Dehumanization in Night “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.” These words spoken by Nelson Mandela illustrate how the refusal of one’s rights infringes on their humanity, and ranks them lower than not only humans, but even animals. Throughout the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, the act of dehumanization by the Nazis is clearly evident during the entirety of Elie’s experience in the concentration camps. In addition, the theme of dehumanization is also found in the graphic novel, Maus, which illustrates the life in concentration camps as well.
To begin, Elie Wiesel had his humanity stripped from him, starting at the beginning of his journey, all the way to the end. He first truly experiences dehumanization by the Nazis when a large amount of Jews are rounded up from the ghettos, where they are then forced onto open cattle cars. This account is described by Wiesel, saying, “The next morning, we walked toward the station, where a convoy of cattle cars was waiting. The Hungarian police made us climb into the cars, eight persons in each one. They handed us some bread, a few pails of water”(22). This encounter reveals to Elie and the other Jews exactly what the Nazis think of them; nothing more than a bunch of cattle. First, the Nazis use cattle cars instead of actual passenger trains to transport the Jews. They do this, not caring about the comfort of the Jews, but instead for the convenience of transporting hundreds of Jews to their deaths.