Dehumanization Of Jewish People During The Holocaust

Nathan Vondergeest Mrs. Cummins English 2 9/28/15 Dehumanization of Jewish People during the Holocaust Imagine being treated like cattle - living one’s life inside a fence, starved, killed for no reason. Would one hang on to their humanity, or would they let go of their hope, their compassion, their faith? From 1939 to 1945, the Nazi German military systematically kidnapped, tortured and killed millions of Jews in their twisted effort to racially purify Germany. This genocide has come to be known as the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, millions of Jews were mercilessly beaten, sadistically experimented upon, and killed for pleasure. Through these three ways, the Jewish people were treated as subhuman; through these three ways, the Jewish people began to believe it themselves. Jewish people were subjected to terrible beatings, powerless at the hands of the German soldiers. Evidence of this can be found in Night, Elie Wiesel s memoir of his experience as a Jewish captive of Nazi Germany. When his father asks to use a bathroom, Elie claims the Kapo slapped [his] father with such force that he fell down and then crawled back to his place on all fours (Wiesel 39). Obviously, such force exhibited by this Kapo was in humane and uncalled for; these acts, and this attitude of violence and condescension taken by the German Kapos, contributed to the dehumanization of the Jewish people. The spirit of anti-semitism that was so prevalent in Germany during the Holocaust led toShow MoreRelatedThe Victims Of The Holocaust1467 Words   |  6 PagesDehumanization is defined as a psychological process whereby members of a group of people assert the inferiority of another group.ï ¿ ½ Opponents view each other as less than human and thus not deserving of moral consideration, and are treated as less than humans through subtle or overt acts or statements.ï ¿ ½ Experiencing dehumanization can often lead to feelings of intense hatred and alienation among conflicting parties. The more severe the conflict, the more the psychological distance between groupsRead MoreDehumanization Is The Process Of Depriving A Person1705 Words   |  7 PagesElie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, depicting what dehumanization did to him. Dehumanization is the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities.Often times in our lives today, we can see examples of dehumanization where we treat humans less than what they are. Whether it be because their ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, they become thought of as worth less than a â€Å"normal† person. But, this didn’t all just start recently. We can track dehumanization all the way backRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Night By Elie Wiesel1367 Words   |  6 PagesNight is the detailed accoun t of Elie Wiesel’s experiences as a Jew in Germany during the Holocaust. Night is considered a memoir, however, Wiesel uses fictional characters to tell his story. Eliezer acts as Wiesel’s author surrogate, a fictional character based on the author, and narrates the story. Over the course of the text Wiesel exposes the full face of the dehumanization perpetrated against the Jewish people. Through persuasive oration, Hitler was able to manipulate the Germans and justifyRead MoreThe Comic Book MAUS1288 Words   |  5 PagesMAUS Introduction Since the publishing of the comic book MAUS, there has been a broad debate not only from the survivors of the Holocaust but within the Jewish community pertaining to the appropriateness and representational meaning of the Holocaust in the modern literature. Many people who participate in the discussions or read the book have perceived the comic fashioning of the book as trivial, hence making the book appear as mocking, derogatory and comedic. Nevertheless, this is not theRead MoreThe Rise Of Nazism And The Holocaust1668 Words   |  7 Pagescourse the world takes. Adolf Hitler is one of these individuals. Hitler, the figurehead of the Nazi regime that led Germany to World War II, and instigated one of the most infamous genocides in history, the Holocaust. The impact Adolf Hitler had on history, namely, the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust is also due to a favourable set of circumstances that without them Hitler himself would not have been enough. There is no denying that Hitler was not ‘Charismatic’, a leader that brought a type of cult followingRead MoreDehumanization in Night, by Elie Wiesel Essay916 Words   |  4 Pagesof how people could become almost unimaginably cruel due to dehumanization corresponds with the Jews experience in the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the ruthless massacre of Jewish people, and other people who were consider to be vermin to the predetermined Aryan race in the 1940s. One holocaust survivor and victim was Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner and author of Night. Wiesel was one of the countless people to go through the horrors of the concentration camps, which dehumanized people down toRead MoreThe Holocaust And The Nazi Party1719 Words   |  7 Pagescreated tension in the government and in the people. The Holocaust can be looked at through eight itemized stages. Genocide can only be stopped with intervention on a worldwide scale. It disheartens me to know that mass murders h ave taken place throughout Europe because the Nazi Party declared themselves the higher being and therefore gave themselves the right to be the judge, jury, and executioner of the people less fortunate. Finally, The Holocaust, driven by the power and influence of HitlerRead MoreNight By Elie Wiesel Analysis903 Words   |  4 Pages Eliezer â€Å"Elie† Wiesel, a Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, acknowledged that â€Å"There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention: victims of hunger, of racism, and political persecution, writers and poets, prisoners in so many lands governed by the left and by the right. Human rights are being violated on every continent. More people are oppressed than free.† When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, they believed thatRead MoreThe World Of The Holocaust1449 Words   |  6 Pagesdescribe the Holocaust. The Holocaust affected the lives of millions bec ause of the hate inside of the Nazi’s. Why would the Nazi’s do this? This is a question almost nobody can answer. What we do know are the effects of the Holocaust; specifically, on the child survivors of the Holocaust. The Holocaust created a struggle with interpersonal relationships, psychological difficulties, and caused child survivors and their families have a drive for resilience. Most people could say the Holocaust bring feelingsRead MoreThe Elements Of Genocide : Genocide1312 Words   |  6 Pagesa genocide is the holocaust, which was a governmental systematic persecution and the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis. Like the holocaust, genocides posses eight stages known as classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination and denial. These characteristics will ultimately define if situation was a genocide or not. Similarities and differences for the eight stages of the genocide can be seen between the dark Holocaust, and the cruel War