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Karina Belcher
Period 3
Literary Analysis
May 20 2015
Nazi Dehumanization
Dehumanization means to deprive of human qualities or attributes
(Dehumanization).This is what happened to Elie Wiesel after he was taken
to a concentration camp, and because of this experience, he decided to write
Night. Dehumanization occurs in many ways; some of these are subtle and
understated, while others are more noticeable. Dehumanization can also
wear away different human qualities which can lead to grief and loss of
sanity. The Nazis used protests, violence, and racist laws to dehumanize the
Jews. All of these were forms of dehumanization performed against the Jews
during the 30s and 40s. These seized many things that were dear to them,
such as possessions, rights, and even their own lives. Dehumanization was
the way the Nazis destroyed the Jews, their culture, and their religion.
The Nazis used dehumanization to destroy the Jewish culture. To Jews,
or any ethnic group, culture is important and plays a central part in their
lives. The Nazis realized that in order to reach their idea of a racially pure
state, they needed to eradicate any and all Jewish culture. This is exactly
what they did. In 1933, hundreds of thousands of books were burned for
being un-German or promoting Jewish ideas and culture. Then the Nazi press
would publish long blacklists of authors, and some of these lists included

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Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Helen

Keller, and H.G. Wells (Nazi Book Burnings). Many Nazi officers came to the
conclusion that the books and authors were the root of the Jewish culture. If
they eliminated that, then they would acquire their perfect society, and so
the destruction of Jewish culture began. When the book burnings and
blacklists of authors started, the Jews were further dehumanized because the
attempt to destroy Jewish culture was dehumanizing them. Linked with the
propaganda, on of the goals of the Nazis was to make the non-Jews believe
that there was something wrong with Jews; and therefore, it was justified to
persecute the Jews. The book burnings and blacklists led to dehumanization
and attempted dissolving of the Jewish culture.
After trying to destroy the Jewish culture, the Nazis used
dehumanization to attempt to destroy the Jewish religion. One of the parts of
the attempted destruction of Jewish religion was the burning of the
synagogues during Kristallnacht. This was starting to destroy their religion
because they were no longer safe in their holiest places. Then came the
Ghettos, in almost complete isolation from the rest of the world, and after
this many Jews were taken to concentration camps. In these camps, they had
selections where the Nazi soldiers would decide whether or not they were
good enough to live. In a few moments, selection will take place. You will
have to undress completely. Then you will go , one by one, before the SS
doctors. I hope you will all pass. But you must try to increase your chances,
(71). When the selection happened, it made the Jews feel as though God

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had abandoned them by letting the right to decide whether they live or die
fall from the mind of God to the hands of the Nazis. The kind of separation
from God happened to Elie Wiesel when he felt that God no longer wanted to
watch over the people and decide who was worthy to live or die. This
dehumanized them because when someone religious loses their feeling or
trust between themselves and God, they will no longer feel as if they have a
place. I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this
Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long. In the midst of these
men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger, (68). Elie lost a
little part of himself that made him feel whole, so now he feels incomplete
and a stranger among those who still believe in the God. Now Elie believes
that God is the one allowing the Nazis to do this because God isnt doing
anything. By making the entire world seem like it was turning against them,
many Jews lost their belief in God and their religion.
Finally, the Nazis came to the conclusion that the only way to eradicate
the entire memory of Jews, was to kill them all, because as long as they were
alive, they could hold onto their faith and culture. Then the Nazis came up
with the Final Solution. The Final Solution was a euphemism in the Nazi code
for the systematic killing of all Jews, which is thought to have begun in the
last week of June 1941. The Nazis used many form of dehumanization to
systematically kill millions of Jews. One of these were the transports. These
death trains were hundreds of cattle cars linked together, and the Nazis
would force up to one hundred people in each cattle car. The people were

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given little to no water or food for the trip; many of these trips lasted on
average for four days, and more than one fifth of the people of the people in
the cars died on every trip (Holocaust Train). The Nazis treated the Jews
like cattle as they were not worthy of human treatment. Because the nonJews saw the Jews as the enemy, and thought that they didnt deserve
humane treatment, the Nazis became indifferent. This indifference allowed
the Nazis to systematically kill the Jews without much resistance from the
non-Jews.
When the Naizs wanted ot destroy the Jews, their culture, and their
religion, they used dehumanization. When they used dehumanization, the
Nazis were able to attempt to destroy Jewish culture through book burnings
and blacklists which helped the Nazis propagandize other peoples view of
Jews. When the Nazis started using dehumanization to attempt to destroy
the Jewish religion, many non-Jews found that indifference was the easy way
to cope with what the Nazis were doing to the Jews. When the Final Solution
started coming together, and the mass killing of Jews in a systematic way
proceeded, it motivated many individuals to use all of their possible
resources to try and save as many Jews as possible. If too many motivated
people are gone, and the indifferent outnumber them, the world will fall to
chaos and something just as bad or worse could happen yet again, and with
our advanced technology, there is a possibility that no one would ever find
out.

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Works Cited
"Dehumanization." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 20 May 2015.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dehumanization>.
"Holocaust Train." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 20 May 2015.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_train>.
"Nazi Book Burnings." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 20 May
2015.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings>.
Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a
Division of Farrar, Straus

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and Giroux, 2006. Print.