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Examples Of Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel

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Dehumanization is the act of stripping humanity from a person, or in the case of the Holocaust, a whole group of people. In the book "Night" by Elie Wiesel, the author describes his experiences as a young Jew living in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. Throughout the book, we witness Eliezer and the other Jews being treated as less than human, with the Nazis gradually stripping them of their identity and making them little more than objects to be manipulated and exploited. Here are three specific examples of events that dehumanized Eliezer or his fellow Jews:

Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir that describes the author's experiences during the Holocaust. Wiesel and his family are deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, …show more content…

By forcing them to strip, the Jews are robbed of their clothes, their identity, and their dignity. Eliezer's father, a once proud and dignified man, is reduced to nothing more than his body, and his identity as a human being is stripped away. This event is significant because it marks the beginning of the Jews' degradation; it sets the tone for how they will be treated for the rest of their time in the camp. Elie Wiesel says “Our clothes were to be thrown on the floor at the back of the barrack. There was a pile there already. New suits, old ones, torn overcoats, rags. For us it meant true equality: nakedness. We trembled in the cold.” He explains that all of the jewish people here were thrown into a pile, and everyone was truly equal. The true essence of humanity isn’t the thought of everyone being exactly the same, the true essence of humanity surrounds our …show more content…

These experiences, including being stripped of their clothes and dignity, forced labor in harsh conditions, and the death of loved ones, demonstrate the devastating impact of dehumanization on individuals and communities. By stripping away the basic elements of humanity, such as identity, dignity, and emotional integrity, dehumanization creates a sense of alienation and despair that can be difficult to overcome. It underscores the importance of treating all individuals with respect and dignity, and the need to combat prejudice and discrimination wherever they exist. The horrors of the Holocaust serve as a reminder of the power of dehumanization, and the need to prioritize human dignity and compassion in all aspects of life. As such, it is important to continue to learn from these events and strive to create a more accepting and tolerant society that values the worth and dignity of all

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In the memoir, Night by Elie Wiesel he recounts the horrors that occurred during the holocaust. The holocaust happened between the years 1933 and 1945. During that time, the jews were subjected to terrible, inhumane treatment. Hitler wanted to remove all jews from the death camps. He also killed most of jews by the end of 1945.

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Throughout the book Night by Elie Wiesel, we see many examples of how Jewish people were treated during their time in concentration camps. While reading this book we are met with many examples of the different hardships that Elie had gone through. Some of the hardships they endured were being beaten, tortured, starved, and in all dehumanized. Many examples are shown in the book written by Elie Wiesel. While reading Night we are met with many examples of the dehumanization that Elie was met with.

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Dehumanization can be described as “depriving a person of positive human qualities” (Oxford Language). Elie Weisel in Night shows how dehumanized people were during the Holocaust. From examining the words and the actions of the SS officers, it is clear that dehumanization was a big part of Elies life during the Holocaust. Elie Weizel encountered dehumanization from the SS officers. His time in the concentration camps led him to encounter dehumanization constantly through things he was called.

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The book Night By Elie Wiesel , Elie Wiesel tells the story of how he was sent to a concentration camp called Auschwitz, he struggles to keep his faith throughout all the terrible violent things that have happened to him. He also witnessed his fellow prisoners lose their faith and humanity throughout this awful experience. Elie Wiesel was sent to the concentration camps with his father, mother, and three sisters; most of his family died except his two older sisters that he soon met up with later in his life. Elie and his father went through so many terrible acts that the SS men did to them while in the concentration camps. During his time in the camp Elie and his fellow prisoners were constantly dehumanized and they were made to feel like they had no place in the world.

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Dehumanization was such a normalized thing during the Holocaust that Jewish people learned to live with it. The book Night by Elie Wisel shows just all the dehumanization Elie had to go through. After viewing the text, there are many examples of the physical and mental abuse that prove the dehumanizing acts Elie Wisel and the Jews went through. Elie Weisel tells us about all the physical abuse that has happened to him or that he has witnessed in the different camps. Elie and the prisoners experienced different things like being treated like slaves, being beaten, starved, and even being executed for no reason.

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People are more likely to commit inhumane acts when they are not seen as human beings. Dehumanization is one of the main themes in Night by Elie Wiesel, which means taking away someone's humanity and values. Wiesel illustrates the dehumanization of prisoners in concentration camps through characterization. In addition, he emphasizes that demonization continues to threaten society today. Through inhumane acts, Wisel shows the prisoners being stripped of their humanity throughout the book.

