Death Camp Dehumanized Essay

To dehumanize is to “deprive someone of positive human qualities” or at least that is what the literal definition is. However, the significant meaning behind it is to treat someone as though they are not human, rather lower ranking or like an animal. What do most people think of when hearing about the Holocaust? The simple answer to that is, the Jewish population. Most people know that many terrible things happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust, however, very few know how poorly they were treated and how each individual was the bane of some of the Germans existence, including Adolf Hitler. Especially in one of the largest concentration camps of it’s kind, Auschwitz-Birkenau also known as “The Death Camp”. This paper explores what …show more content…
To dehumanize is to “deprive someone of positive human qualities.” Prisoners in Auschwitz were deprived of so many things life had to offer them as well as their well earned rights as human beings. Once again, what do most people think of when hearing about the Holocaust? Now the answer is as follows; prisoners lived as an animal would live, treated as an animal would be treated, and killed in mass amounts with no regrets from their murderers. The Jewish people were punished and killed for what seemed to be a crime of existing. They were looked down on and subject to punishments based on crimes they didn’t commit. This was all the work of the SS guards who carried out in killing all these innocent people. Maybe it makes one feel powerful to dehumanize people. Maybe that is why Adolf Hitler was unstoppable and why prisoners were in concentration camps for so long. The victims would not feel powerful at all, but rather week at the hands of their oppressors. It was easy for many of the Germans to dehumanize what was in their eyes a different race, it gave them power and hope for what they thought could be a better