The dehumanization of the Jews
Dehumanization was a cruel weapon that happened to the Jewish civilians during the Holocaust in Elie Wiesel’s, Night. How were the Jews being dehumanized? They were starved, forced to march, forced into cattle cars, beaten, malnourished, and had their rights taken away. However, that was the “normal” treatment for a Jew. It was normal to beat innocent humans, it was normal to starve them, and it was normal to make sure that they had no happiness. Unquestionably, Hitler was a ghastly person, but he was also a genius. He gathered Jews from around Germany, town by town, family by family, person by person, until he had millions of Jews locked up in his concentration camps. Furthermore, it was easy for him to get rid of the Jews, because they lost their hope and faith as a result of the dehumanization.
The Jews were first
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Elie Wiesel, accompanied by his dad and thousands of other Jewish prisoners, were forced to march 42 miles in the snow, cold, and rain. Elie writes, “An icy wind blew in violent gusts, but we marched without faltering” (Wiesel 63). In addition to being forced to march all that way in unimaginable weather, the German SS soldiers were hollering and pushing them. The soldiers were also under Hitler’s orders to shoot people if they fell behind. This tactic led Hitler to get rid of thousands of Jewish civilians. Furthermore, the Germans began to be cruel to them. Elie states in the story, “Faster you filthy sons of bitches! We were no longer marching; we were running like automatons” (Wiesel 63). Thus, not only were they being harassed by the soldiers, but they were also forced to run to the point that Elie compares himself and the others to automatons. An automaton is a moving mechanic device made in imitation of a human being. Automatons are inhuman, and Elie compared them to Jewish prisoners, which proves the dehumanization even