The Nazis were successful in fully dehumanizing Jewish prisoners in concentration camps. This brutal treatment often led to the loss of hope in these camps, part of the Nazis goal. In Night, Eliezer Wiesel’s memoir, he tells of the many instances where he experienced dehumanization during his time at several concentration camps. The Nazis eliminated people’s humanity in many ways, including starvation, nakedness, and taking away their names in exchange for a number. Starvation causes great suffering and deprives people of an essential part of life.
Elie Wiesel’s true story Night, is an intriguing story about the Holocaust. The guards and even veteran prisoners are cruel to others. The punishments, even for tiny faults, are unthinkably horrid. Man does not care how old or weak someone is; this makes the children and teens change and act inhumane towards other prisoners, even towards their own family. It clearly, and painfully, explains man’s inhumanity to man.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, it talks about how his time in the concentration and how they were treated, and what he thought about. He talks about how they were treated brutally and unfairly just because of their religion. How they were forced to live in poor conditions, and how they were promised a better life if they came with them. That promise was broken as soon as they got to their first concentration camp. When they first go their they saw the smoke coming from the chimneys and the smelling of burning flesh.
In chapters 4 to 6 in the novel, “Night”, Elie Wiesel and his father continue to suffer in the grasp of the Germans. Eventually, all the Jews are moved to a new work camp, Buna, where they are overworked and undernourished, and resort to killing each other for pieces of bread. In his old home, Elie had never experienced brutality and inhumanity within it. Now, Elie and other Jews witness extreme violence and an absence of mercy that begins to erode their mental state; bringing most men to animalistic tendencies. In chapter 4, the Jews arrive in Buna.
Vladek explains to Art about having to survive during WW2 as a Polish Jew undercover, having to pretend to be German in order to pass by. In the novel, Vladek tells Art about the tough living conditions before being transported to a concentration camp. He had to buy from the black market in order to get enough food for himself, his wife, and his child. “ ‘Cohn had a dry goods store. He was known over all Sosnowiec… I traded also with Pfefer, a fine young man -- a Zionist…
Night: Dehumanization “He was so terrible that he was no longer terrible. Only dehumanized” (F. Scott Fitzgerald). Jews were treated so badly that they began to act terribly but eventually they reached the point beyond repair and it was all due to dehumanization. The Holocaust took place in WW2, it was a horrific event that killed millions of Jews. Many Jews were taken from their homes and were killed, or were treated less than animals until death of starvation or exhaustion.
Rather than giving away his rations of food, Eliezer learns that he needs to do anything he can to ensure his survival, while he remains at the concentration camps. Furthermore, Eliezer experienced evil in a way like no other. As the prisoners were forced to move to another camp during winter, they would be shot if they fell behind. In chapter six it said, “They had orders to shoot anyone who could not sustain the pace.”
Horrors of The Holocaust The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel is one of the many novels written by him and others about the true cruelty of the Nazis. The memoir shows the abominable actions of the Nazi perpetrators; for example, “Faster, you swine, you filthy sons of bitches!”(Wiesel 91). This quote shows the feelings of the Nazis and how they brutally treated the Jews and other races. Swine, a term for pigs, commonly used throughout the Nazi camps; this is not the first time that the Kapos and other Nazi soldiers have called the Jews pigs or dogs. This quote shows the inhumane treatment of the people sentenced to the concentration camps during World War II where six million Jews die in various ways.
Passive Resistance In 1939, WWII began when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party invaded Poland, causing six million Jewish people to fear for their lives. This fear began when all people and citizens had to complete a census and carry an identification card. Second, the Jews had to wear the Star of David and they were forced into ghettos. Third, they were taken to the concentration camps and the death camps.
During the Holocaust, the Germans deprived minority groups, especially the Jews, of human qualities, personalities, and spirits. The German Nazis treated the Jews like animals and forced them to endure abominable physical tortures. In the novel, Night, Elie Wiesel narrates his life during World War II as a Jew; he is compelled to be relocated to a concentration camp with his father, but unfortunately, he and his father are separated from his mother and sisters. Wiesel and his father face many situations where they are dehumanized along with the other fellow Jews. Through his perspective, the readers discover the cruel and disgusting practices taken against the Jews.
The German enforcers themselves are not mentioned beyond what they order and when they stand alongside Mengele. This may be an effect of how he saw life within the camps, where the Germans were often unknown, negative embodiments that forced them to labour. Wiesel also speaks of his distaste for the Schutzstaffel by revealing hate for the morning bell that rings when there is work to be done. By using the bell as symbolism, he shows that the Schutzstaffel are hated for what they force the prisoners to do. This exemplifies the poor state of Wiesel’s group, the
Elie Wiesel has been through hell and back, suffering from malnutrition, horrible weather conditions, and self torture. The Nazis dehumanized the Jews in Auschwitz by taking their humanity, making them fight for survival, and slaughtering and treating them like animals. During the beginning of the Holocaust Jews had been forced out of their homes, and had their clothes stripped off. Women and children were either raped or killed “dentist” that would call in Jews and pull out their gold teeth. Elie tried to avoid that by telling the Nazis he had been sick but eventually he was forced to have his teeth pulled out.
Over the course of World War Two, over six million Jewish people were murdered. Killing factories known as concentration camps were spread throughout Europe, and worked tirelessly to exterminate Jews. The deadliest of all was known as Auschwitz, and it is where a fifteen year old Elie Wiesel was taken in 1944. He remained in concentration camps until liberation in 1945. By the end of World War Two, Wiesel had lost his faith in God and humanity after experiencing unspeakable horrors, such as the execution of children and the death of his father.
Could you picture around 6 million people? Now how would you feel if all of them were killed right now? All of them being killed because they were African American or they were Mexican. The Holocaust was when the Nazi’s led by Adolf Hitler persecuted, tortured, and killed people just because they were Jewish. People were separated from their families and gassed or burned just to keep up with how many people were coming into the camp, or just to amuse themselves.
In the novel Night, Idek shows evil in every way. Idek beats on Eli’s father countless times once to try to get Eli’s gold crown from his mouth. When he wasn’t beating on one of the prisoners he was taking advantage of a young girl at the camp. We see no sign of family in Idek’s life but plenty of evil outbreaks. Even though Idek is also Jewish just like all the other members of the camps and he too treats the prisoners like the German officers would or even worse.