An instance of tragic irony can be found when the prisoners are forced to evacuate the camp. The Blockälteste says to the prisoners to mop the floors before they leave, “Let them know that here lived men and not pigs” (84). To which Elie remarks to himself, “So we were men after all?” (84). Throughout the camps people are treated inhumanely. They are stripped of their identity and are but only a number to the guards. The treatment of the prisoners is so violent and gruesome it is as if the guards view them as another species altogether, not to be looked at a as a living thing with feelings and emotions. This line is completely bewildering to me. Considering the inhumanity of the actions at the camps throughout Night, this line feels out of
