Examples Of Dehumanization In The Book Night

The Nazi’s acts of dehumanization towards the Jews of Sighet throughout the course of the memoir Night result in the Jewish people being impacted both religiously and ethically.
The Nazis demonstrate their complete disregard for the Jews of Sighet’s humanity by destroying their synagogue. At the beginning of the book, one of their first experiences with the Nazis is when Sighet’s residents are being transported from the ghetto to the concentration camps. The Nazis needed a place to store all of the people before they were forced onto the train, and they chose to use the synagogue. Eli describes the horrific scenario: “The synagogue resembled a large railroad station: baggage and tears. The altar was shattered, the wall coverings shredded,

A prime example of this is when the Nazis transport the prisoners from Auschwitz to Buchenwald in a cattle car. While they are stopped partway through their journey, a group of German workers begin throwing bread into the cattle car to watch the men fight for it as entertainment. However, because of how starved they are, the prisoners fight viciously for the bread with no regard for each other. Eli explains the situation by saying, “Men were hurling themselves against each other, trampling, tearing at and mauling each other [...] When they withdrew, there were two dead bodies next to me” (101). Even in the previous example with Moishe, the townspeople still respected his life even if they were unsympathetic to him personally. However, the dehumanization has escalated to a degree where the prisoners are forced to prioritize their own life above the others. At this point, the prisoners are not just disregarding the others, they are actively killing them. The horrific conditions have caused them to take others lives without a second thought–just for a crust of bread. Because they have been the victims of these dehumanization tactics–the starvation, the threatening, the physical and mental torture–for so long, they have internalized them and are now treating their fellow prisoners like they are less than human as

Near the end of the memoir and their time in Auschwitz, Eli’s father becomes very sick and is struggling to survive. Whenever he passes away, Eli’s surprises himself with his reaction: “I did not weep [...] And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!” (112). The effects of being dehumanized for so long have progressed to the prisoners not just taking others' lives to survive, but finding relief in those deaths as well. And now, it isn’t just another prisoner. This is Eli’s father, who had been his one source of comfort throughout their time in the concentration camp. He is the only family that Eli knows he has left, and he is the last true human connection Eli has. Their humanity has been so taken from them that Eli is no longer able to treasure the emotion and love in life, and is instead forced to hyperfixate on survival. Wiesel himself said it best in an interview later in his life: “In a moral society, if you don’t get involved, you are indifferent [...] I have always believed that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference” (Bjorhus 1). If Eli hated his father for dying, it would show that he still loved his father. If Eli was mad at himself, it would show that he was remorseful for his relief. However, Eli is purely