What Is Dehumanization In The Book Night

The book Night endured many different aspects that increased and improved my knowledge on the Holocaust. It introduced new topics to me that include dehumanization, how the Jews were unknown of what was upon them and the Kommandos and Kapos located in the camps. These gave me further insight on the continuous struggle the prisoners had to go through and how they battled everyday to stay alive. They battle not only against the Nazis but against themselves also. This constant endeavor to survive is a real beatdown to one’s body and even under the tough conditions, some prisoners managed to survive. You realize that when the human body is under vigorous exertion, it performs to its peak ability to support life for greater amounts of time. Night
Dehumanization is what affected the prisoners the most during this time. The Nazis used this to break down the prisoner’s mentally, physically and emotionally to take better control of them. When a person is not mentally, physically and emotionally stable, the person is out of it and can be compared to one that is dead. For example, in the story, Wiesel expressed many moments where the prisoners were changed in due course of the Holocaust. One of those moments is where Akiba Drummer states, “It's over. God is no longer with us” (Wiesel 76). Akiba Drummer was normally very religious and worshipped God on a daily basis. This can be proved by when he states when first entering the camp, “God is testing us. He wants to see whether we are capable of overcoming our base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves. We have no right to despair. And if He punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us that much more…” (Wiesel 45). These two quotes show that one’s past can be altered in a matter of months during this moment. Akiba’s once hopeful thoughts quickly turned into doubtful thoughts. This was all achieved by the Nazis dehumanizing the prisoners. This not only affects Akiba, it alters every other prisoner as well. The dehumanization process all started from the first restrictions put against the prisoners and continued
He survived these horrible moments and lived to tell the world which to me is and amazing in important thing. He showed the difficult obstacles the prisoners had to face and how they also overcame them. He showed how in times of need, family members, friends and neighbors would betray each other just to keep themselves alive. He showed how the Nazis mentally, physically and emotionally drained the prisoners and completely took them over. How easily manageable they were once they were completely broken down. He showed how all citizens prior to being liquidated ignored the upcoming devasit their are soon to face and thought this will never happen. How unknowingly they were and how sudden this situation got put upon them. How Jews lost their homes in a matter of seconds. How fast their lives were ruined just because they were liked by one group. Elie Wiesel’s story showed to me that the Holocaust has deeper meaning and completely and fully helped me understand that meaning into greater depths and made it clearer for me to see what really happened during the