Examples Of Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel

Dehumanization is to strip the rights and qualities of a person or people. In the Night, by Elie Wiesel uses tone, imagery and diction to explain how the Jews were punished and how cruel the Nazis were to them. They were stripped of their clothes, forced to work and overworked and stacked like cattle in a slaughter house.

In Elie Wiezel’s Night, a harrowing account of life within concentration camp after concentration camp is relayed. While in these camps, the Nazis use dehumanization tactics to control their victims. There are three ways one can dehumanize a person: mentally, physically, and emotionally. In Night the prisoners are rounded up and given tattoos to keep order in camps. Wiezel states, “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name”(Wiezel 42). Wiezel went through a multitude of instances of mental dehumanization. Wiezel tells how he is no longer a person, but rather a slew of letters and numbers. In relation to this, Frederick Douglass

Dehumanization is defined as “the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities.” As Elie Wiesel describes throughout Night, the holocaust deprived him of all human qualities. After Wiesel’s experiences, he viewed his reflection as a corpse (pg 119); every human aspect of himself was taken away during his time at Auschwitz. At this camp, he and many others were treated as if they were tools for labor, not living beings. As twelve year-old Wiesel begins his journey to Auschwitz, he says that he, along with seventy nine other Jews, were forced into cattle cars.

In Elie Wiesel's Night, the event of the young boy's hanging in the concentration camp serves as a powerful example of the dehumanization experienced by the Jews during the Holocaust. Witnessing the boy struggle on the gallows, with other prisoners forced to watch, illustrates the cruel and inhumane treatment inflicted upon them. The man's question, "Where is God now?" highlights the spiritual crisis faced by the prisoners as they grapple with the suffering and evil surrounding them. Additionally, the stripping of the prisoners' identities, replacing their names with numbers, further degrades and dehumanizes them. This act reduces them to mere objects, erasing their individuality and humanity.

Dehumanization is wrong and needs to be stopped throughout society. Even today, human cruelty happens, and nobody should be fan of it. One of the biggest examples of dehumanization is the Holocaust. The paragraphs below will further explain this terrifying reality. They will cover the book Night, the film Night and Fog, the Elie Wiesel documentary, and examples of the maslow reading chart found in the book Night.

Because of the dehumanization that results from being imprisoned within a concentration camp, prisoners put their own survival needs over their family’s, transforming themselves into brutes in the face of atrocities and cruel treatment. However, unlike most concentration camp prisoners, Elie escapes the fate of demoralization, as he puts his father's well being above his own, even when his father hampers his own chances of survival. For example, Elie sacrifices his ration of soup, giving it to his dying father, stating, “I took one gulp. The rest was for him” (Wiesel 106). The selflessness Elie maintains, giving up a life sustaining resource to a man whose days are numbered, proves that Elie, despite all hardships, keeps his morals intact.

Gaining absolute power begins with dehumanization of the people in order to gain control. Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is a retelling of Wiesel’s own agonizing experiences at a concentration camp. Wiesel shares his story of traumatizing events such as seeing people strangling others for food and leaving his dad to die. Wiesel’s was treating less and less like a human during his imprisonment. In Night, the bell at the concentration camp symbolizes the dehumanization of the prisoners by the Nazis.

In Night, Elie Weisel uses words to carve a horrifying image into the reader's mind of the brutal acts of dehumanization during the Holocaust. He describes how the prisoners lost their identity and faced unimaginable suffering. Weisel provides a personal narrative of the horrible treatment that he faced during the Holocaust. The memoir, Night, provides the reader with glimpses of the many acts of genocide committed by the Nazis that caused the death of six million Jews. Sadly, Weisel spent his early teenage years as a Jewish boy imprisoned in concentration camps where he was forced to witness dehumanization, suffering, and unimaginable abuse every day.

During the Holocaust. Jewish prisoners suffered horrible dehumanization at the hands of the Nazi’s. In his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel gives his personal account of these abuses. Wiesel and his family are forced from their home and placed in Auschwitz, Although he survives, his family did not. They all endured abuse while they were there.

“I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his hole support.” (Wiesel,87), states Eliezer in Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night. Throughout his memoir, Elie Wiesel perceives how humans commit evil out of fear, however, Wiesel’s relationship with his father made him stronger, gave him purpose, and made him human in spite of the evil that surrounded them. During the Holocaust, millions of Jews suffered the atrocities that the Nazi put them through. For example, the Nazis forced them to live in inhumane conditions in ghettos, cattle cars, and concentration camps. Elie Wiesel’s memoir, NIGHT, examines the Nazi’s process of total annihilation of the non-Aryan race through cruel acts of dehumanization. Elie’s only chance at survival was to stay faithful to protect his father’s life and his hope in that he would remain alive.

From the insults we deliver to the acts we commit, dehumanization, the act of depriving people of human qualities, is not a new concept. History has shown the tragic acts of dehumanization and the inflictions it can have upon a race. The most significant example of dehumanization in modern history occurred during World War II through the Nazi regime. With the rise in Nazi eugenics popularity, the ideology involved with “life unworthy of life” led to the formation of the Holocaust. In concentration camps, Jewish life was reduced to almost nothing with malnourishment, degradation, and amorality encompassing their known existence.

“Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my god and turned my dreams to ashes” (Wiesel, 34). Dehumanization is the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities. In his book “Night”, Eli Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, dehumanizes Jewish prisoners through the loss of personal identity, brutal living conditions they endured, and how everyone was primarily focused on their own well-being. “I became A-7713 from then on, I had no other name” This quote mainly highlights when Elie Wiesel identity is completely abolished and replaced by a humiliating identification number. It puts a spotlight on the loss of personal identity and the reduction of human beings to the mere numbers in the concentration camps.

Elie Wiesel's "Night" serves as a poignant memoir, recounting his haunting experiences during the Holocaust and shedding light on the dehumanization inflicted by Nazi soldiers. The narrative starkly depicts the brutal treatment of prisoners, reducing them to animals, and mercilessly subjecting innocent children to unspeakable acts of cruelty. In "Night," Wiesel masterfully exposes the transformation of these soldiers into instruments of brutality, emphasizing the profound impact of the degradation of humanity on their decisions and actions. The dehumanization of Nazi soldiers is evident in their treatment of prisoners, notably through the heartless commands of the Hungarian police. In the chilling quote, "Faster! Faster.

Throughout the Holocaust, the severity of the violence increased drastically. By the end of the Holocaust, people were beaten, starved, and pushed to their physical limits. Elie Wiesel experienced these actions first hand. The Jewish were treated more severely by the soldiers and by each other during their marches, convoys, and when they were ill. This was all due to the dehumanization of the Jews.

At some point in everyone’s life, one faces a great loss. Dehumanization is the process in which one’s positive human qualities become obsolete or nonexistent. Dehumanization is the greatest loss one can suffer from. The Nazis dehumanized the Jews, and they suffered a loss not many can relate to. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, dehumanization is shown by stripping the Jews of their identities, beating the Jews, and starving the Jews.