Nazi Deception and the Demoralization and Dehumanization of Eliezer and His Fellow Prisoners

Nazi Deception and the Demoralization and Dehumanization of Eliezer and his Fellow Prisoners

Night by Elie Wiesel is an autobiography about his experiences during the Holocaust. The word Night symbolizes darkness, destruction, sadness, loss of hope and faith, horror and death of millions of innocent people. Let’s read how the author describes his experience in the Nazi camp: “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp that has turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever… Never”. (Wiesel 34) In the book the author is telling us about Nazi deception and the demoralization and dehumanization of himself and his fellow prisoners.

Deception was often used by Nazi to confuse and demoralize Jewish people. The brightest example is the gates at Auschwitz camp decorated with inscription: “Arbeit macht frei” or “Work makes you free”. (Wiesel 40). The whole inscription was penetrated by deceit and bitter irony of the Nazi camps. Prisoners knew that there was no way out of the camp. Watching this sign every day demoralized prisoners and destroyed their human spirit. The inscription would rather say: “Work makes your miserable life longer”.

Demoralization and dehumanization of Jews in Elie’s town started with yellow stars and moving Jewish people to special areas called ghettos. Then, they were put into cattle cars, eighty people in each one, and transported to the concentration camp. In the camp Nazi took all of their belonging, separated from families, undressed them and sent dozens to crematorium. Those who stayed alive would soon envy the dead, because they were lowered to animalistic characteristics to survive and deprived of what made them human. Prisoners names were forbidden and soon forgotten, everyone had a...