The holocaust was genocide against the Jewish race. Elie Wiesel’s memoir “Night” was a firsthand view of what the Jewish people were put through at the hands of Nazi Germany. The concentration camp system methodically debilitated the prisoners through the heartless process of dehumanization. Each prisoner of the concentration camps was stripped of everything they had ever known, leaving them feeling worthless. This forced change through a loss of faith, loss of compassion and loss of physical health.
Dehumanization was the ruthless process used to belittle the Jews into feeling as though they had no belonging. The Nazis thought of the Jews as untermenschen, which means “subhuman”. They designed a plan to exterminate the Jewish race as a whole. …show more content…
The Nazis did not think of the Jews as human so they were not provided with what a human needs to stay healthy or at least to survive. The victims in the camps were overworked and not given enough rest time, which resulted in exhaustion and even death by exhaustion. Life in the camps was brutal but straightforward, work until death. As the SS officer informed the Jews upon their arrival “ ‘you are in Auschwitz…It is a concentration camp. Here, you must work.’ “(Wiesel, 1958, p.38) The prisoners were forced to do hard labour and if they were unable they were savagely killed. Every prisoner in the camp was severely tired. The labour varied from less physical challenging jobs like the musician block to physically demanding jobs such as the construction block. However all the blocks were physically draining because they would get beaten by the guards. The ‘considerably’ nice kapo from Elie’s block lashed out often and would beat his workers black and blue. “He threw himself on me like a wild beast…crushing me with ever more violent blows, until I was covered in blood.” (Wiesel, 1958, p.53) How is it that the kapo could just beat on innocent victims just to let his personal anger out? A beating is something no human should have to go through much less a beating to that extreme. The biggest reason the prisoners had little to no energy was the little amount they were fed. The Jews were seriously malnourished. A couple of rations of bread and two bowls of soup are not nearly enough to keep a human alive, at least not for long. A disease called dysentery, which is brought on by starvation, caused many deaths. Elie’s father suffered from this illness and died from it. “Suffering from dysentery, my father was prostate on his cot, with another five sick inmates near by.” (Wiesel, 1958, p.108) This was a way to kill them off. They were dying due
Dehumanization was the ruthless process used to belittle the Jews into feeling as though they had no belonging. The Nazis thought of the Jews as untermenschen, which means “subhuman”. They designed a plan to exterminate the Jewish race as a whole. …show more content…
The Nazis did not think of the Jews as human so they were not provided with what a human needs to stay healthy or at least to survive. The victims in the camps were overworked and not given enough rest time, which resulted in exhaustion and even death by exhaustion. Life in the camps was brutal but straightforward, work until death. As the SS officer informed the Jews upon their arrival “ ‘you are in Auschwitz…It is a concentration camp. Here, you must work.’ “(Wiesel, 1958, p.38) The prisoners were forced to do hard labour and if they were unable they were savagely killed. Every prisoner in the camp was severely tired. The labour varied from less physical challenging jobs like the musician block to physically demanding jobs such as the construction block. However all the blocks were physically draining because they would get beaten by the guards. The ‘considerably’ nice kapo from Elie’s block lashed out often and would beat his workers black and blue. “He threw himself on me like a wild beast…crushing me with ever more violent blows, until I was covered in blood.” (Wiesel, 1958, p.53) How is it that the kapo could just beat on innocent victims just to let his personal anger out? A beating is something no human should have to go through much less a beating to that extreme. The biggest reason the prisoners had little to no energy was the little amount they were fed. The Jews were seriously malnourished. A couple of rations of bread and two bowls of soup are not nearly enough to keep a human alive, at least not for long. A disease called dysentery, which is brought on by starvation, caused many deaths. Elie’s father suffered from this illness and died from it. “Suffering from dysentery, my father was prostate on his cot, with another five sick inmates near by.” (Wiesel, 1958, p.108) This was a way to kill them off. They were dying due