Resisting Dehumanization
Thank you to all students from Columbia Falls and Lakeview for your thoughtful comments and introductions on the blog! We also appreciate your excellent questions submitted to Mrs. Kern who has been providing very interesting and supplemental background for our study of Night and the Holocaust.
This week, we consider the topic of dehumanization. The Holocaust caused the Jews to lose their human rights, their dignity, and even their hope. What evidence in Night reveals the steps that led to this process and how were some Jews able to resist the effects of dehumanization?
This week, we consider the topic of dehumanization. The Holocaust caused the Jews to lose their human rights, their dignity, and even their hope. What evidence in Night reveals the steps that led to this process and how were some Jews able to resist the effects of dehumanization?
Labels: dehumanization
posted by Moderator at 11:28 AM
79 Comments:
The steps of the dehumanization were when the Jews were no longer allowed to have gold, jewels, or anything valuable. Also, all Jews had to wear a yellow star and they weren't allowed to go into restaurants, travel, or go out after 6. They were forced into ghettos. In the camps they had to wear the same thing and they were referred to as a number. Some were able to resist the effects by burying their valuables and by keeping life normal in the ghetto. They still called each other by name in the camps instead of by number.
this is Nolan from Lakeview by the way
The jews tried to keep their heritages but really couldn't. They were forced to give up every piece of their individuality in the end.
Personally, they way the two groups acted, (Jews and Nazis) kind of reminds me of the Lucifer Effect. Anyone else familiar with the experiment...?
Meaghan,
i agree completely that something like this would remind you, or anyone, of the Lucifer Effect.
the Stanford Prison Experiment is something that really explains dehumanization to a specific extent. what i mean is that it explains how, when given the opportunity of control over another human being, a person can lose all sense of personal morals and become almost instinctively evil as if they have been acting that way their whole life. even the most civilized people, like the students during the Stanfor Prison Experiment, could revert from being well raised and very compationate people so a person so "bad to the bone" that they would disregard all senses of right and wrong and become, technically, an undiagnosed sociopath. and this is all with just the given chance of power or control over another person of their same stature.
the other students, who performed the roles of the prisoners, were treated so poorly it could be compared, slightly, to the Holocaust because of the fact that, in Night, the "healthy" men that made it through the determining point of whether they would be automatically terminated or put to work were forced through the "wash" and had to run, naked, across the camp to another building where they had random pieces of clothing thrown at them. the prisoners in the experiment had bags placed over their heads so they weren't known as individuals anymore and were treated as if they were actual prisoners, causing the experiment to stop early because of the fatal results the continuation might have on some of the "prisoners". the Holocaust prisoners in Night, before being transported to the concentration camps, were forced to wear stars so as to determine the difference between an average person who lived in that area from a jewish man, woman or child. after ariving at the camps, they no longer had names but numbers.
now i'm not really sure if i'm still on the topic of dehumanization or if i've completely switched to deindividualization instead. i might've lost my original topic but, personally, i think i just drifted. :)
it's getting late (and i should probably chose a different time to respond to these other than late at night when no one is awake)
hope someone can go off of this.
not really sure if it will make as much sense to another person as it did for me, so good luck
Elena
So far in Night you can already start to see how the Jews were dehumanized during the Holocaust. The evidence of this dehumanization is that the Jews are kicked out of their homes and forced to live in a ghetto, cut off from the rest of society and unable to go out to restaurants, leave the city or go out after 6. Also they aren't allowed to keep any of their valuable possessions such as their jewelry. They are then forced to wear yellow stars on their clothing, further taking away their individuality. Once at the camps the Jewish people are forced to wear the same clothing and weren’t called by their name but by a number assigned to them by the Nazis. This must have made the Jews feel unimportant and possibly caused them to lose hope. However, some of the Jews struggled to fight the dehumanization process by burying their possessions before they were taken and in some cases they wrote down their feeling in a journal. The lucky ones who weren’t separated from their entire family were able to talk to their family members about their feeling which could help them keep their hope and dignity.
Dehumanization has occurred throughout the entire story so far. The Jews weren't allowed any valuables at all, under penalty of death. The Jews were corralled into ghettos with other Jews, so that they could be watched easily. They weren't allowed to go out and do anything outside of their homes anymore. While some did try and fight it by burying their valuables, in the end it didn't even make a difference. They never got their valuables back and were shipped off to a concentration camp as soon as it was possible to get them in. Once their, they were forced into striped suits and only referred to by number. The only kind of doctor that a Jew was allowed to see was another Jewish man who was a doctor. They were forced to work like slaves, and were barely fed, only being given a small portion of thin soup. Everything that the Jews had to distinguish themselves from one another was stripped away from them, and then later on, they were killed brutally.
