less food and crammed them into barracks which had little space to sleep, they also stripped them and cut their hair. Nazi generals took their belongings and valuables from Jews. Jews and other targeted groups were tattooed numbers to get registered. On Eliezer’s first day of the camp, “Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky”(Wiesel 34).

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Also the SS men made all the prisoners look the same so they could all feel like there was no place for them. Also the SS men’s form of dehumanization was abuse and the SS men were hurting the prisoners in many violent ways including, whipping , hitting, blows to the head, barley feeding them, forcing them to get tattoos of numbers on their arms that they have to live with forever, and much more. The prisoners had to live with these scars and memories for the rest of their lives and always have a memory of what it was like in the holocaust always in the back of their mind. It's a very awful experience that they went through while in the concentration

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The Nazis treated the Jewish inmates like they were farm animals,

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The system was designed to turn victim against victim, as the prisoner functionaries were pitted against their fellow prisoners in order to maintain the favor of their SS guards. Did one volunteer to become one? Did you beat other prisoners? If so you would have to beat your family and friends just to save yourself from the labor and

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During the holocaust, The Nazis used a form of treatment towards the Jews to make them feel less and less human it was called dehumanization. This means to deprive someone of their human like qualities and merely make them feel like a “thing” that gets in peoples way. They used this method to make it seem like the Nazis were doing them a favor, they were killing the jews to “purify” germany in their eyes. To begin, some inmates at the concentration camps (mostly the newer ones) were usually told that if they were fifteen, “No. you're eighteen” (Wiesel 133).

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Some of the Jews that survived at Auschwitz were liberated. Auschwitz was a killing center for the jews or others that the Nazis were against. Called the undesirables. Some punishments and executions they used were shooting, hanging, starvation to death, and the post. The text states, “The victim’s hands were tied behind his back and he was hung from a post so that his feet could not touch the ground.

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Yes, the amount and severity of brutality varied depending upon the concentration camp in which the prisoners were placed. However, each concentration camp stripped each individual of their humanity. Elie Wiesel illustrates this impact by comparing the dehumanization to the lives of robots that could live forever and never tire. After a horrific run from Buna, Elie Wiesel describes their lives by writing, “We had forgotten everything—death, fatigue, our natural needs” (Wiesel 87). The prisoners of the concentration camps were tortured beyond the limits of being human and the effect on the surviving prisoners will last

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Dehumanization is the process of depriving a person, or group of people, of their unalienable rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. From the beginning of the Holocaust, the Jews were the target of inequitable treatment from their German and allied persecutors. They were segregated from other races, seen more like animals than people, and tormented a great deal. In 1944, Wiesel describes his first sight of German soldiers in Sighet; he insisted that despite the Jewish people’s expectations, “first impressions of the Germans were most reassuring.”

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They are guarded by armed men and barbed wire fences. In the camps prisoners are burned in chimneys, beaten by inmates and guards, and worked harshly. The constant pain, death, and exhaustion felt

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To do this, the SS authorities were forced to beautify the camps in advance to the red cross offiicals visit. Additionally, they staged events such as festivals and games to demostrate the desirable living conditions. Similarly, in 1945, the SS officials made a film about the camp as a use of propaganda. In this film, it showed the Jews being happy, living a good life, and having fun. They forced the inmates to work as writers, actors, editors, etc.

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In the autumn of 2006, farmers began to notice a loss of 30 – 90 percent of their bee hives. Loss of bee population over the cold seasons is common, but never had the decline in population been that drastic (Stress and Honey Bees). Colony Collapse Disorder is the event in which bee colony populations rapidly decrease. In this phenomenon, the bodies of the missing bees are not found and the only remaining bees are juvenile and the queen. Noticeable symptoms of CCD are: absence of adult bees in the hive, little to no dead bees in the hive, and what is left of the bee colony is reluctant to eat any of the feed given to them by the beekeeper (Related Topics).

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In Night one of the ways that the Jews were dehumanized was by abuse. There were beatings, “I never felt anything except the lashes of the whip... Only the first really hurt.” (Wiesel, 57) “They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs.

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In many ways, Nazis had physically, mentally, and emotionally dehumanized their victims. The Jews were treated so badly by the Nazis that they felt as if they weren’t even humans; they felt like animals. For example, the Jewish prisoners were always being yelled at with harsh tones. Eliezer only remembers one time when a Polish

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