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Dehumanization is a psychological phenomenon that characterizes individuals with wholly negative connotations sequentially, encouraging violence and haterade toward them. Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is a memoir that embraces the consequences of dehumanization; it paints the reader with the reality of someone who experienced being a direct target of whole-hearted antagonism. In this essay, I intend to shed light on the horrendous tactics the Nazis used to control Elie, his father, and everyone involved. In addition, I will dismantle how Elie Wiesel's personality shifts before and after the events of the Holocaust. Upon first arriving, German troops wasted no time barking their perilous commands to the residences of Siget, Transylvania.

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One way the Jews were dehumanized was when their fate was determined by how they looked. When you first stepped into Auschwitz you were either sent to the left or the right. If you were sent to the left you were sent to the gas Chambers and if you were sent to the right you would have to live in terrible conditions until you died. “He was holding a conductor's baton and was surrounded by officers. The baton was moving constantly, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left” (Wiesel 31).

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Karla Galindo Michelle Stewart Summer English 14 July 2023 Night: Elie Wiesel Dehumanization means to deprive a person of their basic rights and to treat them as inferior and less-than human. Throughout his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel, illustrates how Hitler and his Nazis dehumanize the Jews in their quest to annihilate them. Due to the horrific and inhumane ways in which the Nazis seek to torture and exterminate the Jews, the Jews lose both faith in their God and compassion for one another. The Jews begin to lose faith in their God, their religion, due to the brutal and savage treatment of them in the hands of Hitler’s Nazis.

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Elie Wiesel's novel Night shows how psychological change might result from dehumanization. While Elie Wiesel was one to speak out against the atrocities of the Holocaust, many others, including Edna Friedberg's father in the article, “Elie Wiesel and the Agony of Bearing Witness” chose to remain silent for time. Even though Elie spoke out about it he was still impacted psychologically. Elie Wisel was physically impacted because he started to think being dehumanized was normal. He was being treated like animals and believed to just “get used to the situation” ( Wisel 20).Most people typically think that it's unacceptable and that something needs to be done.

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The Silenced Painful Lives On the assumption that you and everyone who lived around you were put in the situation to leave everything that you had in your life and have it thrown out to be treated like an animal, would you fight back to get everything you had before? Would you help the other people around you too? In the story Night by Eli Wiesel, we get the opportunity to see the perspective of the life of a 15-year-old during the Holocaust. Throughout the book Night, we see how Eli and numerous Jewish people pass through acts of dehumanization. Dehumanization is the act of depriving someone or a group of people and treating them as less human.

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Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis discreetly reduced the Jews somewhat greater than “things’ which were a nuisance to them. Ways that Eliezer was dehumanized were selections, separation, and executions. In the autobiography novel, Night, the events that changed his outlook on life, his attitude, and his identity as a man who survived. Selections were when the Nazis lined up all the Jews, put them through a test, and selected who was still good to work.

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Elie witnesses the breaking apart of families, including his own, as well as the brutality of the guards, witnessing individuals being beaten and shot. The Nazi guards used this initial impression of the camps to establish their superiority on the prisoners by treating them as though they were nothing. This dehumanization, along with the traumatizing sights seen by Elie, leaves him with a permanent scar, stating that “since then, sleep tend[s] to elude [him]” (Wiesel 32). Apart from Elie, the other Jews were weeping and praying in order to cope with the horrendous events that they had seen. After witnessing the diabolical treatment of Jews in the concentration camps, the Jews’ perspective on the world has drastically altered and it only gets worse as their time in the camps

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635 Words | 3 Pages

Elie and the other prisoners were robbed of their identity and branded like cattle. Due to the tattoo that was pierced into their skin, their identity was taken from them and they were no longer considered human. Because of this act of torture the Jewish people were considered anything less than a person or even human which is the dehumanization the nazis were doing. Another method of dehumanization that the nazis used is the public hangings of a young child in front of the whole camp. It dehumanizes the boy who is known by as pipel by hanging them and leaving him as a show.

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In which millions of Jews were innocently killed and persecuted because of their religion. As a student who is familiar with the years of the holocaust that will forever live in infamy, Wiesel’s memoir has undoubtedly changed my perspective. Throughout the text, I have been emotionally touched by the topics of dehumanization, the young life of Elie Wiesel, and gained a better understanding of the Holocaust. With how dehumanization was portrayed through words, pondering my mind the most.

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