Night Research Paper

Luis Maldonado Ms. Vandevander English 10 5 April 2024 The Effects of Dehumanization What did the Nazis do to the Jews in the Holocaust? In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, he writes about the suffering and hardships he had to deal with in the German concentration camps. At 12 Elie was taken from his home and sent to Auschwitz. Separated from his mother and sister, Elie and his father have to learn how to survive in this treacherous environment. Elie Wiesel defines how the dehumanization of the prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps severely affected them by taking away everything they knew and forcing them to lose parts of themselves by treating them like cattle to prove how pure indifference to others is hurtful to society. Indifference

When he first arrives at the camps, Elie writes about a particular Nazi guard named Idek. Idek used his status as guard to lash out at prisoners for no reason. In example, Elie was just minding his business, Idek started beating, “One day when Idek was venting his fury. I happened to cross his path; 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 ever more violent blows, until I was covered in blood.” (Wiesel 45). The quote describes the way Idek treated the prisoners. It reveals the absolute indifference to the pain he causes. By describing Idek as a wild beast, Wiesel presents the idea that they were more like predators and the prisoners prey instead of fellow humans.

All the prisoners were fighting for their lives every second of every day. It caused them to have to change themselves completely to survive what the Nazis put them through. Explain the extreme change that occurred in Elie’s life. He went from a little kid in a small town who wanted to study the Kabbalah, to having to fight every day to survive and live. The first night of Elie’s new life in the concentration camp was one of his hardest. He had to come to terms with all of the pain and suffering he saw that day, “Never should I forgive that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams into dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.” (Weisel 34). The pain and trauma Elie had to endure, just because he was born Jewish, the indifference and mistreatment of the guards completely broke Elie. In the beginning of the book, it focuses on Elie’s devotion to his religion. For him to completely disregard a huge part of himself because of his situation means the torture from the Nazis caused Elie to have to completely change himself. In one of the final parts of the book, Elie decides to focus a big part on his