ipl-logo

Examples Of Dehumanization In Night By Lie Wiesel

1005 Words5 Pages

If you were to ask someone what the first number that comes to their head is when you say “Holocaust”, they would probably tell you 6 million, for the thousands of thousands of Jews killed. Maybe they say 11 million to include the 5 million people whose lives were also deemed worthless. Both of these are shocking numbers, but they don’t come about by accident. There is no butterfly effect or mishap that kills 11 million people, it is overwhelmingly intentional. The cornerstone strategy that allowed the Nazi party to carry out the largest genocide in human history was dehumanization. No German citizen, and not even Adolf Hitler, would support the large-scale, systematic murder of people they thought to be equal. The thorough dehumanization …show more content…

lie Wiesel’s experiences of dehumanization in the Nazi concentration camps extraordinarily influence his behavior and identity. During his time in the camps, Elie demonstrated extreme behavioral adaptations to survive the treatment; these were made possible by the erasing of his identity.
Elie’s identity is established in the opening pages of the book. Elie is characterized as a deeply religious and intelligent person. His religion is more important to him than most, however, as he wants to study Kabbalah. As the German invasion looms closer, Elie remains focused on his studies, devoted fully to his faith.
In the camps, Elie’s faith is immediately tested. As death seemed imminent Elie first began to question God, saying “Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” (33). The design of the camps intentionally tested faith, forcing the Jewish prisoners to confront the dead and dying at all times. By straining this part of Elie’s identity, the process of dehumanization began. Later in the camps, Elie’s belongings, clothes, and hair are removed. In return he receives a number and a camp uniform. He has now lost his external identity, proceeding more …show more content…

Elie and his father were luckier than most, as they could stay together throughout the selection process. This became pivotal in helping Elie keep his humanity, but even that would begin to drift away. Slowly, Elie and his father grew apart. Here, his behavior began to change substantially. The first incident happened shortly after their arrival at the camp. Having been freshly dehumanized, a guard hit Elie’s father. What normally would have prompted a violent response from Elie to defend his family evoked nothing. Elie’s attachment to his father meant nothing in the face of dehumanization and deindividuation. This estrangement grows greater as they spend more time subjected the abuse of the camps. As his father gets beat while working in the camps, Elie remembers that “what's more, if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father;” Elie asks “Why couldn't he have avoided Idek's wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me..." (54). Not only being complacent but also blaming his father for getting beaten by the Kapo is demonstrative of the influence of the Nazi’s dehumanization on Elie’s

Show More
Related
1228 Words | 5 Pages

Annotated Bibliography Estess, Ted L. “The Holocaust Poisoned Eliezer’s Relationships.” Readings on Night, compiled by The Greenhaven Press, San Diego, Greenhaven Press Inc, 2000, pp. 94-97. Excerpt originally published in Elie Wiesel, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1980. “The Holocaust Poisoned Eliezer’s Relationships” primarily focuses on one of the main points of Night, the destruction of Wiesel’s primary relationships due to life in the concentration camps.

Read More
456 Words | 2 Pages

One of the ways Elie felt dehumanized was when his father was abused by the head of the block. “ The Gypsy stared at him for a long time, from head and toe. As if he wished to ascertain that person addressing him was actually a creature of flesh and bone. ”pg 39

Read More
651 Words | 3 Pages

The heart wrenching and powerful memoir “Night” by Elie Wiesel depicts Elie’s struggle through the holocaust. It shows the challenges and struggles Elie and people like him faced during this mournful time, the dehumanization; being forced out of their homes, their towns and sent to nazi concentration camps, being stripped of their belongings and valuables, being forced to endure and witness the horrific events during one of history’s most ghastly tales. In “Night” Elie does not only endure a physical journey but also a spiritual journey as well, this makes him question his determination, faith and strength. This spiritual journey is a journey of self discovery and is shown through Elie’s struggle with himself and his beliefs, his father

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

As Elie and other inmates rest in a shed after a harsh and brutally cold winter walk, Rabbi Eliahu, a man Elie knew from Buna, asks Elie if he knows where his son went. Elie tells the rabbi he does not know, but then realizes his son left him intentionally and that “He had felt his father growing weaker and, believing that the end was near, he had thought by his separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival” (Wiesel, 91). The torture prisoners endured in the concentration camps desensitize them. It is astonishing that a boy left his father to die because he was too much of a burden. In the camps it was every man for himself and self- preservation came over family loyalty and commitment.

