The memoir Night, was written by an empathetic, kind and faithful man named Eliezel Wiesel. We can identify him as a Romanian Jew who lived through the Holocaust and shares his experience to those who are willing to listen. The identity of the Jewish community was lost in the darkness, as discrimination and dehumanization became a threat. Eliezel and his family face ego deaths as the silence of God makes them question who they are as a whole. Wiesel exemplifies how extreme situations challenge one's identity and makes them lose sight of their humanity. A joker, a faithful boy, an angry boy, a creature of the night with a long nose, a survivor. As Elizer and the prisoners spend more time in Auschwitz, “beast of prey unleashed [with] animal hate …show more content…
Over time, their physical image becomes beaten and destroyed causing them to see themselves as corpses rather than humans. When the Jews were forced into a camp, Elizel “had no other name” as the Germans assigned them numbers instead. (Wiesel 42) By taking away their name, one can lose a piece of themselves. In addition to affecting the Jews mental state, they strayed away from their faith and lost sight of their values after witnessing the death of their friends, family, and culture. “Disintegrating the graves of the dead'' (Tadeusz Pankiewicz). Eliezer Wiesel’s memoir saved the Jews identity crisis, giving them Perrucci 2 a voice after WWI. The irony of public humiliation degraded the Jewish community. Wiesel chose to allocate his life to the dead and the young to carry on their legacy, touching the hearts of the survivors who were forgotten. Culture can be used to measure one’s worth, causing their values to change based on others' biases. All prayers were lost when the “terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent” after witnessing the slaughter of people who worshiped him daily (Wiesel 33). The
The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.” (Weisel,par 15).This act of dehumanization is vividly portrayed in the story, “Night” when Elizer is freed and gazes upon his own reflection, his eyes meet a thing, a walking corpse as he describes. He no longer sees himself, a person. This shows the detachment eliezer experiences as his identity has stripped and reduced to a mere object. Another example of this dehumanization is shown through chimneys and their use in Auschwitz.
Throughout the novel Night and throughout the history of the holocaust, Nazis dehumanized Jewish prisoners with both language and actions. Nazis treated Jewish prisoners like animals; when they behaved well, they were rewarded with extra soup or bread and when they misbehaved, they were physically tortured or even killed. They were also referred to as numbers rather than names. This is shown when Elie Wiesel states, “I never felt anything except the lashes of the whip... Only the first really hurt,” (Wiesel 57).
Karla Galindo Michelle Stewart Summer English 14 July 2023 Night: Elie Wiesel Dehumanization means to deprive a person of their basic rights and to treat them as inferior and less-than human. Throughout his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel, illustrates how Hitler and his Nazis dehumanize the Jews in their quest to annihilate them. Due to the horrific and inhumane ways in which the Nazis seek to torture and exterminate the Jews, the Jews lose both faith in their God and compassion for one another. The Jews begin to lose faith in their God, their religion, due to the brutal and savage treatment of them in the hands of Hitler’s Nazis.
They were trying to survive the germans dehumanization tactics being forced upon them. Therefore they tried to break the Jewish people's hope and spirit. Nazi’s use several oppressive and inhuman dehumanization methods to weaken the hope of the Jewish people. The first tactic used by the Nazi’s to try and dehumanize the Jewish people was to try and strip them from their identity.
His deteriorated mental condition is a result of the dehumanization and blood curdling atrocities he witnesses under Nazi custody. Throughout the holocaust, the Nazis use the strategy of dehumanization to break the Jewish spirit and rob people of their humanity. In this way, Elie Wiesel’s novel serves as a way to remember the struggles the Jewish community went through as the Nazis try to turn them into something less than human. By being able to understand the true consequences of dehumanization during the holocaust, it is possible to appreciate the importance of treating people like how they should be treated, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity. Wiesel’s testimony in his book Night serves as a reminder of the lasting effects of dehumanization, and that people in modern society are now responsible to prevent
For instance, the Germans' use of human ovens on page 25 left the Jews feeling so helpless that they recited the prayer of death for themselves, an unprecedented occurrence in Jewish history, “I do not know if it has ever happened before, in the long history of the Jews, that people have ever recited the prayer of the death for themselves.” This quote reveals the Germans' ability to inflict generational trauma on the Jews by leading them directly to their death, stripping them of their identities and leaving them without hope. It sheds light on how the Germans' actions resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews and destroyed their sense of identity and belonging. Consequently, the Jews losing their faith, as seen on page 49, where Wiesel questions his own reality and expresses his outrage, frustration, and despair at the atrocities committed by the Germans,“Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled.
Elie Wiesel’s harrowing memoir of his personal accounts during the Holocaust recounts the dehumanization and brutality endured by those persecuted within the camps. Despite this, Wiesel reflects on the moments of compassion and consideration of other individuals even whilst enduring atrocities and how these instances of altruism can serve as a form of resistance against the Nazi regime. Ultimately, Wiesel exhibits throughout his novel that individuals who were once unified can turn into savage and immoral beings within places of brutality. Wiesel demonstrates that humans can still be sympathetic and exhibit decency towards others even whilst enduring atrocities. After Eliezer endured public humiliation and punishment by Kapo Idek, a French
The creator of Night, a novel recording the horrendous and frightful occasions of the holocaust, Elie Wiesel communicates his encounters and perceptions in which he and his kindred Jews were dehumanized while living in inhumane imprisonments (a terrible). All Jews, as a race were brutalized by the Nazis amid this time; lessening them to no not as much as articles, positions which made no difference to them, things that were an aggravation. Nazis would accumulate each Jew that they could discover and convey them to these infernos, isolating the men and ladies. Families, not knowing it could never observe each other again. People inside the classifications were separated much more, in view of their well being, quality, and age.
Kate Johnson Ms. Nikolai ELA English 10 Sophomore Academy 02-01-23 Dehumanization Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir that recounts witnesses to his experiences in multiple concentration camps during the Holocaust. Many people were kept in concentration camps for years during World War II, and while they faced many hardships and fought many battles, possibly the hardest challenge to overcome was that of dehumanization. Dehumanization is the act of regarding, representing, or treating a person or group as less than human, (dictionary.com). During his experiences, Elie witnessed many instances where he, his family, or other Jews in the camps were treated so inhumanely that they felt reduced to little more than ‘things’. The Nazis were harsh, cruel,
The prisoners lose their humanity and are robbed of their freedom, forced to confront their worth based solely on the cruel judgment of their oppressors. This depiction highlights the deep-rooted dehumanization that present all throughout the Holocaust, showcasing the profound loss of identity and humanity suffered by its victims. Through these portrayals, Wiesel effectively communicates the dehumanizing impact of the Holocaust and the devastating consequences it had on
Night is a vexing and disturbing autobiography portrayed through a main character that is a replica of the author. Elie Wiesel, author of Night, keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as they read the truth of what happened at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, and the death marches through the first person point of view throughout the entire novel. The tale of a child who loses his homeland, his family, his health, and his faith all within a hellish year during World War II. The first person point of view allows the reader to experience the emotions and growth of a boy who not only survives the Holocaust but transforms into a man who barely recognizes himself. The author, Elie Wiesel, represents his life as mirrored through Eliezer