And yes, i realize that i posted this very late. I think I may have insomnia. :^D
The steps of dehumanization are when the Jews can’t even have a life any more. If they step outside they will get shot. If they tried to leave there city they would be shot, if they would hide they would be shot. Or when they are going into the ghettos they cannot bring any of their personal belongings. It’s almost like there not even really people. They don’t feed them, they put them in train cars that are smaller than your bathroom, and they packed over 30 people in them. They would have to ride in them for 2 to 3 days even more. They take them out of their homes, it’s like the Jews are robots they do what the Nazis tell them. They wear yellow stars on their front and back so that people know that they are Jews.
When all the Jews get to the camps they put all the men and all the women together, they shave their heads and they put them all into the same outfits.
Some of the Jews tried to get away from the "dehumanization" some lived and some were killed, well most were killed.
I totally agree with Meaghan and Elena about the stanford prision experiment sounding exactly like mini version of the relationship between the Nazis and the Jews. Expecally how the Jews and the prisioners were no longer given names, how their faces were forced to look the same (for the Jews, their hair was cut, and for the prisoners, they had bags over their heads), and how their clothes were all the same. Both were not allowed to keep jewelry, and were labled with stars/numbers in order to identify that peson as a jew or prisoner.
The Jews were also kicked out of their homes and forced to live in ghettos. They were all starved like animals, and also treated as such.
I agree with Meaghan that the Nazis and the Jews reacted in a similar way to the studints who took part in the Stanford Prison Experiment. I also agree with Elena that there was deindividualization. However, I think the two go hand it hand. You can take away the human qualities in a person, and one of those qualities is being individual. Likewise, one tends to get less and less human when they do not feel individual.
There were multiple steps in the dehuminization of the Jews in the book. FIrst, they lost all of their possesions and then they lost their identity. However, as they were treated with more and more cruelty after a long period of time, they became almost as bad as the guards in the sense that they started treating each other inhumanely, such as the Jews in charge of their blocks and also not caring about anyone else's misery, but just their own survival.
A better question would be what dehumanization didn't happen to the Jews during the Holocaust. They were forced into ghettos, all had to wear a yellow star, and couldn't keep anything valuable.
Later, when they were transported to the concentration camps, they were put onto train cars for cattle. This would have made me feel very bad, and angry.
It got even worse when they got to the concentration camps. They all had to wear a uniform, and instead of a name, they were called by a number. They were all also give horrible treatment, very much like in the Lucifer Effect.
Some Jews were able to resist dehumanization by burying their belongings, and they always called each other by name.
It happened in a slow process, but was very ovbious. They took away there rights, there valubles, they had to wear a symbol to identify themselves. They were moved out of there homes, put into a horrible cramped place. I dont think people thought things would go to this extreme. They were given numbers in the camps, and then i think really people were getting it throught there minds that the guards were dehumanizing them, and then realized that it started back at there homes.
I agree with Jesse that trying to resist dehumanization didn't make too much of a difference in the concentration camps.
just like what all of ou have said, The jews were stripped of gold, valuables, homes and titles. They were moved tp gettos and then later moved to concentration camps were the women and children were killed and only the "good men, the healthy ones, were the ones who lived. They were given numbers instead of names, told to strip in front of everyone. they weren't bobs and jacks anymore but instead 144 and 6524. They only kept some of their humanization because of close jew friends that reminded thme of their past. Friends never forget each other and that's what saved them from dehumanization for awhile.
i also agree with meagan and elena on the lucifer effect. The jews being the prisoners and the nazis being the gaurds. The nazis had no respect for the jews and treated them like animals.
Oh and jesse, it's ok. We all have insomia sometime or another. I didn't get to sleep until 5 in morning yesterday. lol
Well y'all, i'm off to my next class. so i'll blog in later.
The steps of dehumanzation against the jews was when they were forced to give up all of their valuable items to the police. The jews were also called out by having to wear the star of david on every piece of clothing they had. This shows that they had lost their connection to society because they no longer had names but they were just the jews. The jews were thrown into ghettos and lost most connection with the outside world unless they got information from the Hungarian police. They were treated like cattle in a herd. They were not even treated like people. The dehumanization took affect against the jews during the first two chapters in Night.
