Dehumanization the Holocaust and Wiesel free essay sample

Jacinda Ruzicka Mrs. Jones Advanced World Literature 7 April 2010 Dehumanization: Unimaginable No individual should ever be deprived of the basic essentials of human life: food, shelter, citizenship and a family to lean on. This hell, known as the Holocaust, became a reality for many. The Holocaust was the systemic genocide of over six million Jews during World War II. The unthinkable occurred all because of one man and his goal to create a super-race. That one man was Adolf Hitler. To Adolf Hitler and the Schutzstaffel or SS, the Holocaust was the final solution to the Jewish problem, thus establishing a pure German race. Much of the brutal killings and torturous acts took place in the concentration camps. Concentration camps were used to confine millions of Jews as a group to be cleansed from the German nation. Communists, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other groups of people considered undesirable according to Nazi principles, and anyone who opposed the government, were also placed in concentration camps. We will write a custom essay sample on Dehumanization: the Holocaust and Wiesel or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This is the process by which a select group is degraded to unimportant, meaningless things. Individuals are made to feel inferior and develop the mindset that they are nuisances to society. The persecutors work toward depriving a person of the attributes that make them human, depriving them of their right and ability to truly be an individual. During the Holocaust, dehumanization was used as a weapon that made the SS feel that they were ingenious. When they no longer considered the Jews to be humans, they were beaten, starved and annihilated in the most inhumane ways. The Nazi Governor of Poland stated, I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear. (Hans Frank). This demonstrates the hatred toward the Jews that Adolf Hitler inspired in others. Hitler achieved this dehumanization process by depriving and dissecting every aspect of the Jewish population. His ploy was to remove the Jews from their homes; destroying the one place a human can feel ultimately safe. First, there the Jews were not allowed to leave their homes for three days. The SS took their most prized possessions away from them including their gold, jewels, or any other objects of value. When those three days passed, every Jew was forced to wear a yellow star. This made it easier to others to stereotype because it showed that they were all of the Jewish society. Then came the ghetto. (Wiesel 9). The ghettos were created to restrict and isolate the Jewish community. Jews were stripped of their right to property and forced from their homes once more. Each person will be allowed to take only his own personal belongings. A bag on our backs, some food, a few clothes. Nothing else. (Wiesel 11). The Jews were then forced into cattle cars and moved to various concentration camps. The arrival was overwhelming for them with numerous death areas crowding the immense size of the camp. One of the most famous of these prison camps was Auschwitz, where Elie Wiesel was forced to stay and await his destined fate. Upon his arrival, German officer stated, From this moment, you come under the authority of the German army. (Wiesel 21). This illustrates that the Jews are no longer people; they are property of the Germans. Upon their arrival, the SS immediately gave orders. The Jews were to be separated into two groups, a group of men and a group of women. Families from that very instant were destroyed. Many would never see their loved ones again. Their last moments were there, right in front of them. They could do nothing, say goodbye, give final hugs and kisses, or have appropriate partings. They had nothing but the tears, screams, and horrid thoughts to remember their segregation from each other. In this very moment, their thoughts of the future were uncared for. They wanted nothing and needed nothing because they felt nothing. Elie expresses his feelings about his separation from his mother by saying, Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without motion. Eight short, simple words. Yet that was the moment when I parted from my mother. I had not had time to think, but already I felt the pressure of my fathers hand: we were alone. (Wiesel 27). Though separated from his mother and sisters, Elie was lucky. He was with his father, the only family he had left, which was more than most. He expresses his gratitude with this statement, But for the moment I was happy; I was near my father. (Wiesel 30). That statement, perhaps, is the last time you would hear Elie say he was happy until after he is saved. The Jews were stripped of normality and everything that makes a person want to live in those very short moments of just stepping out of the cattle cars onto the grounds of Birkenau, the reception center of Auschwitz. Naked, beaten souls are what had become of the Jews. They were ordered to strip when they arrived at the barracks. This completely degraded them for they were surrounded by other men, naked, with embarrassment flowing through their minds. For us, this was the true equality: nakedness. Shivering with the cold. (Wiesel 32) The Jews then were dragged to the barbers, where all of their hair was cut off with clippers. All of the hair on their bodies was shaved. Making them have no differences. They were all just naked, shaved men who had hardly any differences to distinguish one from another. Wiesel explains how he felt less human when he said, It was no longer possible to grasp anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of self defense, of pride, had all deserted us. In one ultimate moment of lucidity it seemed to me that we were damned souls wandering the half-world, souls condemned to wander through space till the generations of man came to an end, seeking their redemption, seeking oblivion without hope of finding it. (Wiesel 34). This illustrates how the Jews that they no longer felt human. They feel like things, souls stuck in meaningless bodies. To continue the process, the Jews were then soaked in a barrel of petrol. Disinfected like animals, Within a few seconds, we had ceased to be men. (Wiesel 34). They were dehumanized at a higher level when they were forced to wear uniforms, takin g away more of their individuality. They became the same, there was no way to identify or recognize them as unique. As for names: what names? The Jews did not have the right to names. They were forced into living like animals. Just like cows have tags on their ears and pigs are branded, the Jews had numbered tattooed on their arms. This replaced their names. They were subjected to being treated as if they were animals. Elie tells about when he had his number engraved on his left arm and states, I became A-7713. After that I had no other name. (Wiesel 39). Deprived of a name, the one thing that differentiates one man from another completely. That is taking dehumanization to the extreme. The Jews from the beginning of the novel to the end were slowly becoming less and less human. They were taken from their homes, separated, forced to lose their individuality, and deprived of their names. They became more and more like animals while they were stowed in the concentration camps like cattle. Elie Wiesel cannot make it easier to understand but he informs us of how humans could be. It is unimaginable to say the least, how one race could hate another race so much as to feel they are unworthy of their right to human qualities or life itself.