Dehumanisation in Night Essay

Dehumanization in Night

During the World War II period in the mid 1900s Hitler and the Nazi Party tried to rid of the Jewish population in Europe. This event was called the Holocaust, which literally means an event of mass destruction. Hitler tried to eliminate the Jews by placing them in concentration camps to work and to eventually die. These camps were run by the Nazis and they would constantly dehumanize the Jews, this means to deprive them of their human qualities and their identities. In many cases, Eliezer would witness many Jews being tormented by dehumanization but he stayed strong for himself and for his father. Even though life would seem unbearable at times, Eliezer was determined to survive life in the camps until one day he would be liberated. Throughout the book, the Jews in the camps are constantly dehumanized by the sub-human living conditions in the camps, the physical and emotional cruelty of the SS Officers, and the mental breakdown of themselves and the other Jews in the camps; however, Elizers determination to survive kept him from becoming dehumanized by these circumstances.

Throughout the story Elizer constantly describes how the Jews in the camps are dehumanized by the terrible living conditions that they are supplied in the camps. The Jews were transported to the camps by being thrown into cattle cars and shipped off at about eighty people at a time. They were so weak and thin that large numbers of them could be packed into these small cars, made to fit 1 cow. If anyone goes missing, you shall be shot, like dogs. (German Officer, pg. 24) said one of the German officers who packed them in the cars. Jammed into the cattle car with Eliezer and his father was a woman named Mrs. Schchter. She and her son were also being sent to a concentration camp. All of a sudden, she started screaming to the others that she saw a fire after they arrived at Auschwitz. After the first couple times she did this, two of the strongest men in the car hit her until she become silent. This was an extreme form of dehumanization. Mrs. Schchter was physically beaten by the men, who in their lives before the deportation would probably never have treated a mentally unstable woman this way. Between being stuck in these tiny cars and hearing the woman yelling, the men became so irritated that they began to behave in a nonhuman manner and physically beat her until she stopped yelling. The Jews were becoming more mentally distraught, and it was beginning to show. It would have been easy for a child such as Eliezer to crumble inside when faced with such a brutal show of force. A few more days and all of us would have started to scream. (Eliezer, pg. 26) This is significant because unlike most people in the cars, Elizer was able to think like Mrs. Schchter Although even in the early stages in the novel Elizer seems to nearly submit to the wrath of the Nazis many times somehow he found the inner strength and courage to keep going.

Life inside the camps was even worse. Before any of the Jews were put to work, they were placed in a line. In front of them was a man who decided to send them to the right or to the left. The right was usually the line for women, children, and for men who seemed like they were too weak to work. The left was for the men who would survive in the camp and do labor for the Nazis. This man was known as Dr. Mengele. He appeared to be a typical SS Officer, cruel looking with a monocle. In his hand was a baton which he used to signal each person to their side of the line. He treated the people without any respect for their value as human beings. When questioned by Dr. Mengele about his occupation, Eliezer replied, Farmer, I heard myself saying. (Eliezer, pg. 32) Eliezers survival instinct, supported by the advice a fellow prisoner, helps him get through another dehumanizing experience. The Nazis judged the Jewish prisoners by their appearance to decide if they were going to work or be incinerated in the ovens. Eliezer made it to the working side of the line during every life or death judgment because he was physically and mentally strong enough to work. In another example Dr. Mengale was known to constantly perform experiments on the prisoners in the camps. But the significance of these experiments was that he never used any anesthesia when performing things like amputations and even ejecting needles in prisoners eyes. This man was so cruel to the point that calling him a doctor wasnt even fair to doctors around the world that helped people survive when hurt or sick. All Dr. Mengale did was cause the prisoners pain and tell them when it was their time to die.

Finally, the march to Gleiwitz caused the Jewish prisoners excruciating pain. They had to walk and march through the blizzard, and they would not stop even if someone was injured or sick. They were once again threatened that if they stopped, they would be shot and killed. Eliezer and his father kept up with the rest of the group, but one young man by the name of Zalman lost all hope and fell to the ground, which was where he was trampled by the rest of the Jews. They were told that if anyone stops or cannot keep up with the pace, they will be shot and killed right there. On the way to Gleiwitz, the only shelter that they found was in a small abandoned village. Elizer and his father crammed into a small shed type building, nowhere near large enough to house two people, even as frail and skinny as them. Once they arrived at Gleiwitz, the prisoners started to fight for the little pieces of bread that were left. Many people were crushed, but Eliezer was able to escape and survive the cold chill of that night. The men of these camps were so hungry; they had to fight each other for the last pieces of bread. Although they were expected to work for the Nazis, they were not even given the basic needs of human survival. It took extraordinary physical strength and will power, as shown by Eliezer, to remain alive under these devastating sub-human conditions. In one circumstance a boy named Mier killed his father over a piece of bread and was eventually killed himself fighting for rations. Last, in Gleiwitz the prisoners were piled on top of each other, barely able to breathe in the pile. This shows how little the Nazis cared whether they survived or not at this point.

Eliezers daily life of physical misery and mental torture during the Holocaust was a constant test of his physical strength and mental toughness, as well as his faith in God. At any time he could have fallen victim to the dehumanizing acts of the Nazis and the living hell they created for the Jews, but Eliezer refused and survived through the Holocaust. Even to his fathers last day of life Elizer constantly gave up his rations just to try to keep his father alive until liberation. And, unlike many of the other people he met along the way, he kept his faith in God for the majority of the time, which only helped him to maintain the incredible strength it must have taken to overcome the challenges of the camps and outlive the evil Nazi Regime.