Genocide

Genocide: The destruction of a group of people. The Holocaust is one of the largest genocides i history with the Nazis trying to get rid of Jewish Beliefs. Night, a book written by Eliezer Wiesel, talks about the challenges and effects the Holocaust had on the Jews. Throughout a genocide there are stages. During the Holocaust dehumanization, a stage that lasts all throughout genocide, took the largest toll on the Jewish people.

        Firstly, the Nazis put all the Jews into ghettos to show they were nothing compared to the rest of the country. Elie and the rest of the Jews moved around not knowing whether or not it was a good thing or not. After a while Elie realised it was nothing good. Wiesel stated, “It all belonged to everyone since it no longer belonged to anyone. It was there for the taking. An open tomb. A summer sun”(17), which means nobody owns anything anymore, they all are losing themselves at this point. This shows how fast the process of dehumanization works when you take almost everything away from someone. Taking literally everything including their freedom.

        Not only that but how the Nazis managed the transportation made the Jews think they were nothing more than just ordinary animals to distinctively show how little they are. Since the Nazis had had to leave and escape from the Liberation, They had to make sure the transportations were fast and productive. Not only that but the Jews were extremely small and skinny which made it possible to fit an extreme amount of bodies on one cart. Wiesel wrote, “The SS shoved us inside, a hundred per car”(97) saying there was no room to move, no room to sleep. The Jews felt as if they did not deserve to feel like regular people. They felt like they weren't even people anymore.