Noah Franks

English II
Night Essay
3 March 2015
Dehumanization in Night
Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but
the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn
dehumanizes the oppressed, Paulo Freire. From 1933 to May, 1945, the Nazi regime
killed eleven million people, including six million Jews. The horrific time period of the
Holocaust will never be forgotten. Elie Weisel was just a young boy when he and his
family were taken from their home. In his book Night, the theme of dehumanization is a
prominent theme and can be seen through the Jews being stripped of their identity, the
extremely cruel punishments they had to bear,such as starvation, exhaustion, exposure
to the elements with improper clothing, separation from their families and children, and
their inability to distinguish the living from the dead. The Jews in this time and place had
very little hope.
The Hungarian government fell in the spring of 1944 to German forces. Soon
after, German forces invaded Elies hometown, the city of Sighet. Community leaders
were arrested, Jewish valuables were confiscated, and Jews had to wear a yellow star
on their clothes. The Jews were forced to live in small ghettos until they were placed in
concentration camps. There no longer was any distinction between rich and poor,
notables and the others: we were all people condemned to the same fate- still unknown

(Weisel 21). The Nazis stripped the Jews of their identities and branded them as a
poisonous race.
Elie is placed in a concentration camp with his father. He is separated from his
mother and sister. Upon arrival, they are stripped, showered, shaved, and placed in
prison uniforms. Life inside the concentration camp was gruesome. Prisoners were
given small servings of bread and soup. They had to sprint everywhere they were told to
go. If a prisoner disobeyed, they received extreme punishment, some were even killed
on the spot. I watched other hangings. I never saw a single victim weep. These
withered bodies had long forgotten the bitter taste of tears (Weisel 63). The lives many
Jews had once known were forgotten, instead, lives of excruciating pain and
hopelessness were given to them.
After an imminent threat, the concentration camp of Buna is evacuated.
Prisoners were forced to run through the everlasting night, most of which were
exhausted and malnourished. They were herded like cattle, if they stopped they would
be trampled. Zalman, who was a boy running along side of Elie, decided he could not
go on any longer. He stopped and was trampled to death. In the early dawn light, I tried
to distinguish between the living and those who were no more. But there was barely a
difference (Weisel 98). Nazi forces eradicated any hope and any life that withstood
inside the deteriorated prisoners. This was a very dark, terrible time in the history of the
world.
To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time, Elie Weisel. The
actions of Nazi forces will never be forgotten but remembered. Humans being stripped
of their identity, being cruelly punished, and being rendered lifeless is the process of

dehumanization. As humans, we must learn from the past and change for the future to
make sure an event such as the Holocaust, will never happen again. If we bear all this
suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being
doomed, will be held up as an example, Anne Frank.