The Spread and Significance of Dehumanization in WWII

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The atrocities that swept through Europe during World War II brought with them the cultivation of a horrific contagion: dehumanization. The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel exemplifies the spread of this disease by following Wiesel’s journey through the concentration camps of the 1940s. At the time, the stories may have seemed unimaginable, but today, historians cannot deny what happened during that dark time before liberation. Wiesel’s memoir can be used as evidence. Through their inevitable acceptance and continuation of the dehumanization displayed by the Nazis, prisoners of the WWII concentration camps were doomed to slow and painful deaths. The subjection of fellow man to both words and actions meant solely for animals or objects begins with the actions of the Nazis. Prior to even entering the work camps, Wiesel and his fellow Jews are tragically dehumanized. Wiesel comments that “[t]here was a new decree: every Jew must wear the yellow star” (8). In forcing labels upon the Jewish people in Sighet, Nazi soldiers are subjugating them to the wishes of Hitler, an evil and malicious man with no consideration for their names or their identities. In addition, the Jews are dealt even more severe treatment when they come to Birkenau. “’Strip! Fast! Los! Keep only your belts and shoes in your hands…” (Wiesel 32) the SS officers holler at the Jews. Then, without emotion or pity, the oppressors watch Wiesel and his companions bare their bodies. If these people were being viewed as human beings, the SS would not be able to maintain their gaze. By thinking of them as nothing more than animals, Nazi soldiers can keep up the nonchalance as they search out the strongest for the most labor intensive tasks, much like how a farmer would choose wha... ... middle of paper ... ...se are not the only occurrences of violent attacks that the prisoners make on one another. Idek beats and whips Wiesel; a boy kills his father; Wiesel’s sick father is violently bullied by others in their block. The list goes on, and they can all be traced back to dehumanization as the abusers have no consideration for the victims as people. After dehumanization runs its course, it leaves behind the bodies of countless undeserving victims, slayed by the hands of both the oppressors and their accepting peers. Eleven million people died as a result of the Holocaust combined with the viral dehumanization that came with it. Six million of these eleven million people were Jews. Over one million were children. The Holocaust is a scar that this world’s history must bear, but Wiesel has thoughtfully written the memoir Night to prevent such horror from ever happening again.

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