Axl Allan Tan
Per. 2
Honors English 9
12/8/17

Night Draft

Thesis Statement: Night expressed on how Elie, his father, and the fellow prisoners were dehumanized and treated terribly.

Introduction: Night, written by Elie Wiesel, expressed on how Elie, his father, and the fellow prisoners were dehumanized by the Nazis and how this helped Hitler reach his end goal. The story tells you the events that take place during the Holocaust and Elie’s experience. The prisoners were tortured badly to aid in the Nazi’s and Hitler’s plan, the Final Solution.

I.
TS: The Nazis and the SS made the prisoners work back-breaking hours of labor and treated them like they were nothing.
CD: “They had transferred me to another Kommando, the construction one, where twelve hours a day I hauled heavy slabs of stone….An SS would examine us. Whenever he found someone extremely frail - a “Muselman” was what we called those inmates - he would write down their number: good for the crematorium.” - (From page 70). The SS wanted them to do very difficult jobs for a long amount of time. If they weren’t good enough to do their jobs, or just being weak, they would select them to be burned in the crematorium.
A: The SS would want to kill all the weaklings in order to satisfy their own needs. They did not care on how the prisoners felt and if they were getting injured, they just wanted them to do their work as fast as they can. They treated them like they were nothing and as if they can just throw them away just like that.
A: Dehumanization is when you take away the human qualities of a person. This is what the SS soldiers did to the prisoners. They made them into slaves for Hitler and his accomplices. The SS now control their own lives and their decisions.
CS : The SS treated the prisoners badly and did not care about how they felt.

II.
TS: The SS made the prisoners dig their own graves for when they will be shot.
CD: “The Jews were ordered to get off and onto waiting trucks. The trucks headed toward a forest. There everybody was ordered to get out. They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns.” - (From page 6). The SS made them dig their own graves. They would then shoot them to where they would fall inside the trench. They killed everyone who was ordered to come.
A: The SS didn’t even have to torture them to get them in their graves. They just made the process plain and simple. The SS just wanted to get it over with. After shooting them, they probably just brought in the next group without the slightest of care.
A: No one should have to be forced to dig up their own grave just based on what they believe in. Everyone wants to be able to live as long as they can. The SS soldiers denied this. They had no hesitation whatsoever, even in shooting the babies they threw up in the air. This was beyond torture for the prisoners.
CS: The prisoners should not have to dig up their own graves and be shot after.

III.
TS: The SS dehumanized the prisoners by taking away of what was rightfully theirs.
CD: “Dozens of inmates were there to receive us, sticks in hand, striking anywhere, anyone, without reason. The orders came: "Strip! Hurry up! Raus! Hold on only to your belt and your shoes… " Our clothes were to be thrown on the floor at the back of the barrack. There was a pile there already. New suits, old ones, torn overcoats, rags. For us it meant true equality: nakedness. We trembled in the cold.” - (From page 35). The SS told the inmates to take off their own clothes and to stand there in the room full of naked guys.
A: The SS made them stand in the cold room naked. To make it even worse, they hit them with sticks if they did not follow orders. The SS didn’t care how the prisoners felt about them taking off the clothes, they just wanted them to do it. Imagine having to go through things similar to this for a couple years. The inmates were transformed into “servants” for the Nazis because they obeyed every order given to them.
A: The prisoners most likely worked very hard to get those clothes and now they are going to be thrown away just because someone said. If they were going to torture them, then  they should at least let them keep their clothes. The SS made the prisoners feel like they’re in something worse than jail.
CS: The prisoners had to give everything on them to the SS because they were too scared to defy them.

Conclusion: The story told in Night isn’t the happiest of stories to be reading. You go through many terrible events with Elie, his friends, and his family. The things that they are made to do and go through are inhumane. No one should have to experience these incidents of dehumanization. The SS and Hitler tortured and killed many of them and their fellow inmates in the Holocaust.