“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.”Elie Wiesel said this in his speech after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. We must know how to take sides to help us be the voice for all of these people that have been silenced due to dehumanization. The Holocaust was a genocide during World War II in which Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany systematically murdered some seven million European Jews. Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor who chose to be the voice and advocate for people who have been dehumanized. He wrote the Night Trilogy, where he spoke of his experiences and the aftermath. The text addresses the topic of dehumanization, and how this
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When they fisrt arrived, they were chosen in a process called selection. “In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burnung flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau. (pg. 28)” The Nazi Germans had began to kill the Jewish in bulk as if they were just a thing to get rid of. The Germans at the concentration camps did not want the Jewish people to feel as if they were human beings at all. To make them feel of lesser than a human, they assigned everyone in the camp a number. “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name. (pg. 42)” This was an act of dehumanization that had turned all of these innocent people into objects to be killed. Another act of dehumanization happening in these camps was the rationing of food portions. One person could not get more food than another. “We were brought some soup, one bowl of thick soup for all of us. (pg. 42)” They were not given neccesary resourses to fulfill their human needs. All of these examples of dehumanization help the reader desire to be a voice for those who do not have the opportunnity to do so themselves. Dehumanization is a real problem that still exsists today. All human beings are created equal and deserve to be treated as if they are. All of these examples of dehumanization during the Holocaust are a problem that we as people need to raise awareness for and prevent in the future. Throughout history, people
When they fisrt arrived, they were chosen in a process called selection. “In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burnung flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau. (pg. 28)” The Nazi Germans had began to kill the Jewish in bulk as if they were just a thing to get rid of. The Germans at the concentration camps did not want the Jewish people to feel as if they were human beings at all. To make them feel of lesser than a human, they assigned everyone in the camp a number. “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name. (pg. 42)” This was an act of dehumanization that had turned all of these innocent people into objects to be killed. Another act of dehumanization happening in these camps was the rationing of food portions. One person could not get more food than another. “We were brought some soup, one bowl of thick soup for all of us. (pg. 42)” They were not given neccesary resourses to fulfill their human needs. All of these examples of dehumanization help the reader desire to be a voice for those who do not have the opportunnity to do so themselves. Dehumanization is a real problem that still exsists today. All human beings are created equal and deserve to be treated as if they are. All of these examples of dehumanization during the Holocaust are a problem that we as people need to raise awareness for and prevent in the future. Throughout history, people