Examples Of Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel

The memoir, Night, written by author and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, details his harrowing experiences during World War II. At this time, the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, took control of Germany and its surrounding areas, eventually establishing concentration camps to carry out Hitler’s Final Solution: the systematic murder of European Jews and any other minority deemed unfit for life in Nazi Germany. Elie Wiesel, originally taken to Auschwitz, managed to survive the horrors, and dedicated the rest of his life to sensitizing the world to the atrocities he, and so many others, experienced. Specifically in Night, Wiesel depicts the efforts the Nazis made to dehumanize the Jews, and how these efforts affected the victims. Dehumanizing events such the loss of his home in Sighet, the arrival in Auschwitz, and the

To begin, the loss of his home in Sighet drastically altered Wiesel’s perspective on his own identity. First, the trouble begins when Jews slowly begin to lose their rights at the hands of the Nazis. Elie reports on how, slowly but surely, the rights of Jews were stripped away in Sighet: synagogues are closed, Jews must hand over all valuable items, Jews have to wear a yellow Star of David so as to be easily identifiable in public (Wiesel 10-11). These little caveats to being allowed to be both Jewish and a citizen of a Nazi-occupied country start to build up over time and slowly change how one perceives themselves. It’s difficult to see yourself as a citizen, like everyone else, when you and your ilk are treated as if you're sub-human. Equally important, soon after all Jews in Sighet are forced to move into ghettos. Elie, fortunately, lived on one of the streets cordoned off into a ghetto, meaning he could stay in his home, but many of his relatives were displaced (Wiesel