Examples Of Dehumanization In The Book Thief

A Jew was henceforth forbidden to own gold, jewelry, or any valuables”. (page 10-11) When the Hungarian police barged into Sighet, they took all the Jews’ possessions, their heirlooms, their history as a way of dehumanizing the Jews. This is the first step in dehumanizing the Jews. The act of separating one group of people from another and taking all their valuables to lessen their worth. (Wiesel 8).

“Three days later, a new decree; every Jew had to wear a yellow star.” (page 11) The Germans seem to have a method to their madness in that the dehumanization seems to be in stages. First, the Jews had to be separated from all the other Germans and ostracized. They were forced to wear a symbol--the yellow star--so they could be identified,

The Jews were forced to live in a ghetto. Not only were they grouped together, but the living conditions grew worse with each new decree, a slow, deliberate way of dehumanizing the Jews. Isolation moved to imprisonment, where the ghettos were surrounded by barbed wire. This is an act of discrimination.

“‘There are eighty of you in this wagon,’ added the German officer. ‘If anyone is missing, you’ll all be shot, like dogs….’” (page 24). After identification and separation comes degradation—the human-less words that the Nazis used to degrade the all ready trampled self-image of the Jews. Here the German officer treated the Jews like cattle. Dehumanizing the Jews to an animalistic level. There was no recognition of individuality as he conveys that if one person does something wrong, then all will be shot. Germans compared the Jews to being like “dogs” or animals, taking away any human

Strange—looking creatures, dressed in striped jackets and black pants, jumped into the wagon. Holding flashlights and sticks they began to strike at us left and right.” (page 28) This was Eliezel’s first experience with camp prisoners and even he describes them as “creatures”. They are all the same, dressed in “striped jackets and black pants”. Not only have they lost their individuality but they have become what the Germans regarded them as...not humans, “creatures”. The Jews are viewing themselves as inhuman as the Nazis methodically took away their valuables, heritage, and their family. Now the Jews are seeing each other the same