Examples Of Dehumanization In The Book Night

    One of the biggest examples of dehumanization in WWII was Hitler himself. Essentially everything that Hitler did while he was in power, dehumanized the Jews. To begin, Hitler started out making the Jewish people wear star badges that alienated them from normal society. “Three days later, a new decree: every Jew had to wear a yellow star.” (Wiesel 11). This quote is from the novel and explains that the Jews started to wear the badges. The novel continues to tell how the Jewish people were very afraid of this change, and they should have been because then came the ghettos. “Two ghettos were created in Sighet.” “The barbed wire that encircled us like a wall did not fill us with real fear.” (Wiesel 11). This illustrates the unsettling situation the Jewish people were in because they were being caged in like animals. They were not even afraid of the barbed wire around their small community. The

The Nazi army dehumanized the Jewish people by depriving them of love. Elie, along with most of the other people in the camps, aren’t really accepted socially by anyone. They weren’t accepted as a person, and no one even knew them by their names; furthermore, they were known by the number they had tattooed on their arms. On page 42, Elie says “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.” By having their names taken away, the Jewish people had their social acceptance stripped from them. Also, their families were taken away from them, and they had to do whatever they could to stay with them. As Elie said on page 30, “My hand tightened its grip on my father. All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone.” By separating the Jews from their families, they lost the love from them. By depriving the jews of social acceptance and their families, they hardly felt any

In the book “Night” it shows another way of dehumanization by Nazis hitting the Jewish with batons. . “The Kapos were beating us again, I no longer felt the pain.” (Wiesel 36) Even later on in the book it shows many examples of them being beaten because the Nazis find joy in it. This proves that the Jews accepted their fate and were “programmed” to be slaves and were used to the pain. “I no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip… Only the first really hurt.” (Wiesel 57) This shows how Elie accepts his role as creature in the concentration

Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize

Before being deported to the concentration camp, he had many desirable character traits. For instance, “Please, sir… I’d like to be near my father.” (Wiesel, 50). This shows that Elie is caring because he wants to monitor his father and protect him from harm. He maintains this deep care and concern for his father throughout the book. Additionally,“I moved closer and had a glimpse of Idek and a young Polish girl.” (Wiesel, 56) shows that he is also curious because he goes to the noises he is hearing instead of away from them. Although this incident occurred during his time at Auschwitz, it is still one of Elie’s good traits because it allows him to be more observant and aware of what is happening around him. Finally, “And most important, don’t be afraid!” That was a piece of advice we would have loved to be able to follow” (Wiesel, `

Before Elie’s experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp, he had many character traits such as being unwise, innocent, and impatient. When Elie first arrives at Auschwitz and receives his first meal, his father warns him to ration his food. For example, “I was terribly hungry and swallowed my ration on the spot” (Wiesel 44). During Elie’s first meal in Auschwitz, he gobbles it down and does not think about what might happen later. When his father starts to give him some advice, he is already finished with his meal. Elie acts unwisely and does not think ahead to what might happen in the later days. Earlier in the story, Elie and his family are waiting their turn to be put onto a train that will be sent to a concentration camp. Before they enter the train Elie asks, “ ‘When will it be our turn, father?’ I asked my father” (Wiesel 18). This quote shows that Elie really has no idea what is happening and what will happen to him. Elie has no idea that “his turn” will end up with him in a concentration camp. He is innocent and does not think about what bad might happen to him. Upon entering Auschwitz, Elie sees people being thrown into the fire and decides to die a quick death rather than suffer. Wiesel states, “ ‘If that is true, then I don’t want to wait. I’ll run into the electrified wire. . .’” (33). Elie is afraid of what is to come upon him arriving in the concentration camp. Because of this fear, his thoughts become driven by fear and cause him to think impulsive thoughts. Elie would rather die in the fence, than be worked or starved to death. Elie acts very unwisely in his reactions to seeing people killed. To sum up, before Elie changed as a person, he had traits such as being impatient, unwise, and innocent.

In 2006, Elie Wiesel published the memoir “Night,” which focuses on his terrifying experiences in the Nazi extermination camps during the World War ll. Elie, a sixteen-year-old Jewish boy, is projected as a dynamic character who experiences overpowering conflicts in his emotions. One of his greatest struggles is the sense helplessness that he feels when all the beliefs and rights, of an entire nation, are reduced to silence. Elie and the Jews are subjected daily to uninterrupted torture and dehumanization. During the time spent in the concentration camp, Elie is engulfed by an uninterrupted roar of pain and despair. Throughout this horrific experience, Elie’s soul perishes as he faces constant psychological abuse, inhuman living conditions, and brutal negation of his humanity.

