Examples Of Dehumanization In The Book Night

Bri

It all started for Elie Wiesel on a normal day in Sighet, while the war was gradually approaching. The foreign Jews were expelled, which included Wiesel’s friend and mentor, Moshe the Beadle. Months later, Moshe came back to Sighet with an unbelievable tale of death. The people of Sighet refused to believe his story, deluding themselves for as long as possible. One day they could not deny it any longer, for it was right in front of them: The Germans had entered Sighet. Night is the memoir of what Elie Wiesel experienced in the Holocaust as a teenager. A concept that recurs throughout the memoir is dehumanization. In Night, Wiesel skillfully tells his experience, from beginning to end, of the Nazis isolating the Jews from the rest of the world,

Wiesel’s father says, “Humanity? Humanity is not concerned with us. Today anything is allowed.” (pg. 30) He was right. They were then stripped: Wiesel says, “For us, this was true equality: nakedness.” (pg. 32) In that moment, their definitions of basic human rights were altered forever. Their hair was shaved and their bodies’ doused in petrol. Trapped in a prison that could only be described as hell, they were worked like mules by day and slept cramped in barracks by night. At this point, his religious faith, which was once his whole world, was replaced by a void in his heart.
Later on, Wiesel, on his hurt foot, traveled with the rest of prisoners from one camp to another against the biting cold wind for more than 40 miles. Soon after arriving at the new camp, they were to travel again. This time they were in a roofless train, while snow piled on top of them as they slowly died. At a stop, a workman threw bread into the train. The men fought like dogs. In that moment, Wiesel witnessed a son kill his own father for a morsel of bread. Soon Wiesel’s thoughts frequently drifted to doing the same. His humanity was