Examples Of Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel

One of the first losses of faith can be found when Elie and the rest of the Jews first arrive at Auschwitz and Elie see’s all the Jewish men begin to recite Kaddish. Elie expressed how he felt about preying in such a frightening time by saying, “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the external and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for?” (33).

Bad times, times of hardship will make you question your faith. In this passage Elie is disobedient towards his God. "As for me, I have cease to pray. I concurred with job! I was not denying his existence, but doubted his absolute justice."(Wiesel 45). While other prisoners had gathered to sing and pray, Ellie did not feel the need to join them. He resented God, he

(pg 31) To see the torture the torment of the Jews, babies and children (pg 33), in such a brutal way, murdered Elie’s soul and hope (pg 32). “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my god and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.” Elie has witnessed his own dad getting beat up by the SS officers and also the fellow prisoners. He experienced hunger to the point that he barely had no strength.

Elie has experienced countless deaths of prisoners as they ran through cramped and harsh conditions without a semblance of end. The event seemed like a mass agony at the time of the departure to another camp. A major scene was this and it contributed to the crisis of poisoning among Elie and many other prisoners. After viewing Elie witness the horrors of dehumanization and the deaths of many people in concentration camps, it's clear to see how much his attitude, outlook, and identity changed as a result. As we’d seen throughout the story, Elie experienced a time in the gallows when many prisoners were hanged and tortured to death, which altered some of his

In the ghetto Jews were not allowed to attend religious gatherings, public establishments , and were given a curfew. People get settled and figure out it is not that awful. People create groups and live their normal lives. Here Elie’s relationship with God is still strong because he thinks they will stay there until the war is over. After being at the concentration camp for a while, Elie notices that it brings out the worst in the prisoners, nazis, and himself. When the pipel is hung someone in the crowd asks where God is. Elie says to himself, “where He is? This is where - hanging here from this gallows… (65).” This means that God is dead to Elie. When they ate soup that night it tasted of corpses, Elie had watched other hangings before, but that particular event really got to Elie because it’s when he realized that he doesn’t know God

In the concentration camps, evil and fear was all that was around, which led Elie Wiesel along with many others to act out their evil side, rebelling against God by losing all faith. Through hard times, they viewed it as a way to honor God for the way of life he presented them. (Jewish Learning). While Jewish people were in the concentration camps, they looked to God as their protector and provider. Into the story Night, when Elie Wiesel along with many others were at the concentration camp in Auschwitz, the Nazi’s forced all hostages to march in a line towards a ditch of burning bodies.

Later he recalls a moment in the camp when he witnesses a little boy being hung and struggling from life and death. “Behind me, I heard the same man asking: “for God’s sake, where is God?” and from within me, I heard a voice answer: “Where is he? This is where the gallows hang” (Wiesel 65). While Elie watches this little boy be hung, he questions how the God he loved and worshiped could let this happen, especially to a little boy.

During his time in the concentration camps, Elie’s outlook on life shifted to a very pessimistic attitude, showing emotions and actions including rebellion, forgetfulness of humane treatment, and selfishness. Elie shows rebellion early in the Holocaust at the Solemn Service, a jewish ceremony, by thinking, “Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled” (Wiesel 67). Elie had already shifted his view on his religion and faith in God. After witnessing some of the traumas of the concentration camps, Elie questioned what he did to deserve such treatment. Therefore, he began to rebel against what he had grown up learning and believing. Not only had Elie’s beliefs changed, his lifestyle changed as well. When Elie’s foot swelled, he was sent to the doctor, where they put him “...in a bed with white sheets. I [he] had forgotten that people slept in sheets” (Wiesel 78). Many of the luxuries that Elie may have taken for granted have been stripped of their lives, leaving Elie and the other victims on a thin line between survival and death. By explaining that he forgot about many of these common luxuries, Elie emphasizes the inhumane treatment the victims of the Holocaust were put through on a daily basis.

As Elie’s experiences the concentration camp, his faith continues to dwindle. As he watches the brutality of the SS officer and the suffering of his peers, he questions why God would let this happen. In one particular part of the book, Elie is seen thinking about the boy who was hanged and asks, “Where is God’s mercy? Where’s the God of God? How can I believe, how can anyone believe in this God of Mercy?”(65)

Fire can also be seen as a symbol of Elie’s loss of his faith in his God and in the Jewish religion. In Judaism, tradition says that the evil and wicked will be condemned to Gehenna and suffer a fiery punishment. However, Elie’s experiences reverse what he was taught by his faith. The innocent were murdered in the crematorium by the evil. This shows how Elie’s faith was strongly questioned during the Holocaust due to the experiences and how his concept of religion was changed dramatically. “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.”

The sanctifying of God during a time of war and horror enables Elie to question if he openly believes in Judaism, as if he would be murdered for believing in God and not following the footsteps of Hitler.

One day, the inmates were told to come to the meeting place, to witness a child being hung by the SS officers. On that day, Elie lost all of the faith he had in God and said God died with the child who got hung by the cruel SS officers.

Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Treblinka are just a few of the names that evoke nightmares of the Holocaust. The death and suffering at concentration camps like these were greater than any before endured. Elie Wiesel had been one of the most devout Jewish children prior to the start of the Holocaust. However, the Holocaust created a void in the souls of many of those that survived, one of which was Elie. During his experience in the concentration camps, Elie waited for God to intervene and save his people. When God did not intervene Elie began to doubt God and His mercy. He began to accuse God of cruelty against the Jewish people. After the Holocaust was over, Elie had to reevaluate the role of God in his life. He could be forgiving of God and

Wiesel uses the themes of the struggle to maintain faith and inhumanity toward other humans in order to portray the cruelty of the Holocaust. Eliezer begins the novel with a strong, unwavering faith in God. He believes that God is everywhere and that God is present at all times. Since God is present in every place in the world, the world must be good and just. Eliezer’s faith in the integrity of the world and God is challenged by the brutality he witnesses during the Holocaust from the Nazis and his fellow prisoners. An example of Eliezer questioning his faith is when he witnesses a small child being hanged. He asks himself where God is and answers, “He is hanging here on this gallows” (Wiesel 65). He witnesses Nazis burning children in furnaces, Jews being subjected to repeated beatings and humiliations, the hanging of fellow prisoners, the hanging of a child and the slaughter and death of prisoners. The cruelty of the Nazis breeds more cruelty and Eliezer sees the prisoners become cruel as well. He sees sons abandoning and abusing their

Elie saw his friends, family, and other Jews degraded and murdered. Elie writes in this book “My God, to whom I was so devoted, to whom I had so much faith, was also murdered by the Nazis,” Elie evolved from a faithful child to a broken man who Questioned his belief in God. As a 14 year old boy separated from his only home and family and sent to a concentration camp in Birkenau, where his mother and sister were tortured and killed in the fire filled hole.