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Essay / Portrayal of Dehumanization at Night by Elie Wiesel
The Holocaust itself was an exercise in mass dehumanization and extermination of millions of people. The definition of dehumanization is the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities. There are countless examples of dehumanization throughout world history and throughout Elie Wiesel's Night which highlights and demonstrates dehumanization. Some examples include the giving of the Star of David and their number to Jews, the relationship between prisoners and the relationship between guards and prisoners, and when guards were transported. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Wiesel's Night, the Jewish people were to wear the crest of David. In Night, Elie’s father says “The yellow star? So what? It's not fatal. This statement turned out to be false since the star distinguished them from the others and placed a target on their backs. This was one of many tactics used to label Jews as others. While the Jews were in the camp, they were given numbers to use in place of a name. Wiesel says: “I became A-7713. From that moment on, I never had another name. In this quote, the Nazis mark new prisoners with a number, removing their names, any family history, traditions and religious values contained in their names become completely insignificant. Just a bunch of random numbers and letters. By taking away people's names, the Nazis also took part in what made them human. Moreover, the Jews faced much worse. One of the prisoners said, "You... you... you... 'They pointed at the way you could pick livestock or goods" (Wiesel 49). This quote shows how prisoners began to view themselves as animals or objects. Those who point out Wiesel and his father are Kapos, with special power to degrade other inmates. To survive, the prisoners had to forget everything and potentially even use each other to preserve themselves. Wiesel recounts: “One day, as we stopped, a worker took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it into a cart. There was a stampede. Dozens of hungry men fought desperately for a few crumbs. The worker watched the spectacle with great interest. This quote reinforces the fact that there was no respect or dignity for the Jews. Hitler created a persona that made Jews into horrible, worthless people and this was accepted by the country. Wiesel states: “… get into the cars, eighty people in each”, “… pushed us inside, a hundred per car: we were so thin! (Wiesel 103). “We had about a hundred in this car. Twelve of us left it. These three quotes show the progression of corpses in cattle cars over time. They started with 80 and eventually grew to 100 after being starved, and all but twelve survived. Prisoners were transported to the camps in several ways: usually by train, but also on foot if the camps were close to their original destination, or occasionally by truck. Prisoners were generally not informed of their precise destination, although in later years it was often specified that they were being sent "to the East". By the early 1940s, most prisoners had heard rumors about the camps in the East and the conditions there. This, in addition to the experiences they had already had, would have led to fear and anxiety”.