Night Dehumanization Quotes

During the Holocaust, the Nazis reduced the Jewish population to little more than dogs, as is specifically portrayed by many quotes found throughout the book Night by Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust. Dehumanization plays a very important role in how effective the Holocaust was in bringing down the Jewish Religion. For example, a German officer says, “‘There are eighty of you in the car,’...’If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs.’” (Wiesel 24). The quote above illustrates how lowly the Germans thought of the Jews and other undesirables. The simple fact that the german officer is comparing the jews in the cattle car to dogs. Through this, it is very easy to see how dehumanization occurred during the holocaust. Throughout the story this dehumanization gets more intense, the Germans showing absolutely no regard for the Jewish religion. …show more content…
In this quote, it is revealed that while Elie is observing all of the tragedies of the Holocaust happening around him, he is himself becoming dehumanized. In the quote, Elie finds himself hoping that he didn’t find his father so he could focus on his own survival. It was as if all human connections were broken within him, as if he only had his primal instinct left, to survive. That is the true consequence of the Holocaust. The Jews were left to nothing more than bodies awaiting death, and in the meantime, they had nothing to do but survive the brutalities of the decaying world around them. The dehumanization of the Jews is the inner greatest tragedy of the Holocaust, a great and widely recognized religion being stifled and attempted to be killed off. Overall, the dehumanization of the Jews during the Holocaust was when the Nazi officers regarded the Jews as things and creatures, not worthy of even being in their presence. This can be observed all around Elie in the book Night by Elie Wiesel, and even within