A single needle attached to a pen holder took away someone’s identity. A pair of disheveled, ill-fitting rags stripped someone of their individuality. Depriving someone of basic necessities took away their soul. Upon arrival at the camps Elie and his father were separated from his female family members, never to see them again. Immediately, Elie along with the other prisoners were subjected to camp life. This entailed deplorable living conditions, cruel physical punishment from the S.S. officers and food deprivation. Although Elie survived despite these many challenges and the vacillating weather, his father was not as fortunate. Eventually, when the camp was liberated in 1945 Elie was so emaciated that after looking into a mirror he only …show more content…
Upon Elie’s arrival at Auschwitz he was punctured with tattoo, immediately being reduced to a number. “I quickly became A-7713. After that I had no other name” (31). Using symbolism to indicate the inhumanity of the concentration camps, Elie demonstrates just how apparent and instantaneous it was to lose a sense of identity. Using the word “quickly” proved that dehumanization was not a lengthy or lingering process, the goal was to break them then and there. Elie was not just a number, he “became” a number and was only referred to as that, not a human being. “I felt the sweat run down my back.” “A-7713!” “I came forward” (42). The process of tattooing your identification on is degrading. The sensation and pain of being called a number is far more demeaning. The fact that S.S. officers could discount the essential human quality that we all possess -names- and replace it with something so cold and impersonal such as an identification number made the dehumanization process simple. What were people without names? In the Nazis minds they were superficial beings, without names in a camp, therefore they deserved any barbaric treatment thrown their way. To Hitler, the fact that Jews could potentially be broken this promptly proved he was in a step into the right direction at dehumanizing and eliminating the Jewish
Ever since humans came to be, they have done many things to ensure their survival. It’s the reason why we humans have evolved as much as we have. Humans have invented devices, accomplished many challenges, and have even relied on nothing but willpower to survive. When somebody survives a tragic event they are left with some terrifying memories that haunt them forever, but a few survivors are courageous enough to share their experience. Obviously, one of the shared experiences is the book called Night by Elie Wiesel.
In Night. People in concentration camps tried to protect each other but struggled very hard to do so. Sometimes, they barely had a chance to begin with. For example, Elie witnessed someone kill himself because they already committed all he had left to taking care of a family member and was stuck. “A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father?
The severely cruel conditions of concentration camps had a profound impact on everyone who had the misfortune of experiencing them. For Elie Wiesel, the author of Night and a survivor of Auschwitz, one aspect of himself that was greatly impacted was his view of humanity. During his time before, during, and after the holocaust, Elie changed from being a boy with a relatively average outlook on mankind, to a shadow of a man with no faith in the goodness of society, before regaining confidence in humanity once again later in his life. For the first 13 years of his life, Elie seemed to have a normal outlook on humanity.
Elie went through extreme adversity within the camps of Auschwitz yet still managed to persevere. The experiences Elie went through in camp Auschwitz changed him as an individual spiritually; a boy who was once devoted to God ceased to believe in him. Elie also lost his sense of self identity, as his personality completely changes. During his internment at Auschwitz and Buchenwald Elie completely loses his innocence. As a result of the adversity Elie faces throughout his time at the Auschwitz camp, his identity is tarnished and eventually reformed.
For starters, when Eliezer and the other prisoners got to Auschwitz they were forced to get a tattoo of numbers, the only name the Nazi’s will call him. Miserably the Jews filed past a table, “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name” (Wiesel 42). This shows the dehumanization of Eliezer because now he is referred to as a number rather than a human being with a name. Another example of dehumanization occurs in the beginning when they were crammed into cattle cars.
Throughout this novella, the denied ability to have an exclusive title other than just a number, the critical circumstances of the feared concentration camp Auschwitz, and the disability to obtain a soul, all contribute to Elie’s incredulity towards his faith. Family titles and names are a prodigious gift from God. To acquire a name means that there is an importance for the individual’s life. Without names, an individual has no meaning and no worth. The SS men have replaced their captives original names for irrelevant numbers as shown in the following quote, “I became A-7713.
Breaking The Chains Of Conformity With Courage Courage is similar to being the ripened fruit on a barren tree, it gives life and color to a dull exterior. The courage that others display gives our nation determination for another day. Courage is the ability to prevail through hardships, to reveal your true inner nature, and to stand up for what you believe, when the rest of the world falls as a slave to conformity. Hardships are lurking around every corner of our life ready to immerse whenever we least expect them.
Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis gradually reduced the Jews to little more than "things" which were a nuisance to them. The Jews in these concentration camps were greatly disrespected. They experienced several beatings, were undernourished, and overworked. Elie and the other Jews eventually lost faith in God, and witness unpleasant events never to be seen again. Elie and his family not only had to survive the sickening ride to the concentration camps, but then had to endure the pain every day after that.
The human condition is a very malleable idea that is constantly changing due to the current state of mankind. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the concept of the human condition is displayed in the worst sense of the concept, during the Holocaust of WWII. During this time, multiple groups of people, most notably European Jews, were persecuted against and sent to horrible hard labor and killing centers such as Auschwitz. In this memoir, Wiesel uses complex figurative language such as similes and metaphors to display the theme that a person’s state as a human, both at a physical and emotional level, can be altered to extreme lengths, and even taken away from them, under the most extreme conditions.
To find a man who has not experienced suffering is impossible; to have man without hardship is equally unfeasible. Such trials are a part of life and assert that one is alive by shaping one’s character. In the autobiographical memoir Night by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, this molding is depicted through Elie’s transformation concerning his identity, faith, and perspective. As a young boy, Elie and his fellow neighbors of Sighet, Romania were sent to Auschwitz, a macabre concentration camp with the sole motive of torturing and killing Jews like himself. There, Elie experiences unimaginable suffering, and upon liberation a year later, leaves as a transformed person.
“Identity can change for a person over the course of their life. Certain events can change a person a person for the better or the worse,” This cause to happen from a boy name Elie Wiesel from the book called Night by Elie Wiesel, Memoir. It cause from Elie changing his life to him being a religious and studios boy to him stop believing in god. Over the course of Night, Elie’s identity has changed tremendously. Elie went from being a studios boy who was very religious to a kid who started to die from the inside and thinking about nothing.
After going through so much, many people do not have the same mindset as they did before. Being tortured and watching others being tortured changes a person’s life, especially Elie’s, his father’s, Moshe the Beadle’s, and Rabbi Eliahou’s. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, shares his own experience of going through a concentration camp, and it is clear that many things in his life changed
Never shall [he] forget those things, even were [he] condemned to live as long as God Himself” (Wiesel 75). This quote leads me to believe that the suffering endured in the camps lead Elie to become lost with who he was. Elie and the other members of the Jewish community try to keep their faith as much as they can even though it is being tested. As shown in Night enduring suffering forces people to become much different versions of themselves.
Elie was held captive in concentration camps from 1944-1945. During his time in the concentration camps, he became grateful for what he had, overcame countless obstacles, and more importantly kept fighting until he was free. [The Holocaust is very important to learn about because it can teach you some important life lessons.] You should always be grateful for what you have, no matter what the circumstances are. This lesson can be learned when Elie says, “After my father’s death, nothing could touch me any more”(109).
Have you ever wondered Why were the Concentration camps established? who went to there, what kind of things happen to them while there? And how many people died? What happen to the survivors? Let’s find out what really happen in the Concentration Camps.