One might treat others like beast, but is the treated consider human? The novel Night is an autobiography written by Elie Wiesel. He explains the dehumanization process of his family, Elizer, and his fellow Jews throughout WWII. Throughout the novel the Jews changes from civilized humans to vicious beings that have behavior that resembles animal. The process of dehumanization begins after the arrestation of the Jew community leaders. The process continues through the bad treatment given by the Nazi to the Jews, in the concentration camps. Finally the Jews are dehumanized to the point where they begins to go against each other; so that they could have a higher chance of survival, at the end where the Jew were forced to move from camp to camp. …show more content…
On their way to the concentration camp, a German officer said, “’There are eighty of you in the car… If anyone is missing, you’ll all be shot like “dogs” ”’ (Wiesel 24). This shows that the Germans compared the Jews to dogs or animals, and that the German have no respect towards the Jews. Arrived at the concentration camp, the Jews were separated from their friends and family. The first thing of the wagon, a SS officer said, “’Men to the left! Women to the right!”’ (Wiesel 29). After the separation, Eliezer saw the crematories. There he saw “’a truck [that] drew close and unloaded its hold: small children, babies … thrown into the flames.” (Wiesel 32). This dehumanize the Jews, because they were able to smell and see other Jews burn in the flames. Later on the Jew were forced to leave their cloth behind and have been promise that they will received other cloth after a shower. However, they were force to work for the new cloth; they were forced to run naked, at midnight, in the cold. Being force to work for the cloth, by running in the cold of midnight is dehumanizing. At the camp, the Jews were not treated like human. They were force to do thing that was unhuman and that dehumanized
Wiesel’s autobiography Night easily displays the dehumanization of the Jews. Wiesel clearly sees this process of the Germans taking away the Jews humanity. On the very last page of the book, Wiesel observes, “From the depths of a mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.” By saying this he knows that he is someone different. The events that he suffered through has affected him and as much as he hates it, he has no humanity
to the dehumanization of the Jews. He uses descriptive adjectives to shed light on what is truly happening. He also uses irony to help the reader understand the cluelessness of himself and the Jews. Wiesel’s way of writing in the book demonstrates the theme of dehumanization through false
In the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the author displays the transformation and the evolution of the average human being, through a horrible experience that he personally went through. When he is transported from one place to another, forced to leave everything behind, to go live in the ghettos, then in a horrible concentration camp. In the concentration camp, Elie experiences numerous events that challenge his physical and mental limits. Some of these events made him question his faith, and whether there is such a thing as God, turning him from a conservative Jew to a reform Jew. Elie doesn’t love the concentration camps, yet he doesn’t hate it, in fact he does not care anymore.
Dehumanization is shown when Wiesel was in Auschwitz and a guard “looked at us as one would a pack of leprous dogs clinging to life.” (Wiesel 38). This shows dehumanization because the guard is not looking at them as humans but as sick dogs. Another example of dehumanization is when the Jews were on the cattle cars and a German officer says “If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs.” showing that the officer does not think of them as human beings but as dogs. The stage of genocide, polarization, is shown in the book when the Germans created the ghettos for the Jews, “Then came the ghettos.” (Wiesel 11). This shows polarization because it separated the Jews into two separate ghettos. Another example of this is when the hungarian police made the Jews leave the ghettos to go to the death camps and concentration camps “The time has come… you must leave all this…” (Wiesel 16). This shows polarization because it splits up the ghettos even more thinly because they are moving them to different locations and splitting the ghettos at different times. Dehumanization and polarization were shown in the book and are quite obvious stages of
According to the definition, inhumane is described as an individual without compassion for misery or sufferings. The novel Night by the author Elie Wiesel, illustrates some aspects of inhumanity throughout the book. It is evident in the novel that when full power is given to operate without restraint, the person in power becomes inhumane. There are many examples of inhumanity in this novel. For instance, "Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky." Through this quote Elie is explaining his first night at camp and what he saw will be in his head forever - unforgettable. In my opinion, the section in the novel when the Germans throw the babies into the chimney is very inhuman. An individual must feel no sympathy or feelings in order to take such a disturbing action. In addition to that "For more than half an hour stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed." This is also very inhumane example since the child's weight wasn’t enough to snap his neck when he was hung and so he is slowly dying painful death as all Jewish people walk by him, being forced to watch the cruelty.