The steps of dehuminization against the jews sort of fast. the jews were forced to move into ghettos, where only other jewish people lived. they had to where stars to identify themselves and were given i.d. numbers when they went to the concentration camps. they were also forced to give up any valuables and had night curfews and certain places they were allowed to go. the jews were also dehumanized because even still today they are refered to as "the jews," not by their own names. some jews were able to resist becoming dehumanized by continuing their normal lifestyle in the ghettos, and called each other by name when they were in the camps
Chelsea,
The Jews getting dehumanized didn't really seem like a SLOW process to me, it just had a lot of hang time between stages, you know? Like, soldiers came into town, forced you into ghettos, took your valuables, and then left for a while. Just as you start to recover from the shock of suddenly being seperated from the rest of the community, the soldiers come back, forcing you to stand in lines for hours before you are shipped away to another ghetto. You live there for a few days, and start to relax again, then a while later ,BAM, whisked away to the final concentration camps. It was all pretty sudden, the down time was just excrutiatingly long.
Both chapters one and two both showed a constant reminder of dehumanization in many different ways. The jews not only had to be marked with a yellow star to represent that they were a jew to everyone else and be ridiculed for it, but they were forced to live in ghettos and all of their personal belongings close friends anything that meant anything to them was taken away. They took every right away from the jews that would make them a human. That's when things get to the dehumanization part of things. The germans took away the rights that the jews would've had as a human therefore the jews wouldn't would think or act like a human. That's why some jews did some of the things they did. They were dehumanized.
I agree with Shelbi, when you are dehumanized you act inhumane. That explains why they hit the lady that kept screaming when they were on the cattle car, even though usually they would be comforting. I would say more, but I don't want to ruin the book.
Shelbi,
though i agree with you about how the dehumanization happening to the Jewish people in sections 1 & 2 might've cause them to act the way they did, they weren't the only ones who had to wear the stars:
-Jewish
-Roma (Gypsies)
-Poles and Other Slavs
-Political Dissidents and Dissenting Clergy
-Persons with Physical or Mental Disabilities
-Jehovah's Witnesses
-Homosexuals
-and many other victims were forced to wear badges to determine who was who, or what in the Nazi's eyes.
plus i also believe that it wasn't only dehumanization that caused them to treat Madame Schachter with such cruelty, Alex. it seems like it was also caused by a great deal of fear. they were scared to die, they were scared she might be right in some way about the fires and deaths, they were scared because they were generally on a blinded track to the end of their lives, and probably because the people who were seperated from their families were scared for their own husbands, wives, and children and praying to God that they would be alright. now i never said i don't agree with you both. i do, i just think there are other reasons for people acting inhumane, such as all the fear and confusion along with the dehumanization caused to them earlier in the book.
any questions, feel free to ask.
-Elena
I agree that it relates back to the lucifer effect, and how once the atmosphere was changed and the jewish people of sighet where put into their mentally changed quite a bit that once things started to change no one prayed anymore which was against everythging ellie believed.
I don't really remember reading the Lucifer Effect hahah but i think that dehumanization can relate to Prison Experiment because the dark and cold place and just all the stores that they heard about prison being bad, made them be bad. And the Lord of The Flies, because they boys start to become like animals and start to do what animals would do.
i would of never thought that the boys would of started their own "war" but because they slowly went through dehumanization,
just like the Jews start to do.
Hi, it's Cierra from Lakeview. I agree with Meagan about the Jews and the Nazis relating to the Lucifer effect but i also think they relate to the Stanford Prison Experiment. The people that were put in charge in that experiment, were overcome by power. And thats how the Nazis were. They became "dehumanized." They (Jews) really don't know what other reason there is to remain "sane" or "calm, cool, and collected." There isnt a way to do this anymore.
The more you think about the more you can see the lucifer effect happening in the book how people start to behave completely different in the motions, like elie stopped praying which was one of his major aspects in life
Elena, I know that Jews weren't the only ones killed and ridiculed nor the only ones that had to wear the golden stars. I didn't want to be misunderstood there. This book is just focusing on the Jews thats why I used them instead of persay gypsies or homosexuals and the many other victoms.
On another topic I think that the lucifer effect definitely is a great example of what happened in Night and the Holocaust itself, they definitely relate back to each other.
This is Cierra from Lakeview. I agree with Meagan about the Jews and the Nazis relating to the Lucifer Effect. I also think that they relate to the Stanford Prison Experiment that was conducted. In this the "authorities" were overcome with all the power that they had, and they did so many things to torture the other men. Just like the Nazis are with the Jews. This just shows that, yes, everyone has an evil side and when one becomes power hungry they do the unthinkable.
This is Cierra from Lakeview. I agree with Meagan about the Jews and the Nazis relating to the Lucifer Effect. I also think that they relate to the Stanford Prison Experiment that was conducted. In this the "authorities" were overcome with all the power that they had, and they did so many things to torture the other men. Just like the Nazis are with the Jews. This just shows that, yes, everyone has an evil side and when one becomes power hungry they do the unthinkable.
