Mrs. Gruehn
English
14 November 2017
Night Essay Imagine going through a devastating time in history when people have to witness the death of beloved family members and having to suffer, endure, and survive in disgusting concentration camps. However, victims of the Holocaust had to face this terror in reality. In this book, Elie Wiesel describes his terrifying experience he endured while being detained in several concentration camps. He witnesses the deaths of hundreds of innocent Jews throughout his experience, and he learns how to survive and take care of his father. Therefore, in Elie Wiesel’s novel Night, the German Army dehumanizes Elie Wiesel and the Jewish prisoners by depriving them of physiological needs, love, and self esteem.
The Nazi army dehumanized the Jewish people by depriving them of physiological needs. One way they dehumanized the Jewish people was by making them work in harsh conditions. For instance, Elie says, “We went off to work as usual, our bodies frozen. The stones were so cold that touching them, we felt that our hands would remain stuck” (78). By making the Jews work in harsh conditions, the Nazi Army succeeded in making their prisoners physically weak. Another example of deprived physiological needs was malnutrition. Elie states, “And the spectators observed …show more content…
By taking away the Jewish rights of physiological needs, love, and self esteem, they made themselves seem superior to the Jewish race. They tortured them to death and deprived them of all their individual rights. So, what was the overall effect of the German’s dehumanization on the Jews? The German Army tried to completely demolish the Jewish race, but they failed. They succeeded in killing millions of Jews and destroying families, but the remaining Jews kept their faith and fought through their way to freedom. They may have tore apart families, but they didn’t destroy their