Night by Elie Wiesel is the retelling of events that Wiesel, his father, and other Jewish captives faced in German concentration camps during the end of World War II. Dehumanization was one of the many tortures faced by Jews throughout the Holocaust. Dehumanization is the action of making someone worth nothing by stripping a person of basic human rights. A few human rights taken from Wiesel and the rest of the Jews at the time was the use of names, being treated as though they were trash, being ordered to work until they could no longer continue, being fed at specific times in small portions, the list goes on as the Germans showed no sympathy towards their prisoners.
Every Jewish prisoner was given a number to replace their name upon arriving at a concentration camp. "The three 'veteran' prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name (Wiesel 42)." Wiesel and the rest of the captive Jews underwent this process. Each was stripped of their name, the thing which was given to them at birth, taken as a mother would take a candy from a misbehaving child. The purpose of this was to make identification of Jewish prisoners easier for the Germans. By giving the captives numbers, Germans were not only taking away names, they took away a part of Wiesel's identity. They showed he was worth less than being given a name, only numbers and letters were sufficient to show what he was.This was not the only example of dehumanization within Night, many other methods were used. Treatment of Jewish captives was another act of dehumanization. An important portion of the book was were Wiesel and his father was separated from his mother and sister. "I didn't know this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever (Wiesel 29)." The separation of Wiesel and his father's mother/wife and sister/daughter because women were seen as useless to the Germans. Due to German views of the women …show more content…
It was already time to part, to go to bed.The bell regulated everything. It gave me orders and I executed them blindly. I hated that bell. Whenever I happened to dream of a better world, I imagined a universe without a bell (Wiesel 73)." Jews were stricken of their freedom, not due to a bell. Everyone was caged at a camp where only the healthiest of the starved survived. They went through physical exams and if they failed, they would be killed. The Jews were never seen as people to the Germans nor were they treated like people. Elie, his father and every other Jew incarcerated by the Nazi forces were stricken of their freedom and forced to live under the constraints of a bell. If prisoners disregarded the bell, they were killed without hesitation. From pages 85 to 95 Jewish captives were forced to march in subfreezing temperatures from Auschwitz to Gleiwitz. Nazi soldiers went along and if anyone broke rank, they were killed on the spot. These marches were notorious between German concentration camps and were often called death marches because many would die from exhaustion, dehydration, malnourishment, hypothermia and many other factors as well. These marches are perfect examples of the process of dehumanization. Hundreds of people held at gunpoint, being forced to keep a steady march through snow-ridden roads towards another concentration
Every Jewish prisoner was given a number to replace their name upon arriving at a concentration camp. "The three 'veteran' prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name (Wiesel 42)." Wiesel and the rest of the captive Jews underwent this process. Each was stripped of their name, the thing which was given to them at birth, taken as a mother would take a candy from a misbehaving child. The purpose of this was to make identification of Jewish prisoners easier for the Germans. By giving the captives numbers, Germans were not only taking away names, they took away a part of Wiesel's identity. They showed he was worth less than being given a name, only numbers and letters were sufficient to show what he was.This was not the only example of dehumanization within Night, many other methods were used. Treatment of Jewish captives was another act of dehumanization. An important portion of the book was were Wiesel and his father was separated from his mother and sister. "I didn't know this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever (Wiesel 29)." The separation of Wiesel and his father's mother/wife and sister/daughter because women were seen as useless to the Germans. Due to German views of the women …show more content…
It was already time to part, to go to bed.The bell regulated everything. It gave me orders and I executed them blindly. I hated that bell. Whenever I happened to dream of a better world, I imagined a universe without a bell (Wiesel 73)." Jews were stricken of their freedom, not due to a bell. Everyone was caged at a camp where only the healthiest of the starved survived. They went through physical exams and if they failed, they would be killed. The Jews were never seen as people to the Germans nor were they treated like people. Elie, his father and every other Jew incarcerated by the Nazi forces were stricken of their freedom and forced to live under the constraints of a bell. If prisoners disregarded the bell, they were killed without hesitation. From pages 85 to 95 Jewish captives were forced to march in subfreezing temperatures from Auschwitz to Gleiwitz. Nazi soldiers went along and if anyone broke rank, they were killed on the spot. These marches were notorious between German concentration camps and were often called death marches because many would die from exhaustion, dehydration, malnourishment, hypothermia and many other factors as well. These marches are perfect examples of the process of dehumanization. Hundreds of people held at gunpoint, being forced to keep a steady march through snow-ridden roads towards another concentration