Dehumanization During The Holocaust

Based on Night, during the Holocaust, the Nazis gradually reduced the Jews to little more than “things” which were a nuisance to them. To deprive one of human qualities, personality, and/or spirit is to dehumanize one. In which, there were way more than a handful of examples to support this statement. Examples where men were deprived of food (human qualities), forced to go against their religion (personality), and wretchedly beat (spirit).

Three of the basic human needs include food, water, and shelter. It would be outright dehumanizing to take away these needs from any human being. However, there are several instances from Night where the Nazis did just that. The first to be mentioned as stated by Eliezer, “I was hungry and thirsty. I must have been very dirty and disheveled, to judge by what the others looked like… And who knew when we would be given another ration?” (95). This quote is one piece of evidence to show Eliezer himself was deprived of food, his own basic need. Another example of this cruel act of dehumanization was when the SS guards threw bread at the uncounted Jews who were crammed into one cart of the train (101). There were way too many starving men for the amount of bread they tossed inside that a man literally killed his father for a piece. It

As a Jew, there are strict laws that most of them, if not all, follow habitually. To strip them of their valuables and to force them to go against their religion is equivalent to stripping them of their rights. On page 42, Eliezer states, “The three ‘veteran’ prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.” First and foremost, it is against Jewish religion to have permanent markings on the body and this was something the Nazis forced upon them. Second, calling someone by a single letter and a four digit number is awfully demeaning. Enough to take away an individual 's