The Lucifer Effect totally applies in the book
I also agree with everyone that the actions between the two groups resemble the Lucifer Effect but I also think that the dehumanization of the Jews plays out Maslows Hierarchy chart. The Nazis took away the Jews safety needs by separating them from their families and making it hard for them to learn how their loved ones are doing. The Nazis also take away much of the Jews physiological needs by giving them meager meals, stripping them of clothes and not allowing them to get enough sleep. When these necessities are taken away it is much harder for a person to survive and funtion properly.
Shelbi,
alright.
i just didn't know what you meant there.
now i understand :)
thanks for clearing that up for me
Elena
Hey everyone i agree with Nicloe they were stripped they didn't have anything the Jews were treat as if they were not even human dehumanization is what that was not having anything valuable and wearing the yellow stars and they coulnd't travel or go into restaurants they had to move into ghetto's they all looked the same they didnt have names they had number so they were like one no id so could let the effects go but others still hold on but the ones that did let it go just lived life in the ghetto's as normal life. like it wasn't even happing but thats what they had to do to saty loving life
I totally agree with Dan about the Holocaust being related to Maslow’s Hierarchy. I really didn’t realize it earlier, but the Nazis took away the very lowest levels of the Hierarchy. Because of this, the Jews could not have possibly been able to reach anywhere near the top of the triangle. How can you be curious about things or love others and yourself when you are worrying about when your next meal will come? Whether you will survive another day? Or an hour? This really helps me to understand how prisoners could turn on each other – they weren’t able to build up enough levels to love and respect themselves, let alone love a stranger.
Rachel,
I love how you explained about Maslow’s Triangle and the way that it’s related to the Holocaust. You are absolutely right; you can’t learn to love the person beside you as a human being until you grasp that yourself is taken care of. With all that worry and suffering they went through, they couldn’t possibly reach anywhere else on that triangle.
I, actually, would have never thought about connecting this with the Holocaust. I, most likely, forgot about all the different things we learned from reading Lord of the Flies that could be connected with the Holocaust.
- The prison experiment
- Maslow’s theory
Can anyone else think of anything?
Elena
Okay Elena :]
i think the idea of id, ego and super ego come into play here. Hilter uses his superego to rule over the normal people that are in a between id and ego stage and takes and advantage of that then all of the Jewish people in concentration camps start to be influenced by their id more, like when they stop flinching when someone is being beat down or the man that runs through a bombing to try and get soup because he was so hungry.
the title of this blog is "Resisting Dehumanization". However, I don't believe that anyone resisted being dehumanized. everywhere they went they tried to somewhat be able to keep normal lives but didn't try to resist against the SS. they didn't resist dehumanization; they gradually started to accept it.
the Germans took a long process to dehumanize the Jews. They first had to make them feel like they were going to live, that if they can keep their minds headed toward the end than they will make it out.
but after all, the victims would have to sit beck helplessly watching their dad get beat up or a innocent kid getting hung. they no longer had any way to help, if they tried, they would be shot on the spot.
they also no longer could keep any of their own valuables, heads got shaved, they were given clothes that could belong to someone who was just gassed. they had no say in anything, they were dehumanized so that when they Germans killed them it was as if they were killing a dog, not a person who shared the same interests and lifestyles that they did.
I believe that the whole Holocaust was filled with acts of dehumanization. Not only Jews, but gypsies and homosexuals, etc. were also discriminated against by the German Nazis taking away there rights and their freedoms. In Night, along with many other books about the Holocaust, their freedoms were taken away from them. Everything they had, wanted, or needed to survive was taken away and the only thing they had left was their faith which was on the inside, and even for some their faith was also whisked away.
Hitler and the German army willing to do what ever they can to become in complete control was dehumanization.
Dehmanization is not just taking away peoples valuables, but it is taking away their rights, taking their lives and discriminating against someone when there is no reason to. The list can go on and on.
I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts, becuase dehumanization is a part of everyday life right now as well.
What is anyone's opinion on how dehumanization is occuring in today's societ?
I think one of the ways the people in the concentration camps resisted de-humanization was service. When they would serve others in the same plight as they were, you could sense some hope for humanity. You don't see this very much in Night, because it really seemed like Elie Weisel bought into the whole, "You are not human; you are not valuable," trick of the Nazis. In All But My Life, by Gerda Weissman Klein, however, you can see that when she is helping another human being, she keeps her belief that life will get better, and that she still is a valuable human being. And because she still believed in her, and others' humanity, she was able to survive and continue to help others.
