(1) Examples of Dehumanization

The abominations committed by the fascist party called the Nazis were so horrific they shook the foundation on which the human race was built. The Nazis inhumanity was so great it redefined the word. One of the most horrific examples of the Nazis crimes are described in Night as Elie is being transported from Auschwitz in the cattle cars. The German citizens are tossing bread into the cars, turning brothers on brothers, fathers on sons, and changing a group of human beings into complete animals. They are forced by their instincts and their hunger to fight to the death for their survival, all the while being watched as if a movie or play. The men in these cages are not men at all, the cruelty and inhumanity of the Nazis has turned them into something else entirely. They stripped the Jews of all their possessions, their clothes, their hair, and turned them into a number. Now these people are not humans who study Jusdiasm, they are walking corpses, simply awaiting their fate in the cremetorium or by hanging. I personally would be unable to deal with anything Wiesel goes through in Night and I think he couldn't have said it better when he said he wrote Night not so that we may understand, but so that we can know we can never understand.