Dehumanization is a theme that was heavily explored throughout the progression of Night, and especially through Elies experiences at different concentration camps.. The first instance of horrible cruelty shown at the camps starts as early as his arrival at Birkenau, where Elie and his family first arrive after leaving Sighet. Within Elie’s first day at the camp, he already began to see the horrors of the concentration camps. As soon as he arrives, he is stripped away from his family and is forced into wooden barracks, where he is beaten by the kapos and forced to run in the blistering cold without any clothing. After this, they are all forced back into the barracks, where they are given some clothes which don’t fit most of them. At this point, …show more content…
At this point, he felt “from then on, I had no other name” (42). This quote shows how Elie’s entire existence has been erased and that now, he had no identity or history. He had no identity anymore other than the numbers on his left arm. After this, Elie’s sense of humanity will forever be changed, and will no longer feel human. After only a few weeks, Elie is moved again to a different camp called Buna, where he spends most of his time in the camps. At this camp, Elie is subjected to extreme working conditions within his Kommando, working countless hours inside of an electrical wharehouse and extreme physical violence at the hand of his Kapo, Idek, who often takes out his rage on his prisoners, beating Elie multiple times, hitting and beating him until he was covered in blood. He also whipped him until he was unconcious after Elie caught Idek with a girl and laughed at him,. He beat Elie’s father with an iron bar for no real reason while they worked. They were starved, hung, and refused medical attention if they were injured. These conditions are what lead to many prisoners losing themselevs and their will to