I also think that when the Nazis were attempting to take away the Jews', gyspies', homosexuals', etc. humanity, they were also losing theirs. I don't think you can kill and/or torture people and still have human feelings. So, basically, with the Holocaust, you had the prey, and the predators. One was forced into being an animal, while the latter did it to themselves.
In a documentary my class watched at the beginning of this unit, a few Holocaust surviviors said that before the war even started, kids in their schools would throw rocks at them and call them "Jesus Killers." So if we look at it here I believe that people around the world have been trying to get rid of Jews for longer then we think. I believe that the dehumanization started to occur then. What do you think?
Tori
This comment has been removed by the author.
During the Holocaust the Nazis constantly tried to undermind the Jews. They tried to make them feel less human. When the Jews entered the camps the Nazis stole away their identity. They were given a number in place of their name. The Jews were constantly referred to as dogs, bastards, and other names then broke down their confidence and broke down their belief in humanity. Recently I watched a movie Hotel Rwanda that deals with genocide. In this movie the victims were called cockroaches. The Dehumanization process was a German tactic. By treating the Jews like animals afterwhile thats what they believed thats all they were, animals. While believing this the Jews would do as they were told without trouble. When the Jews lost their identity they believed they had nothing to live for except what the Germans said.
The dehumanization first began with the yellow Star of David. All Jews were forced to sew this onto their clothing to present to the world they were Jewish. It was like wearing a "Kick Me" sign. Then, people of the Jewish faith were banned from entering certain shops and some even had to give up their homes to non-Jews. I believe the reason that they chose not to resist this is because they thought that things couldn't get much worse and things could only get better. The first sign of resistance I recall is when they are all forced into the ghetto and people start to bury their belongings. From the ghetto, the next step of dehumanization occurred, the cattle cars. Jewish people by the hundreds were loaded into cattle cars like animals being taken to a slaughter house. I believe that there are a view who tried to escape those cattle cars and resist being brought to the concentration camps. The camps were the next on the list. At these camps they were forced out of their own clothing and into others, and then their hair was shaved off and tattooed. They were branded like cattle and were known by number, not name. The Jews tried to keep their dignity by calling each other by names and trying hard in their daily work. Resisting the Nazi's at that point was useless unless you wanted to die.
The dehumanization of the Jews in Sighet is remarkable in the fact that they were warned prior by Moche, yet still were in a state of disbelief of what evil was truly heading there way. In all the dehumanizing that followed afterwards, I believed that this was most certainly one of the most human things still possessed among them in their tragic state, disbelief. The fact that they still had faith in humanity enough to warrant them not to listen to Moche's cries, even though it may have save them, shows that they were still human in the sense of still having compassion for one another.
Wow, I agree with pretty much everything that you guys have said about dehumanization so far. I think that the Standford Prison Experiment does sound a lot like a mini Holocaust. I also think that dehumanization occurs around us everyday. Whenever somebody treats someone else like they are lesser or not at good as them it is a small example of dehumanization. Even in our schools, which popular kids and outcasts. If you treat someone like they're not deserving, or they're not good enough, or even just treating them like they don't fit in, or they don't belong, that can be dehumanization. Like in Rwanda when one group treated the other group like they didn't deserve to live. People shouldn't get to decide who lives and who dies. Hmmm... I got off topic a little bit, but everything I said I believe.
Dehumanization truly occurs throughout the entire story until they are liberated at the end. But throughout the whole story you can see it clearly taking place. They are kicked out of their homes, forced to give up all of their possessions, put into train cares like cattle. Then when they arrive at the camp they are separated, families never see each other again, their hair is shaven off, and their names are taken away. In the place of their name they are given a number, and they’re treated worse than anything in the world. The Nazi’s made many believe that they were not important, that they were not human. However the ones that did make it through I believe had such a strong will, and truly knew who they were and had made up their minds that no matter what happened to them and no matter what anyone called them they knew that they were human, and they would hold onto that no matter what.
Liz~
I understand that you think that the Jewish and whoever else was in those camps could still choose to have a life. That is why people survived because they wanted the life that they had before. They wanted to make sure that this has never happened again. They might have lost memories but it was everyones choice in those camps to lose their lives or not. That is just what I think. But your point is good!
Nate, I have to say that I disagree with the statement "They didn't resist dehumanization." While some people just gave up right then and there, actually, a lot of people resisted. Have you read All But My Life? ;] Because there were a lot of examples of humanity and resistance of dehumanization there. There were large frameworks of resistance groups who were all about resisting dehumanization, because they recongnized that they were human beings and should not be treated the ways that they would have been had they simply accepted their fate. These resistance groups did a lot, from making fake I.D. and passports to blowing up railroad so that transports of prisoners and supplies would be postponed.
