Dehumanization In Elie Wiesel's Night

Analytical Night Essay

In the book Night the Nazis took the Jews of Europe and put them in concentration camps. While the Jews were in the concentration camps the Nazis used the process of dehumanization on the Jews to make them seem like just things instead of actual people. There are three different ways the Nazis dehumanized the Jews; The Nazis transported the Jews in cattle cars, The Nazis tattooed numbers on the Jews arms, and finally the Nazis made all the Jews seem and look the same.

When the holocaust was happening the Nazis had to transport the Jews somehow to get them to the concentration camps and or labor camps. They did this by transporting them in cattle cars on trains. This had a big impact on the moral of the Jews. There would

always be too much jews for the space that the cattle cars provided. They would have to take turns sitting and standing. The author said, “Lying down was out of the question, and we were only able to sit by deciding to take turns.” This made the Jews feel like animals unable to do anything to stop it. One woman in the book even went crazy in these cattle cars. She kept on yelling there was a fire on the outside of the train. This was most likely because of the conditions inside the car.
When the jews got to the concentration camp they were given their own number that the Nazis gave them so that they would be known as a number know and not a human with a name. The author and main character said, “ I became A-7713. After that I had no other name.” This was his number and all the Jews said that didn’t like the numbers and it made feel like they’re less than a human being. When the Nazis had roll call or needed one of the Jews, they would call them by their number.
Finally the Nazis would make the Jews seem all the same like a herd of the same colored sheep by making them look all alike. The Nazis would shave all the Jews heads so that lice would not spread and to keep the Jews a little easier to keep clean. The main character said in the book, “They took our hair off with clippers, and shaved off all the hair on our bodies.” The Nazis would also give all the Jews the same clothing which were usually white and black striped uniforms. Some of the clothes would not fit all of the Jews so they would have to swap and trade with other jews to get the right size for him or herself.
The book Night had a lot of examples of how the Nazis used dehumanization to break the will of the jews and to make them seem inhuman during the holocaust. We now know three ways that the Nazis did this to the Jews. They would transport them in cattle cars, they would give them tattooed numbers to replace their names, and shave their heads and give them all the same clothing to make them all the same.