One of the methods of dehumanization was separating families.”Men to the left, women to the right”(29). Hitler didn’t care about how the Jews felt. Jews were treated like force breeding farms for animals. They did not have a lot of food and bad living conditions. “The beloved objects that we had carried with us from place to place were now left behind in the wagon and, with them, finally, our illusions”(29). Jews weren’t considered humans and so they didn’t get to have human like possessions. Everything they owned was just taken away from them and they never got to see it again.

Dehumanization played a big role in the holocaust the Nazis reduced the Jews from living human beings to objects and numbers. “Night” by Elie Wiesel published in 1958. In the novel “Night” is about Elie and his time in a concentration camp and how he survived the holocaust. Being separated from his mother and sisters and only left with his father.Dehumanization the process in which the Nazis reduced the Jews from people to objects and numbers.

When Elie and his father first entered the camps, his father was struck and Elie did nothing to help his father: "What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails in this criminal's flesh" (39). This shows that, although Elie did not share a close relationship with his father, he still feels that he should stand up for his fahter for the fact that they are father and son. Elie is very violent in that he would have "dug his nails in the criminals' flesh." Evidently, Elie is furious towards the offender. Unfortunately, Elie does not do anything when his father is struck because he does not want to draw attention to himself. Nevertheless, the bond between Elie and his father does strengthen: "And what if he were dead, as well? He was not moving. Suddenly the evidence overwhelmed me: there is no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight" (98-99). Elie reveals that he truly depends on his father for survival. Because he believes his father is no longer alive, he loses all hope for surviavl. Although Elie expresses anger towards his father from time to time because he is being a burden, he still feels that his survival is meaningless without his father. The strong bond that the two developed once they entered the concentration camps proves that nothing can come between them so easily.

Throughout Night, dehumanization consistently took place as the tyrant Nazis oppressed the Jewish citizens. The Nazis targeted the Jews' humanity, and slowly dissolved their feeling of being human. This loss of humanity led to a weakened will in the Holocaust victims, and essentially led to death in many. The Nazis had an abundance of practices to dehumanize the Jews including beatings, starvation, theft of possessions, separation of families, crude murders, forced labor, and much more. There is no greater loss than that of humanity, so one can never truly relate to the horrors of dehumanization the Jews faced. In the list below, I will compile various examples that correlate to this theme of dehumanization.

Dehumanization, however, did not happen right at the beginning of the war, it was a process that turned people into killing machines. As Christopher Browning mentioned in the very beginning of Ordinary Men, not every German came into Reserve Police Battalion 101 to participate in the holocaust. In fact, “most people were middle-aged family men of working- and lower-middle-class background from Hamburg…Most were raw recruit with no previous experience in German-occupied territory” (1). Same with the American and Japanese soldiers, before the war began, they were all ordinary people with no military experience most

Elie Wiesel struggles to fight through the concentration camp he must deal with many unfriendly encounters. “I had watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent. In fact, I thought of stealing away in order not to suffer the blows. What’s more, if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn't he have avoided Idek’s wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me…” (pg. 54). Elie wrestles with the idea of how to respond and even if he should react he debates that if he does respond then he will get beat, but if he does not respond then he must watch his father be beat so he thinks to himself what would be more painful? By the end of the beating it is kind of ironic how Eliezer is more

Beginning on January 30, 1933, the Holocaust had begun. 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, and within the 11 million deaths 6 million of them were Jews; that means that more than half of the people who died due to this genocide were Jews. This genocide was also known as the Holocaust. Fortunately, this massive genocide ended on May 8, 1945. There are many other genocides, such as the Rwandan genocide that had 800,00 deaths and only lasted about 100 days. The most captivating one is the Holocaust because many people died and during the period of the Holocaust not a lot of people knew what was going on. There were many victims of the Holocaust, and most of which could not get help. The Nazis were able to get away with a massive number because they had a secret weapon called dehumanization. Dehumanization is the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities. Many wonder how the Jewish population became dehumanized; circumstances such as propaganda, experimentations, and the Jews always being blamed for everything show how the Nazis dehumanized the Jews easily during the Holocaust.

That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me...”.Even though he wanted to stand up for his father he didn’t do anything and watched Idek beating his father because he was too scared to get beaten by Idek,just like his father did. Other example might include on page 109,when at the end he stands up for his father against his neighbors and insults them; he says, “I began to insult his neighbors. They mocked me. I promised them bread, soup. They laughed. Then they got angry; they could not stand my father any longer, they said, because he no longer was able to drag himself outside to relieve himself.”.He stood up for his father but he didn’t dare to threaten the neighbors and be braver against them and protect his father from his neighbors. These were examples were Elie wanted to stand up for him self or his father but he didn’t or when he did he didn’t do it seriously, because he was too scared. If he stood up for himself/his father the kommandant might have killed him but at least he would’ve died with bravery and his daring. He should have been more serious and speak