I believe that the dehumanization of the Jews was used as a tool to make the Jews feel weaker and more vulnerable than they really were. If they knew what was coming ahead of time they very well could have congregated together to try to stop the evil actions of the Nazis. But they refused to acknowledge the obvious clues such as when Moche tried to warn them in Night. So then the Nazis began to attack at their moral rights and their worthiness by forcing them to wear stars so everybody would know what they were, taking them to the ghettos and giving them a ridiculous curfew along with miniscule rations. Such acts of evil would make anybody feel as though they ment nothing and had no purpose. But that's what they wanted. It was easier for them to wipe them out.
It's been a while since I last looked at the prompts, and because of that I don't think it's necessary for me to say the things the Nazis did to the Jews to dehumanize them. Everybody else already has it covered. On the issue of resisting the effects of dehumanization, that hasn't been touched on much.
The Jews couldn't resist the dehumaization itself. The Nazis dehumanized the Jews, and many people agreed with the Nazis. The post said to resist the effects of dehumanization though. Not the act of dehumanizing. The Holocaust prisoners called each other by name to ease the pain of being referred to as a number. They didn't want to become no better than animals, so they wouldn't allow themselves to give in and think about themselves and each other as the Nazis did. The prisoners couldn't resist the dehumanization itself, but they could ease the feelings of it.
Stephanie, I completely agree with you, too. This happens so much in our schools, it is ridiculous. We separate the groups between preps, emos, jocks, etc, and treat each group differently. Some people are worse than others, but it still happens, and that is what each and every one of us need to resist. Everyday dehumanization that happens in schools everywhere.
I really believe that the downfall of a civilization is when groups begin to appear. And in Rwanda, the real reason behind the Hutu and the Tootsi killing each other is crazy. The Tootsi have smaller noses than the Hutu, so the Dutch put the Tootsi in charge. So they are killing each other over the size of their noses. That is one of the saddest things I've ever heard. It is amazing all the things you learn when your eyes are truly opened to the world.
Dehumanization occurs all around the world. We even support it within our societies our prisons and yes, we even support dehumanization practices within our schools. Throughout the Holocaust Jewish people were forced to change the way in which they dressed, where they lived, what they ate, what kind of occupation they had, or were able to have, and they were even denied the right to have a name. In the book Night we see Jewish people leaving behind all that they had and those that did bring valuables along were stripped of them as soon as they reached concentration camps. We have similar rituals for the people around us in our everyday lives. Each one of us has either been the victim of some form of dehumanization or the victimizer. In the store you shoot someone a dirty look if they look unwashed or as if they just woke up. People in prison are stripped of their belongings, they are given a generic form of clothing and a number in place of their own clothes and their own name. We judge people based on how nice their hair is, how new their car is or even what colour shoes they wear. In schools you have all your different groups, all segrigated from the rest: Jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, band geeks, choir queers, emos, preps, punks, skaters, loners, outsiders, pschitzos, weirdos, and just plain freaks. All these groups dehumanize the next. When a fight takes place at school it is the attemp of either one or both participants to dehumamize the other. Dehumanization happens within our own house holds, on the street, at the park, in the mall, even while you're alone driving your car. Dehumanization, when taken to the extreme, is how you end up within a Holocaust situation.
Nate I never really thought of it that way...
Marissa also said something about the Nazis trying to take away the feeling of humanity from the Jews when actually they (the Nazis) were dehumanizing themselves that really opened my eyes.
I think that there were many cases where people lost hope early in the fight. Especially after watching many people die in so many different and terrible ways. I think that a huge strategy of the Nazis was to make their victims believe that they were not human. I don’t think that all of the victims of the Holocaust lost hope in fact I believe there were many people who were able to hold on to some hope and would not allow themselves to be dehumanized. They let the Nazis treat them however they wanted to but they would not let themselves succumb to a mental dehumanization.
During the Holocaust, Jews were give numbers instead of names. That is physical duhumanization but in their hearts,they were still human.
Hey~
So I was reading through all of your blogs and a majority of you all are saying that when they get their jewelery away. I was watching one of my favorite shows the other day and the most important thing to that family would be the pictures. The jewels are important but alot of the time you can go out and buy jewels again. But, the pictures you will never capture that same moment again. Moments are like shooting stars they spark and then die the next moment. You can't ever get the same moments again. That is what I think...I would want to save all of the pictures in my house not all the jewels.
