Examples Of Dehumanization In Night

Loss of Faith and Dehumanization in Night
The word holocaust originates from the Latin words from ‘holos’ meaning whole and ‘kaustos’ meaning burned. The name holocaust was rightfully given to Hitler’s Final Solution plan which called for the extermination of more than six million Jews. In 1933 the plan was put into action and forced millions of Jews, gypsies, and others into concentration camps. Eli Wiesel, holocaust survivor and Noble Peace Prize winner, shares horrific experiences of his time spent in concentration camps. In his memoir Night, Wiesel recalls the treatment of himself and other prisoners. Eli Wiesel writes about his struggle to keep his faith in the face of the dehumanizing tactics of the Nazis. Throughout the book, it becomes

Prisoners were starved, beaten, and forced to witness horrific scenes. After being forced to work all day, the only food prisoners would receive was a small bowl of thin soup and maybe a piece of bread. Many died from the combination of starvation and exhaustion before they could be executed. Upon arriving at his first camp, Wiesel comments about how the first thing he notices is the stench of burning flesh. He States, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which would turn my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget those faces of little children whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky” (Wiesel 32). After only one day however, it is understandable that even the most devoted faithful man lose his faith in light of these

Buna, a part of Auschwitz system, is a labor camp. Once they arrived at the new camp they were immediately separated into blocks; Eli and his father were placed into the orchestra block. The Kapo in Charge of the Wiesel’s block, Idek, was a rather short tempered and cruel man. It was not unusual for Jewish prisoners to be on the receiving end of Idek’s uncontrollable rage. However, when Eli’s father seems to be the perfect scapegoat, Wiesel does nothing. He describes the horrific memory,
At first my father crouched under the blows, then he broke in two, like a dry tree struck by lightning, and collapsed. I watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact I was thinking of how to get my father away so that I would not be hit myself. What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek’s outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had made me. (Wiesel