Dehumanization Through Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations.
callous to the death of their peers, and going so far as to murder fellow
This will change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize men and cause them to revert to basic instincts. Wiesel and his peers devolve from civilized human beings to savage animals during the course of Night. Segregation from the rest of society begins the dehumanization of Sighet Jews. The first measure taken by the Hungarian Police against Jews is to label them with yellow stars.
In his book Night Mr. Elie Wiesel shares his experiences about the camps and how cruel all of the Jews were treated in that period. In fact, he describes how he was beaten and neglected by the SS officers in countless occasions. There are very few instances where decent humans are tossed into certain conditions where they are treated unfairly, and cruel. Mr. Wiesel was a victim of the situation many times while he was in the camps. Yet he did not act out, becoming a brute himself, while others were constantly being transformed into brutes themselves. Mr. Wiesel was beaten so dreadfully horrible, however, for his safety, he decided to not do anything about it. There were many more positions where Mr. Wiesel was abused, malnourished, and easily could have abandoned his father but did not.
Then they were taken to the barber to have their heads shaved. This made them look the same and help with the equality so they are all treated equally as bad. It made them all feel equal to look the same even if it was not a good equal. Every possession they had left had being taken and throw in a pile. “Our clothes were to be thrown on the floor at the back of the barrack. There was a pile there already. New suits, old ones, torn over coats, rags. For us it meant true equality: nakedness. Pg. 35” This was the moment the people lost faith and gave up which is important to dehumanize because they do not care what is happening to them. They do not try to change what is going on around them and they no longer care for one another.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, it talks about the holocaust and what it was like being in it. The Germans were trying to make the German race the supreme race. To do this they were going to kill off everyone that wasn’t a German. If you were Jewish or something other than German, you would have been sent to a concentration camp and segregated by men and women. If you weren’t strong enough you were sent to the crematory to be cremated. If you were strong enough you were sent to work at a labor camp. With all the warnings the Jewish people had numerous chances to run from the Germans, but most ignored the warnings.
In the memoir Night, the narrator Wiesel recounts a moment when he witnesses the most horrific actions done by men,”I pinched myself : Was I still alive ? Was I awake ? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent “ (Wiesel 32). Wiesel was thinking and questioning about his existence. While also caring for his father because that's all he has left. It's even more important because, what Wiesel experiences in camps has been near death and fight for survival. Two significant themes related to inhumanity discussed in the book Night by Wiesel are, loss in religious faith and father and son bonding.
The loud sounds of heavy, sharp metal chains clinking against each other. Gloomy, dark skies as you walk in single file lines. A lightning quick strike following cracking sounds ruffles the air. “March Faster” an s.s guard umbers. Human rights are automatic individual rights we are all granted at birth, according to the UDHR which is the official document of human rights. In 1940 of Germany most of these rights were violated. With the many years that the world has fought so hard for equality, people shouldn’t be able to take it away like candy from a baby, which is why the rights of freedom from discrimination, torture, and slavery were violated in the book Night.
If anyone goes missing you will all be shot, like dogs” (Wiesel 24). Eighty people being forced into a single car already is inhumane. The fact that these cars are used for cattle and are barred up makes it worse. Once they are in the cars, they are forced to stand for days, very little food and water, no bathrooms, and terribly stale air make the trip unbearable. But this is only the beginning, as the prisoners arrive at Birkenau. In Auschwitz they are separated from parts of their family, “Men to the left, Women to the right!” (Wiesel 29). Stripped of their clothing “Strip! Hurry up! Raus!” (Wiesel 35), and given numbers in place of their names. This method of dehumanizing is frighteningly effective, driving sons to kill their own fathers over scraps of food “Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me… You're killing your father…” (Wiesel 101). This being the only way that the German soldiers can condemn so many people to their deaths. For those who have been able to survive this long a quick death will be a blessing more than a
In most cases, the quest to forming a utopia often ends in the creation of a dystopia. This observation can be seen in effect during the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler, in his efforts to create a superior Aryan race, initiated a mass “cleansing” where anyone who did not meet his standards was sent to a concentration camp. Christians, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled, and Jewish people were sent to these camps where they worked until death or liberation. Stripped of identity, dignity, and all humanity, they were given small rations of food and were often beaten and experimented on. Those who survived until liberation were often left physically and emotionally scarred such as Elie Wiesel, whose first-hand account of the Holocaust was published in a novel, “Night”. The acts of cruelty performed during the Holocaust have no equal, but the dystopia that Adolf Hitler created has several similarities to our own modern-day society. Religious beliefs, for example, still struggle with some