They no longer had the right to own any property because they were now considered property themselves. Everything had to be handed over to the authorities- on pain of death (Wiesel 8). A Jew no longer had the right to keep in his house gold, jewels, or any objects of value. Anything that was valuable and belonged to a Jew had to be handed over to authorities without hesitation. Even before entering the ghettos, peoples identities as human beings were being destroyed. This shattered the family unit and transformed civilized people to animal-like beings functioning solely with survival behavior.Įlies experience in the ghetto was just the beginning of the type of dehumanization he was going to have to endure.
Eventually prisoners, who were friends, as well as family, began to turn on one another. Through the constant beatings, killings, and torture they received in the concentration camps the process of dehumanization continued. The process of dehumanization starts when Elie and the rest of the Jewish community, as well as other types of people, are forced to evacuate their homes in Sighet. The Nazis targeted the Jews humanity, and slowly destroyed their identities of being human.
Elie speaks on his personal experience in the Holocaust and describes how people changed from civilized humans to vicious beings with animal like behavior. No matter what the age or gender, they were all treated simply like animals Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered prisoners (Wiesel 4). The prisoners were treated throughout World War II in a horrific manner. In the novel, Night by Elie Wiesel, the theme and concept of dehumanization is shown from start to end.
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