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Examples Of Dehumanization In Night

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Elie Wiesel describes many experiences in Night where his father, other Jews, and himself were dehumanized by the Nazis. Dehumanization is the process the Nazis used to belittle Jews and treat them like an inconvenience instead of an equal individual. The Nazis dehumanized Jews by beating them, insulting them, and malnourishing them. Dehumanization was not only physically abusive to the Jews, but it was also mentally abusive to them because it caused them to question everything they ever knew about themselves and the world. The Jews that lived in concentration camps during the Holocaust were dehumanized by the Nazis by being treated like little more than objects.
Stripping someone down, literally and figuratively, causes them to lose all dignity they had. In Night, Elie says, “We were naked, holding our shoes and belts”(Wiesel 36). Being naked is something that a majority of people feel very insecure about. The Nazis forced the Jews to strip down into nothing in front of everybody. This treatment is not harmful to the body, but it is to the mind. It caused them to feel all kinds of emotions, such as humiliation, shame, and more. However awful this treatment may seem, it is actually mild compared to some of the other techniques the Nazis used on the Jews.
Physical abuse was very common throughout the Holocaust …show more content…
The Nazis dehumanized the Jews by treating them as less than people and more like animals, which included forcing them to do uncomfortable tasks, beating them, and giving them little to nothing. Those punishments were cruel and unfair, but they were successful in breaking the spirits of the Jews and altering their views on the world. All in all, the Nazis did a superb job of dehumanizing the Jews during the Holocaust and breaking them down piece by piece until there was little left to salvage, which is described vividly by Elie Wiesel in

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