“Night” by Ellie Wiesel is a memoir of Ellie’s years during the Holocaust at the Nazi’s concentration camps. The book is his true story telling about the death of his friends and family,what he encountered, and how he started to lose faith in God. Ellie experienced many instances of dehumanization like when the Germans threw bread, and when he was cruelly punished. When the Front was moving closer to the camps, the Nazis moved Ellie and the others to Buchenwald. When they arrived, many Germans were watching the train while laughing and throwing bread.
Nakedness, beatings, dogs, tattooed numbers, fire, chimney, crematoria, loneliness, silence, death,... selection. These were all methods and statements made by the Germans in an effort to dehumanize the Jews. One of Elie Wiesel’s main focuses in the book Night is on dehumanization. Germans would put Jews in harsh situations to make them suffer, to the point of death.
The bond between a father and a son is perhaps a thing of beauty. It is sometimes what bonds them together to survive horrible occasions, such as the Holocaust that Elie Wiesel and his father went through. Throughout the march to the Birkenau concentration camps, some sons and fathers took advantage of their father's’ old age and used it to steal or betray them. This displays how dehumanization plays a role in breaking apart a family bond that was instilled in their hearts on their first days of humanity.
Wiesel also writes develops the theme of dehumanization in order to convey that the Nazi’s had consumed the feeling of humanity of the Jews. There were many acts that dehumanized the Jews which included starvation, beatings, murders, separation of families, theft of their belongings, and other things. Throughout the book, dehumanization grows and slowly exhausts the Jews until they have all sense of being human. After hearing about the bombing of the Buna factory, Wiesel writes, “We were not afraid. And yet, if a bomb had fallen on the blocks, it would have claimed hundreds of inmates’ lives.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, dehumanization is one of the key themes. Experiencing dehumanization is by far a horrible way to live. Being hit and treated like an animal is what Elie Wiesel, his father and the other Jews experienced. Even though this happened some time ago, it got me thinking how often does this happen today? Many people can still experience this, women especially.
In the memoir Night by Elie Weisel written 10 years ago in 1955 is about how Hitler was trying to exterminate all the jews by taking them to concentration camps and treating them subhumanly if you will and how Elie Weisel was tortured and dehumanized there are many ways they were dehumanized but let’s start from the beginning. In chapter 2 of this memoir they were being moved to a concentration camp in a cattle car. In the cattle car there was no room for you to lay down with 80 people in one car. Also in the car they also had very little food and water and were trying to preserve their resources but despite not having very many resources they had a really good country side view.
Imagine a life where you had nothing to look forward to; everything you care for is either broken, stolen, or dead. Would you still fight for your life? Or would you give up? When Elie Wiesel’s life takes a turn for the worst in his novel, Night, he does not lose hope; he fights for his life against the Nazi’s and their dehumanation.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night he and many of the other prisoners felt victimized by the guards and their use of power over them. One example of abuse and dehumanization is Franek, the foreman. He noticed that Elie had a gold crown in his mouth, Franek wanted it. When told to give it to him, Elie said no, so Franek started harassing and abusing Elie’s father. Elie’s father was unable to march in step, which caused a problem for him because everywhere they went it was in step, “This presented Franek with the opportunity to torment him and, on a daily basis, to thrash him savagely.
The Holocaust was the murder of over 6 million Jews in Nazi Germany. Eliezer Wiesel’s memoir Night is a personal account of the brutality endured by Jewish prisoners in concentration camps. The author details the various tactics used by the Nazis to make the Jews feel far less human. This dehumanization process by the Nazis, in the form of stripping Jews of their identity, physical and mental torment, and animal-like treatment, transformed the depth of Eliezer’s faith. The first step taken by the Nazis to dehumanize Jews was to take away anything that shaped their identity or sense of self.
The Holocaust was a devastating time for not only adults but children as well. Throughout the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel changes spiritually, physically, and socially. In the country of Auschwitz where he approaches a concentration camp beginning to see the cruelty and brutal trauma Nazis had in plan for not only just Elie but others, by not eating, working to the bone, losing the connection to his family as well as his passion and loyalty to god. Dehumanization is shown throughout the novel beginning with the hanging of the Jewish boy in front of the rest of the prisoners, the Natzi soldiers throwing bread into a cattle car, and losing sight of his faith in god. Each event challenged his inner strength.
Dehumanization. According to Dictionary.com, we define dehumanization as the act of regarding, representing, or treating a person or group as less than human. This concept is hard to comprehend, and the atrocities of the Holocaust have been forever immortalized in Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night. In this book, Wiesel conveys the tragedies endured by himself and the Jewish people, but also encourages readers to help others and be aware of the world around them.
Imagine knowing your fate ahead of time. That single moment would be stuck in your head, replayed every second to prevent it. This would obstruct your feeling of morals, making you only focus on your own survival. Nothing would get in your way of trying to survive. During the Holocaust, many people were faced with this moment when they stepped in a concentration camp.
What is it like to feel like less than a human? This is what the Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust felt like. Dehumanization makes people feel like they are less than human. The Holocaust was one of the most cruel events of dehumanization in history.
The Holocaust is the most horrible genocide that has ever occurred, and it must never be forgotten. The dehumanization of the Jewish community results in innocent people suffering emotionally, physically, and spiritually. This also causes them to lose their sense of identity, their faith, and their general sympathy for other people. As Eliezer's degradation worsens, he begins to lose confidence in God and wonders how He could be so wicked as to permit such heinous and cruel atrocities to occur. Eliezer loses his identity and his understanding of self when he faces the brutal crimes and savagery that take place in the concentration camps of the Holocaust.
Dehumanization Causing Events in Night Over the course of Eliezer’s holocaust experience in the novel Night, the Jews are gradually reduced to little more that “things” which were a nuisance to Nazis. This process was called dehumanization. Three examples of events that occurred which contributed to the dehumanization of Eliezer, his father, and his fellow Jews are: people were divided both mentally and physically, those who could not work or who showed weakness were killed, and public executions were held.
