In “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Elie writes about numerous examples of the atrocities and acts of dehumanization committed during the holocaust and also writes about some redeeming moments that helped him to keep pushing and survive. When the story first starts out, Elie and the rest of the jews in sighet are living their everyday lives until one day the Germans come to town. Over the next few weeks, the Germans slowly but surely took control of sighet and began enforcing very strict laws. Then, everyone is shipped off to concentration camps by train, and somehow Elie and his father stick together through several concentration camps and numerous atrocities but eventually Elie's father dies. During this whole story, Elie is called “filthy dog”, he …show more content…
An example of being reduced to subhuman creatures is when elie and fellow prisoners are made to run 20 km with no rest. During this, an SS soldier yells “faster, you flea-ridden dogs!(85)”. Them being called dogs is obviously extremely dehumanizing, and it is partly why the word “bitch” is offensive, as it refers to dogs. As I have said, moments of humanity have helped elie to keep going, however they still don't negate the dehumanization and offensiveness of being called dogs and being treated as less than …show more content…
On the train to Buchenwald, on the third night, Elie is awoken when someone tries to strangle him to death. Seeing this, Meir Katz shows compassion for his friend's son and a fellow Jew and saves his life. Despite being densely packed into cattle cars, nearly beaten to death and fighting over bread, Meir Katz still finds it in him to show humanity and save Elie. This moment probably helped remind Elie that even though most of the people around him are bad people, there are still good people out there and that there is a chance of survival. Without this hope, Elie would have either killed himself earlier or been