Night By Elie Wiesel Dehumanization Analysis

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The holocaust was a devastating moment for the tormented followers of Judaism. Before it was believed that the Jews were the primary reason Germany lost thousands of soldiers in World War I, leading to harassment escalating as time passed by. Hitler proclaimed to deprive the Jews from their religion in hopes to efface their beliefs from the German race. The actuality for those who lived through it was traumatizing because of the pain the Jews endured. As more survivors voiced their experience people have become more and more enlightened to just how extremely cruel the holocaust really was. Concentration camps, forced labor, and death were not the only aspects the Jews went through during the terrible event. In the novella, Night, by Elie Wiesel dehumanization was a large degrading facet, causing all Jewish people to lose their identity, stripping them of individualism, no longer seen …show more content…
Wiesel illustrates the SS officers as a large man with “...the neck of a bull...fleshy lips, [and] hands that [resembled] a wolf’s paw.” all characteristics of a beast, whereas the Jewish prisoners were seen as “cattle in the slaughterhouse” weak animals with the only the option to walk into their death (Weisel 31, 48). This comparison shows the dramatic change in both roles, in addition comes to show that labels were demeaning to the SS officers, although many of them were Jewish too. Granted, many of the labels were more dehumanizing to the Jews rather than the guards. Wiesel points out how the Jews were often called “flea-ridden dog[s]” and much more, providing an idea of how low the Jews were seen (Weisel 85). Such degrading aspects comes to show how the Jews lost their identity, and gained another through labels. Labels destroy the barrier between an object and a person, and without that barrier people lose their self