Dehumanization: the psychological process of demonizing the enemy, making them seem less than human and hence not worthy of humane treatment.
"Good Night. The first human words."
"You've escaped the greatest danger, selection. So now you must muster your strength and don't lose heart. We shall see the day of liberation. Have faith in life. Above all else, have faith..."
"It did not take long to discover why we had been summoned: it was for the extraction of our gold teeth."
"He was going to be hanged...I did not feel any pity for him. I was even pleased about what had happened. I had saved my gold crown."
"I watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact I was thinking of how to get farther away so that I would not be hit myself. What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was directed, not against Kapo, but my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek's outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had for me."
"Terror was stronger than hunger"
In reference to the soup; "In our thoughts we were murdering him"
"The thousands who died daily at Auschwitz and at Birkenau in the crematory oven no longer troubled me..."
"But further, there was no longer any reason why I should fast. As I swallowed my bowl of soup, I saw in the gesture an act of rebellion and protest against Him. And I nibbled my crust of bread. In the depths of my heart, I felt a great void."
Elie was changing, the starvation and killing of thousands of people was becoming an everyday norm, such as I get up and go to school every morning, his routine followed a horrifying pattern of work, limited food, and the dreaded selection. Life in the camp changed him most in the sense that gruesome death did not phase him, while it made my stomach turn just to imagine it, he watched a child hang from a noose and could keep his food down, despite the fact that he had little to no food. More importantly however, his faith was transforming, God seemed absent in his anguish and despair and he wanted to punish Him for it, by ceasing to practice Jewish traditions as a rebellious act against the God who abandoned him. All these quotes and analysis show that he was slowly taking a turn for the worse, the lashes he got, the lashes his father got, and the horrible life that had befallen him made death and tragedy seem mediocre. So much, that it would please him to have someone die than from him to give up his golden tooth.
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