Indifference Killed Six Million

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“Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered prisoners” (Wiesel 5). This quote came from the book Night by Elie Wiesel stating the horror of the way the Jews were treated in the Holocaust. No matter what the age or gender, they were all treated simply like animals. No one called the Jews by their names anymore, just their prison number as if they were only a figure to be put to work. The atrocities that happened so long ago were unimaginable. Since such dehumanization happened in the Holocaust, it is a big lesson to be learned and should be avoided in today’s society.
In the book, a character named Moshe the Beadle tells of his experience after being forced out of the Sighet. In the forest of Galicia near Kolomaye, the dehumanization starts. As Moshe tries to warn all of the Jews after his miraculous reappearance he says, “Each one had to go up to the hole and present his neck. Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets” (Wiesel 5). They were even forced to dig graves, only to be thrown into the holes as soon as they were done. Yet no one believed that any human could be capable of committing such a crime, and they all dismissed him as mad. Little to their understanding, it would all become so real to them in a matter of time.
The second act of dehumanization would be Wiesel’s experience in the Ghetto. After a few days the Jews were told news of deportation. Day by day, a new street was forced out of their homes and into the Ghetto, being transferred to a concentration camp after that. While they waited in the road to be moved into their new home, they craved nothing but water. In the reading it says, “We stayed sitting down in the middle of the road, as the others had done the day bef...

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...me and they thought it was maybe a new beginning for the Jews. However as they grew closer to the concentration camp, reality began to set in and everyone became worried. Farther along when they were being evacuated, their numbers had dwindled and all the remaining prisoners were weakened and worn out. They had been dehumanized from the first time they stepped out of their houses to begin the long journey through the war.
The theme of dehumanization in the book Night by Elie Wiesel is important because it tells of a lesson that everyone should be aware of. The atrocities committed during the Holocaust should be known by all of civilization and should not be repeated. If we do not learn from the terrible truth that happened so long ago, what is to stop it from happening again?

Work Cited

Wiesel, Elie. Night. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2000. Print.

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