Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel

Dehumanization is when a person is treated as a wild animal, worth nothing more only less. The Eastern European Jews, like Elie Wiesel and his father, for example, whose stories are intertwined in his memoir Night, endured horrendous and inhumane acts. The acts Elie, his Father and every other Jew endured happend over a time period of twelve years. For instance, when Elie first got to Auschwitz in 1944, the soldiers said “Men to the left, Women to the right”. Then in 1945, Elie and his father were transferred to Buchenwald where his father would die. Elie’s acts of dehumanization included, Elie witnessing babies being killed, Elie being starved, and Elie being Seperated from his family. First, In the memoir Night, the narrator Elie Wiesel

For example, As soon as Elie and his father arrived at the camp, they were given a ration of bread and a bowl of soup to eat, which is nowhere near enough for having to “Work for Freedom”, and they would sometimes have to go hungry and be starved.Elli’s family had a goood income, his father owned a shop, which leads to Wiesel being somewhat of a “spoiled” kid.In the Memoir Night it states, “At about noon, we were brought some soup, one bowl of thick soup for each of us. I was terribly hungry, yet I refused to touch it. I was still the spoiled child of long ago. My father swallowed my ration.”. In the camps prisoners were only given one meal a day, to last them all day. For the work the Jews had to endure, one meal a day of no good food, was not healthy for them at all. Thats why when the camps were liberated By Allied forces, none of the Jews wanted to get revange on the Nazi Regime. The Prisoners only wanted food, The text states, “ Our first act as Free Men was to throw ourselves onto the provisions. That's all we thought about. No thought of revenge. This is a Major act of dehumanization because the Jews couldnt even see themselves, they were all skin and bones from being starved for possibly long periods of time.All of these families went from having three meals a day, to being lucky to get one meal. Not to forget their Religon required Kosher food, and Germans not reconizing

The first words Wiesel heard when he got out of the box cars where “Men to the left, Women to the right”. The men that were young in age and looked like they could work were kept, the Women, Children, Elderly were all taken to the gas chambers or furnaces and were executed. When Wiesel’s family was separated he never knew he wouldnt see his Sister or Mother again. According to “Night”, “An SS officer came toward us wielding a club. He commanded: "Men to the left! Women to the right!" Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words. Yet that was the moment when I left my mother.” and “I didn't know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever.” This is a form of dehumanization because it is tearing the families apart, and making it where the families are not able to see each other anymore and then always wondering if they are alive or not, while still trying to keep their well being and sanity in such a crazy