Night Essay, Research Paper
Faster, you swine, you filthy sons of bitches (81). This is an example of the physiological abuse and verbal abuse that the S.S. officers had towards the Jews. In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, the theme of prejudice and inhumanity was strongly revealed. I learned from this book how the physical conditions of the camp Buna was: and how the S.S. officers were verbally and psychologically abusive towards the Jews.
The Camp Buna was the second concentration camp, and the third stop that Elie and his father had been to. Their first impression of the camp was that it was a work camp. When they arrived to the gate it looked empty and lifeless, their was correct it was a work camp. The prisoners were all split up into groups and put into units. Elie had been explained what kind of work he was to do by a fellow worker, Juliek. Juliek said, We work in a warehouse for electrical equipment, not far from here. The work isn t in the least difficult or dangerous. But Idek, the Kapo, has bouts of madness now and then, when it s best to keep out of his way (47). Elie was lucky he didn t have to do the dirty work, but one day he heard a noise and was curious about it. He followed the noise to his Kapo s room; he looked inside the door and saw a half naked girl. Idek looked back and saw Elie and said, You wait and see, kid You ll soon find out what leaving your work s going to cost you You re going to pay for this pretty soon ..And now, go back to your place (54). Before the end of the workday they had a roll call, during this time Idek took Elie and beat him twenty-five times with a wipe. This kind of physical abuse happened to many of the Jews.
In addition to the physical abuse was the verbal abuse from the S.S. Officers towards the Jews. This is one of the ways that the officers treated the Jews so poor. They would talk how they would want to talk, for example, Faster, you swine, you filthy sons of bitches (81). They would abuse them verbally and put them down constantly. After Elie had been beaten twenty-five times the officer came up to him and said Listen to me, you bastard (56). Putting him down right after he had completed beating him. Throughout the book there were officers verbally abusing the Jews until they just gave up. The Germans would make them feel worthless.
Along with the verbal abuse came the psychological abuse. From the start they had to try to live without their whole family. They were separated and would never see some of them again. Madame Schachter had gone out of her mind (22). She was separated from her family and was going insane, yelling fire (22). She kept on repeating herself. When the rest of the Jews were in the cattle car and sick and tired of hearing her yell, they taped her up to calm her. Another way was the sight of babies being thrown into a crematory, the pit of flames. The Jews had to see this happen and also had to go through a selection to see if they were eligible to make it to the concentration camp (if you were worth the officer s time). The question that was going through every Jew s mind was, What if I get selected? The Jews were psychologically abused all throughout this novel.
The prejudice ways and the inhumane ways were shown through many ways in this book. The Concentration camp Buna and how they were treated physically there, the S.S. Officers and how they were verbally abusive towards the Jews, and the psychologically abuse that the Jews had to live with throughout the Holocaust. Just think if Elie had to stay a just a year longer, would he make it? Assuming he would make it, What would he see when he looked in the mirror?