Stuffed in cattle cars, stripped naked, hair shaved, tattooed,drenched in disinfectant. Welcome to Auschwitz. In Night, Elie Wiesel proves the jews are treated like animals till they act like them. Elie Wiesel describes how him self and other people are dehumanized slowly even though even though they might not realize it. In the beginning of night when they arrive at the camp there reactions are very humane.
In the beginning of the book Elie Wiesel and the other people who are going to the camp are very humane and has emotions. They are very scared of the camp because they dont know whats going to happen to them. Elie Wiesel is Mainly scared of being taken away from his Father. “We had a women with us named Madame Schachter. She was about fifty; her ten year old son was with her, crouched in a corner.
Her husband and two eldest sons had been deported with the first transport by mistake. The separation had completely broken her.” (Wiesel Pg.13.) “Madame Schachter had gone out of her mind. On the first day of the journey she had already begun to moan and to keep asking why she had been separated from her family. As time went on, her cries grew hysterical.” (Wiesel Pg.13.) “We stayed motionless, petrified. Surely it was all a nightmare an unimaginable nightmare?” (Wiesel Pg.18.)
You can tell that Madame schachter is already very sad and depressed about being separated from her sons and husband that she cries and moans with sadness. She still has her emotions with her she feels sad. Elie also describes how when they get to there camp and he watches his mother and tzipora part with them forever and how he hold on to his father not wanting to be taken away from him. He describes how and the others where petrified and how he thought it was a nightmare because unable to think it was real that’s why he described it as an unimaginable nightmare.
In the beginning/middle of the book night when they start to lose emotions becoming more inhumane. While they are on the train they start to lose their emotions and act out aggressively.
“Mrs, Schachter remained huddled in her corner, mute, untouched by the optimism around her. Her little one was stroking her hand” (Wiesel Pg.27.) “As she went on howling, she was struck again. Only with great difficulty did we Succeed in Quitting her down.” (Wiesel Pg.15.) “Once more the young men tied her up and gagged her. They even struck her. People encouraged them” (Wiesel pg. 14.) “They gave her several blows on the head that could have been lethal.” (Wiesel pg.14.) the people on the train went from putting a damp rag on her head and telling her her family was all right to striking her on the head so hard it could have killed them.
They are being dehumanized and controlled by guilt when the officer told the if one escaped they would all be shot like dogs so that if one managed to escape that person would be the reason 79 people died since there was 80 of them in a car. They are also being dehumanized by being stuffed in a small train with no bathroom so they have to relieve themselves in a corner like animals. Any by striping them of there names, hair, clothes.
In the book Night. Elie Wiesel Is stipped of all the emotions and is dehumanized. In the end/middle of the book Night, Elie Wiesel has lost all his faith, and emotions and seems to not care about things he did at the beginning of the book. “i had watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact i was thinking of how to get farther away so that i would not be hit myself. What is more, any anger i felt at that moment was directed, not against the kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek’s outbreak. This Is what concentration camp life has made of me” (Wiesel pg.30.)
“The kapos where beating us again, but i no longer felt the pain.” (Wiesel Pg.36.) “The kapos forced everyone to look him squarely in the face. Afterward we were given permission to go back and have our meal. remember that on that evening, the soup tasted better than ever” (Wiesel pg.62,63.) He starts to not care about anything. When his father was getting beat by Idek he was mad at his father for not knowing how to avoid it not at the fact that Idek was beating his father. When the kapos where beating them how he no longer feels pain anymore as if he is used to it. When Elie Wiesel watches the man get hung he doesn’t feel sad, he doesn’t cry, he doesn’t look away he is just blank not emotions whatsoever, he also describes how the soup tastes better than ever.
In Night, Elie Wiesel proves the jews are treated like animals till they act like them. In conclusion i believe that Elie Wiesel was a victim of dehumanization i also know that he is not the same person at the beginning of the book compared to the end.