I think them beating up the lady in the cattle car is a good example of dehumanization. Elena is right part of it was their fear, they didn't want to die. But the other people in the cattle car were indifferent to what was happening. They saw the men beating up the women, and they may not have helped but they also didn't stop them, they didn't care if they hurt her, they didn't care if they killed her, as long as she was quiet. I think that indifference and dehumanization go hand in hand. Because as soon as we start to become entirly indifferent how can we really consider ourselves good people. The people on that train had suffered and they were already becoming dehumanized and that caused their indifference even their joy when the woman was in pain. Dehumanization causes indifference, and indifference causes dehumanization. Would a good human being really stand by and let a mother be beat , and watch her fall to the ground with her child still clinging to her arm? Would a good human being not stop the atrocoties of the world if they could? Would any human being stand by and watch that happen?
Steph
I think that you are right. We every day are dehumanize people for stupid little things. Wow I feel really bad now ... thinking that i am kind of apart of a mini modern Holocaust of our own ... That is really sad
*Dehumanizing
Marissa Getts from Columbia Falls
Keri-Dehumanization runs rampant in today's society.
Against men-pushing them to be as "manly" as possible, machoness, and if they show feelings, oh buddy, then they must be gay
Against women-insisting they wear makeup, and do all the feminine things in life
Against teens-"They're so immature" "all those gosh darned kids, never do anything good"
Against different stereotypes-"preps are so stuck up" "She's so pretty, what a slut" "oh, look at that scratch on his wrist, stupid emo" "He's too good at sports, must be on steroids"
The list goes on. And the sad thing is that I guarantee we have heard or said at least one of these phrases in the past month.
Touching up on what both Steph and Quwenci had to say, it is truly a tragedy that our lifes get convoluted over the most trivial matters. Society often seeks to set apart through differences rather then to come togehter through our similarities. Kinda of like in the movie "What Dreams May Come', we as individuals create our own paradises and utopias, but in having the same power, we are equally as able to create our own hell.
Madison I agree that referring to Jews as numbers, and taking away their name, their identity was very duhamanizing. The question arises if they even thought of themselves as humans though after awhile. This reminds me of The Wild Boy of Aveyron, this was a human boy found wondering naked in the woods. He could not speak and acted like a wild anmial. I guess what i am trying to get at is that if you are treating so cruelly, like animals that are being told your worse then pond scum, it there a time you come to believe its true. I believe many Jews, in their heart, became so numb that any feeling of being human could have been eliminated. The strenghth it took for those people to retain their humanlike composer is truely unthinkable.
Throughout the book, and others like it, the Jewish people were dehumanized by the Germans, and in turn, the Germans were dehumanized in the eyes of the Jews.
By first being segregated from the rest of the community, and then having to wear a yellow star to show what they are, Jewish people were being considered almost 'sub-humans', like they were'nt worthy enough to mingle with the 'pure' Germans. The yellow star was a label, a collar for an animal to tell who the wearer belongs to (which in this case was the Jewish community).
The Germans, however, do not get put into the "sub-human" category. They became far worse in the eyes of their victims. By showing no mercy they did not seem human at all. What kind of person could do such a thing? He must be no man at all, but a monster! Humanity completely left some of the German soldiers.
The Germans were not going to resist this type of dehumanization, they didn't even realize it was going on. They liked to be feared, because fear equals obedience, and thats what they ultimately wanted.
The Jews, however, tried to resist. Tried. There was no way they could succeed. You might say their faith could have saved them, but when they are stuck in concentration camps, forced into labor and harsh conditions, and God isn't intervening, some might say "hey, maybe we're supposed to be here. Maybe this is the way it is, and our captors are right, we are filth." Its difficult in these types of situations to keep your faith in anything, besides in Hitler. Hitler never broke a promise to the Jews...
(btw, i accidentally posted this on our other blog....oops :] )
Thank you Marissa!!... I agree so much.
Dehumanization was a big contributer to how the Holocaust occured, and it very well could happen again if everyone keeps treating other "stereo types" the way that they are in today's society.
I have to admit, I have stereo typed people and put them down behind their backs, everyone has but at least that I see that it is wrong and that I need to cease this nonsense that is only ruining our world!
Marissa,
Yes I have read All But My Life ;) but we're discussing Night here. In Night they don't resist being dehumanized. They did what they were told to do and even had a chance to get back at the guards with the knives they had on them when they got off the cattle cars and entered the concentration camp.
Quwenci,
The dehumanization was mental. The only dehumanization that was physical was when the Jews were killed or cremated. The entire process was getting them to think (mentally) that they were no longer human and the Nazi's succeeded on a wide scale. Elie gave up hope in God and in humanity itself. That is being mentally dehumanized.
Nolan R.,
When the Nazis took the valuables away it wasn't dehumanization, it was stealing. The dehumanization was when they got the Jews to stop believing in their God.
