The Importance Of Dehumanization In The Holocaust

In Elie Wiesel’s novel Night, Wiesel writes about the experiences of Eliezer, his family, and fellow Jews, he explained how the Nazis gradually changes the way the Jews lived little by little. Dehumanization is the process of stripping a person of every quality that makes him human and changing them to fit their needs. Dehumanizing started when Eliezer and other Jews in his community are evacuated from their homes in Sighet. They were transported in cattle cars which related the Jews to no more than livestock. After the harsh transportation the Jews arrived at Auschwitz a concentration camp where Eliezer spent many months of his life. They were whipped, ran, and starved till some of the Jews could not take it. In Elie Wiesel book he explains how he found the stamina to survive these cruel conditions.

Although Eliezer survived the bloodcurdling Holocaust, countless others succumbed to the Nazi’s inhumanity. The Nazi’s progressively reduced the Jewish people to being little more than “things” which were a nuisance to them. Throughout Night, dehumanization consistently took place, as the Nazis oppressed the Jewish citizens. The Germans dehumanized Eliezer, his father, and other fellow Jews for the duration of the memoir Night, which had a lasting effect on Eliezer’s identity, attitude and outlook. Wiesel displays the Nazi’s vicious actions to accentuate the way by which they dehumanize the Jewish population. The Nazis had an abundance of practices to dehumanize the Jews including beatings, starvation, separation of families, crude murders, forced labor, among other horrific actions.

Dehumanization played a significant role throughout Elie Wiesel's "Night". In many historic references to the Holocaust the killing of the Jews were described as "methodical and systematical"(The Jewish Outreach Institute), though this is true, these heinous crimes were made even worse by the dehumanizing and appalling treatment and conditions that the Jews were put through. Here are some examples:

In the novel Night by Eliezer Wiesel, the theme of dehumanization is present throughout the novels. Dehumanization is the process in which Nazis instilled fear into the Jews so as to make them lose all individuality and hope. The act of dehumanization is very prevalent throughout in which most of them were acts of deindividualization.

In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel portrays the process of dehumanization inflicted upon the Jewish people by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The dehumanization process had a profound impact on Eliezer’s attitude, outlook, and identity. Through three instances of dehumanization. One example of the process of dehumanization at night is the Nazis’ practice of forcing Jewish prisoners on death marches. These marches involved long and grueling journeys, often resulting in the death of most of the prisoners.

In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the Nazi's not only dehumanized the Jews but strip them of everything that defines them in order to control them effortlessly. Dehumanization meaning the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities. The Nazi’s enforced this by taking away all of the Jews belongings, separating them from their families, and giving them a tattoo to identify them. Every single day, over 12,000 Jews were killed in concentration camps. At the end of the World War, about 80 million people were killed in total.

Tales of real world dehumanization serve as reminders to treat others with respect and humanity. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, the author recounts his own disturbing story as a holocaust survivor who endures many hardships during his time in the concentration camps during World War Two ran by the harsh at the time German Nazis. One theme that Wiesel integrates throughout the novel is the dehumanization of the Jewish people at the concentration camps. SS Officers, Oberkapos,and even Jews themselves behave in certain ways that dehumanize the prisoners around them and even themselves. The author makes use of the theme of dehumanization through a disregard for civilized human necessities, acts of violence and horror, and how the oppressors and oppressed talk to themselves and each other.

During the holocaust, Jews were separated from their family,beaten, treated like an animal, and an object. Germans stripped their faith, identity, individuality, and dignity. Elie Wiesel shows his experience of dehumanization in the concentration camps. In his novel, Night, he explained how he was treated harshly and dehumanized. Germans dehumanized the Jews to make them feel hopeless, faithless, and worth nothing.

Dehumanization is depicted in the book "Night" as a way for Nazis to control the Jewish prisoners. They do this by humiliating and traumatizing the Jewish prisoners. One of these surviving prisoners was the author, Elie Wiesel. In his prime, he was so traumatized that throughout his lifetime, he could still vividly recall horrific details. For example, Elie remembers a time in which the SS men would chuckle and make cruel jokes as they watched the Jewish people eat clean snow off the corpses that lay around them in a way to get rid of their severe hunger and make it through the fierce winter.

Dehumanization is one of the most menacing and detrimental dangers of all. The denotation of the word ‘dehumanization’ is to deprive (someone or something) of human qualities, personality, or dignity. This topic of dehumanization plays a major role in the Holocaust memoir Night written by Elie Wiesel, published in 1956. He wrote the book to inform people about the Jews and their experience living through the Holocaust. At night, there are many examples of dehumanization.

At this point, the Jews are very comfortable and go so far as to recognize

In Elie Wiesel’s Night, imagery is employed to show the dehumanization of the Jewish people by the Nazis as the Jews develop the “survival of the fittest” mentality, and as Eliezer looses the ability to express emotions. Wiesel uses imagery of the Jews’ “survival of the fittest” mentality to show the dehumanization of the Jews who are forced to endure treacherous conditions in the concentration camps. The enslaved Jews experience the worst forms of inhumane treatment. Pushed beyond their ability to deal with the oppressing starvation, cold, disease, exhaustion, and cruelty, the Jews lose their sanity and morality. Thus, Wiesel refers to the Jews as, “wild beasts of prey with animal hatred

The Holocaust was a horrific time period when over six million Jewish people were systematically exterminated by the Nazi government. Throughout this period, the Jews were treated particularly inhumane because the Nazi viewed their ethnicities as a disease to humanity. Dehumanization is a featured theme in Elie Wiesel’s novel about the Holocaust since he demonstrated numerous examples of the severe conditions endured by the Jewish people. The nonfiction story Night by Elie Wiesel focuses on inhumanity and reveals human beings are capable of committing great atrocities and behaving cruelly, when such actions are condoned by society, peer pressure, and ethical beliefs. Elie Wiesel uses literary devices to produce a consistent theme of inhumanity.

The Holocaust which was one of many of the controversial events that have happened in the history of our world demonstrated a significant amount of cruelty and dehumanization. Because of such a controversial event, many have suffered through physical and unfortunately psychological upheaval and distress. With previous knowledge and novels’ read on the Holocaust, it came to be known that the event was triggered through obedience and conformity due to the not specifically the Germans’ beliefs of anti-Semitic and propaganda, but more of leader Adolf Hitler. The time of the Holocaust was used to dehumanize which enhanced the understanding of mental health and human psychology. During the Holocaust, many psychological principles affected individuals forever. The principles include groupthink and of course knowing the outcome of the event. Such principles sooner explain the reality of life because it stresses how individuals react due to their past experiences like the Holocaust and most importantly how traumatic events build them as who they are today.  Innocent Jews went through starvation, terrible working conditions, and the elimination of race through torture such as gas chambers. Furthermore, the history of this controversial event is now being used to be alert of the health and wellness of those who have gone through such events that sooner change their behavior and mentality for the better or even worse.

Dehumanization is the act of taking one’s human qualities away from them, this can be done using voice and also using actions. During the time of the Holocaust, the Nazi’s used their power to abuse and dehumanize the Jewish people. They would beat and kill them, they would yell at them and they stripped the Jews of their dignity and rights. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, one recurring theme is the dehumanization of the Jews. Throughout Night by Elie Wiesel, one can see the theme of dehumanization through the way the Nazi’s treated the Jews, spoke to the Jews, and how the Jews treated one another.