Dehumanization In Night

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“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world”. (P.Farmer). In the terrible and sickening memoir Night, written in 1954 by Elie Wiesel. Night is a very accurate representation of how poorly the Jewish people were treated during the Holocaust. Innocence is the state, quality, or fact of being innocent of a crime or offense. Simply not having a clue on what is going on. Each and every Jewish person obtained the quality of innocence. Not a single person had any knowledge of what was going to take place. In Wiesel’s Night, Eliezer along with his fellow Jewish acquaintances are people who experience the acts of dehumanization that the Germans portray. Eliezer experiences many dehumanizing actions while …show more content…

This quote is proving how Eliezer goes through dehumanizing actions while he was in Auschwitz. Eliezer does not have the choice whether he wants to remove his clothes or not. The Germans make a decision and that is what is expected to be done. If these tasks are not completed, the innocent Jewish people receive a punishment. These punishments dehumanize the Jewish people even more than what has already happened to them. Eliezer’s beliefs along with his faith vanish more and more as his time at Auschwitz goes on. Eliezer describes how his beliefs are vanishing when he states “ Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams into ashes”. (Wiesel,32). This quote is indicating that being at the camp for a longer time period, his beliefs start disappearing slowly one by one. Everything Eliezer believes in before he arrives at Auschwitz has a very beneficial impact on him. Eliezer will turn to God when something unsatisfactory happens, however being at Auschwitz completely deprives him for being close to God with turning his thoughts very negative. Eliezer is put into an unfortunate situation where the Germans decide that he is to remove his gold crown without further …show more content…

The stripping of Eliezer’s clothes, removal of his gold crown, and how being at Auschwitz makes his beliefs and faith disappear are all instances where he is a victim of dehumanization. With Eliezer’s friends being made into soup, Jewish people getting burned, and how babies were being used for target practice are great exemplifications on how Eliezer’s friends were also victims of the dehumanizing actions that the Germans portrayed towards the Jewish people. One lesson that is shown is that although they cannot choose the circumstances they are in, they choose the way they decide to deal with these circumstances. Up to 6 million Jewish people died because of their beliefs and religion during the period of the Holocaust. The fact that we live in a world that gives anyone the opportunity to believe in what they would like makes us very