Marissa,
If a man puts his feelings on display on a regular basis, then yes he is gay. And isn't being as "manly" or "macho" as much as you can then isn't that acting like a human?
Please describe how humans act. But wait! According to yourself we can't describe humans becausing that's dehumanizing them!
I read both the Lucifer effect and the Prison experiment. I agree that this reminds Meaghan of the Lucifer Effect. We also recently watched a small video in english that was an experiment on power and if someone with a uniform that is in power can make you do something. They were sent into another room and were the "teachers" and in the other room was the "student". The teacher was told to ask a question and then if the student got it wrong the teacher had to send a shock threw them, but no one was really getting shocked. Some didn't go far but others went the whole way. Power can make people below you do what they tell you to do.
Nate-
wow
Having feelings does not make one gay.
And Although we are discussing Night, it doesn't mean we can't talk about other books that relate to Night as well.
=]
Marissa,
Yes I know we can discuss other books, However, in both books I have read, the people did not try to resist being Dehumanized. Please provide an example of how they didn't in those "other" books.
Gracias.
Nate, oh buddy, there are a ton of examples of resisting dehumanization in All But My Life. Its a shame you missed them. When they act in the plays to have fun, they are resisting dehumanization. Each and every time a kind act is committed, they are resisting dehumanization. It doesn't have to be a huge rebel resitance force to be classified as resisting dehumanization. You can dehumanize someone by doing something as small as calling them a name, or stereotyping them in your mind. So, you can build up others' and your own humanization by small and simple acts, too.
Marissa I totally agree with you! There where several acts of rebelling against dehumanization in All But My Life. Even though the acts where small they still had the most powerful effects.
Nate and Marissa,
I'm glad I wasn't at school in case this was one of your more heated convos :). I understand both sides. Marissa I agree there were times when they fought against dehumanization by some people keeping there spirits up and not letting the Nazis take their faith. Nate I also agree with you they were made fools at times and didn't even question it. I have a question for you both, imagine yourself in that situation. What would you do pride over life?
Wow, I think that Jesse is a genius. He is absolutely right, i've never seen the movie that he mentioned but I agree entirly. We all sort of create our own paradises, i call it my "Happy Place" :). And the same goes with Hell as well.
I think that everybody in the Holocuast tried to restist dehuminization. Nobody would just give into it willingly. Marissa is right that they were resisisting when they put on the plays. Also just by staying with their families, and trying to be themselves. But for the most part you can't exactly resist dehuminization and keep your life. Because if you have a choice between walking in the gutter and being shot and killed wouldn't you walk in the gutter? I think that some of the people gave into the dehuminization because they descided that survival was ultimately more important. And that doesn't make them bad, it makes them human, because survival is the most important thing.
Stephanie,
I agree that survival is important to most humans. I am not saying they should have asked to get shot but what about all those people who gave up their life anyway what about all those people who welcomed death if death didn't matter to them anyway why not go out courageous? Why would they not leave the world with pride and give others hope and strength to maybe not die with pride but survive for revenge? If someone is going to waste a life I wish some of the victims would have made it worth it.
Danielle,
In that situation I would choose life over pride. Once your dead, what does your pride mean to you?
Danielle, and Nate,
I agree with both of you. Resistence wouldn't be a bad thing. But in that particular situation walking in the gutter didn't make him loose all of his pride, because he was just walking in the gutter. When you think about it there were millions of people that did not resist. Any one of those people could have fought back, some did like in the Ghetto uprising. We just don't hear about those people. But the Nazi's were playing on their fear. They made them afraid. And when you are terrified it makes it difficult to act. I have never been in a situation like that so I don't know what I would really do. I would like to think that I would fight back, but knowing that resistence would mean my death and that it was futile I would probably choose to cling to the hope that I might live another day. That I might survive where so many others hadn't. And with what Nate said about pride meaning nothing to you once you are dead. I can see his point but on the other hand you don't do it for yourself, you do it to help those you leave behind. You also want to retain your pride because when you'r gone that is all that is left of you. If you do die, you will be gone, and the only way you will still exist in the world is in the memory of those that do survive. So you want to be remembered well you want to be remembered as a good person not as a coward.
Nate and Stephanie,
I too do not know what I would do in a situation as serious as the Holocaust would I resist? I like to think that if I saw my life coming to an end it wouldn't be wasted. As I read Nate's comment on pride I had the same thoughts Stephanie did. When someone dies for pride you do not do it for yourself but to give strength to those you care about. I believe people remember most the last part of an experience whether it be a game or a life. When you die with pride it is almost as if you are given lasting respect.
I agree. When the fall is all that's left you it matters, said by King Richard the Lionheart :)
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