In Elie Wiesel’s autobiographical novel, Night, the incessant inhumanity of the Jews during the Holocaust is vividly depicted. Such an approach led to their dehumanization by the Nazis who took away their humanity. Eliezer is an example of this dehumanization who suffered from hunger, abuse and loss of identity. These experiences have a profound impact on Eliezer and expose him to the devastating consequences of dehumanization. “One day when we had come to a stop, a worker took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it into a wagon. There was a stampede on the ground. Dozens of starving men fought desperately for a few crumbs. The workers watched the spectacle with great interest.”(Wiesel 100) They fought for food as they struggled for survival. Thus, it can be argued …show more content…
We receive more blows than food. The work was crushing on me. And three days after he left we forgot to say "Kaddish"(Wiesel 77) And so they were constantly thinking about how they could find some basic sustenance needed for life itself. The prisoners are further brutalized by the officers abusing them, which causes them physical and mental pain as well as making them worthless in the eyes of Nazis who look at them like objects.“He threw himself on me like a wild beast, beating me in the chest, on my head, throwing me to the ground and picking me up again, crushing me with even more violent blows, until I was covered in blood.” (Wiesel 53) They didn't even see them as creatures but as something to let their anger out on. The abuse changed Elie to the point where he didn't even recognize himself when he got out, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me.”(Wiesel 115). He no longer saw himself as a living human. Identity is lost when the numbers are marked on the body, thus reducing individuals into numbers, instead of being seen as humans with their own