Cruelty In Elie Wiesel's Night
“Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners...infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns” (Wiesel 6). During the holocaust, Hitler's German regime shows to the world that humans are capable of cruelty of an extreme degree. Millions of people met their ends in the dirty, torturous concentration camps. Despite this horror, some still showed love, kindness, and respect. It may have come in various forms but plenty of historical accounts, Elie Wiesel’s Night being one such account, have depicted these instances, As Wiesel’s book shows, humans are capable of unspeakable cruelties when standing in the face of fear, but compassion can be wrought from this fear and shown when needed most. In the 1930s, Germany
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They deluded the Jews with false hopes of safety only to tear it away. As the Nazis exhibited their unchecked cruelty in regards to murder and beating or killing those unable or unwilling to work, their monotonous routines took away anyone’s sense of self. Because the Jews and other prisoners were growing consistently weaker (due to the rations being all but nothing), these human beings no longer appeared human. Because the fear and concern of the Nazis led to this dehumanization, their willingness to murder and portray cruelty skyrocketed because they were no longer killing what appeared to be human. These acts of heartlessness did, however, promote compassion. Those witnessing this tragedy could see the cruelty. The viewer could be a bystander or suffrage. In the prisons, Elie heard and saw evidence of this compassion. When people threw bread on the train or his father gave up his rations, it was seen. Even some guards felt this. Following the 30-minute hanging of a child, a camp leader shouted: “caps off!...his voice quivered” (Wiesel 64). Even this Lagerälteste, who had been committing atrocious acts, saw the evil of his ways when he was forced to gaze at the still-dying eyes of a child. Arguably, some compassion from within the camps came from nothingness. All the prisoners knew how dire their situation was and many had the compassion to suffer in silence. This was to prevent the others from having to pay more mind to the problems at
They deluded the Jews with false hopes of safety only to tear it away. As the Nazis exhibited their unchecked cruelty in regards to murder and beating or killing those unable or unwilling to work, their monotonous routines took away anyone’s sense of self. Because the Jews and other prisoners were growing consistently weaker (due to the rations being all but nothing), these human beings no longer appeared human. Because the fear and concern of the Nazis led to this dehumanization, their willingness to murder and portray cruelty skyrocketed because they were no longer killing what appeared to be human. These acts of heartlessness did, however, promote compassion. Those witnessing this tragedy could see the cruelty. The viewer could be a bystander or suffrage. In the prisons, Elie heard and saw evidence of this compassion. When people threw bread on the train or his father gave up his rations, it was seen. Even some guards felt this. Following the 30-minute hanging of a child, a camp leader shouted: “caps off!...his voice quivered” (Wiesel 64). Even this Lagerälteste, who had been committing atrocious acts, saw the evil of his ways when he was forced to gaze at the still-dying eyes of a child. Arguably, some compassion from within the camps came from nothingness. All the prisoners knew how dire their situation was and many had the compassion to suffer in silence. This was to prevent the others from having to pay more mind to the problems at