Read More
294 Words | 2 Pages

Finally, interactions with others shape who people become by molding their personalities and feelings. Once again, Elie was shaped by his interactions with others, specifically the Nazi’s. Elie’s personality and feelings were also majorly affected by his interactions with the Nazi’s at the concentration camp he and his family were once trapped at. He underwent a major shift in personality: “Never shall I forget the Nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live,” (Wiesel 37). This quote demonstrates that Wiesel’s was shaped into a whole different version of himself, with an adapted personality and feeling due to brutal, human interactions.

Read More
689 Words | 3 Pages

“I spent my days in total idleness. With only one desire: to eat. I no longer thought of my father, or my mother.” (Weisel 113) Elie lost many values during his times in Nazi concentration camps, and soon became a person that even he didn’t recognize.

Read More
419 Words | 2 Pages

The severely cruel conditions of concentration camps had a profound impact on everyone who had the misfortune of experiencing them. For Elie Wiesel, the author of Night and a survivor of Auschwitz, one aspect of himself that was greatly impacted was his view of humanity. During his time before, during, and after the holocaust, Elie changed from being a boy with a relatively average outlook on mankind, to a shadow of a man with no faith in the goodness of society, before regaining confidence in humanity once again later in his life. For the first 13 years of his life, Elie seemed to have a normal outlook on humanity.

Read More
156 Words | 1 Pages

In his autobiography novel, “Night”, author Elie Wiesel writes about the horrors of his past, and towards the end he saw himself as a corpse when he looked upon the mirror which reflects his current state; he no longer believed in God’s goodness nor His justice. Elie Wiesel was a Jewish boy who had strong faith in God, but over the course of his life when he went through catastrophic events such as losing his mother, father, younger sister, starving, and being in concentration camps he declined God’s justice and blamed him for everything that was happening to him. In 1944 Elie and his family were deported to Auschwitz, a concentration camp, and that was where the horrors began. In the first instance, when Elie and his family arrived at the

Read More
562 Words | 3 Pages

Living in 1940s Europe during Word War two, changed Elie’s religious identity. From being a young boy with immense faith to questioning if god was even alive, then finally, going back to his faith because he had nothing better to believe in. As Elie goes through his time in the camp, the once very religious and eager to learn about god boy starts to lose his faith in god and his religion as a whole. As Elie was a young boy he wanted to learn everything about his religion that there was to learn, but his father was so focused on the wellbeing of others, that he did not care or notice.

Read More
554 Words | 3 Pages

Elie’s spiritual and emotional journey during his transformation throughout the Holocaust made him a stronger person. During his time at the concentration camp, Elie started losing faith in God, family, and humanity which gave him challenges on his spiritual and emotional journey. On page 34, Elie was thinking, “Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent.

Read More
772 Words | 4 Pages

“Yesterday, I should have sunk my nails into the criminal’s flesh. Had I changed so much since then? So quickly?” (…) This is evident through how these concentration camps have indeed altered Elie's humanity.

Read More
1254 Words | 6 Pages

Elie's faith is quickly questioned after the first night in the Auschwitz concentration camp, “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never” (34). When he arrives at Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp, he is instantly affected by the sights he and his father have observed, such as babies, family, and friends being burned into ashes, and his faith being consumed by the crematoria flames. Elie's first night at the concentration camp caused him to question God, making it difficult for him to understand why God would put him in such a place.

Read More
917 Words | 4 Pages

In Elie’s early teenage years he was an extremely religious person. Going to the Synagogue and wanting to study the Torah. As the Nazi’s captured Elie and his father and forced them into a concentration

Read More
770 Words | 4 Pages

my eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone, in a world without god” (67-68). Suddenly, Elie the previously dedicated worshipper began questioning, and even realizing the ridicule of praying and iterating his faith to God. God was the one who damned them into the death camps in the first place. God is the one who kept them there, devoid of any hope in liberation.

Read More
744 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Examples Of Dehumanization In Night By Lie Wiesel

Related Topics

Open Document