The novel Night by Elie Weisel is a retelling of his experience of his time in the concentration camps where millions of Jews were murdered. During the novel Elie, along with the other Jews are abused and dehumanized by their Nazi captors. They were starved, treated as less than human, and had integral parts of their identities taken. The dehumanization Elie goes through during the Holocaust changes who he is and affects him for the rest of his life. In the camps, the Jews were fed just enough to keep them from dying. Many Jews died of starvation throughout the Holocaust because the rations were not enough to feed them. Even if they were technically given food, it was nowhere near enough to feed them. “Dozens of starving men fought desperately …show more content…
The moment the Jews arrived at the camp, they started having parts of their identities taken from them. The Nazis made the Jews conform, look the same, and think the same. “We no longer clung to anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride, have all deserted us.” (Weisel 36). The Nazis have taken away the defining parts of the Jews’ identities. The things in their life that were important to their identities were taken into account. When the Nazis took these things away, they were taking their identities away alongside these things. “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.” (Weisel 42). The Nazis had figuratively taken Elie’s name from him. This was dehumanizing for Elie as his name is a part of his identity, and by it, they were dehumanizing him. This is just one of the ways they took away parts of Elie’s identity, and one of the many ways they dehumanized him. The Nazis would take away the identity of the Jews by taking away the things that made them unique, like their hair, clothing, and belongings. Taking away these things and forcing them to conform took away their individuality and dehumanized