Spencer Wood
One major theme with internment/detention centers (not exclusively German ones) is de-humanization. A very obvious example in the reading is the number given to the Jews. Their names were taken away and they were no longer the person that had a family, a job, a religion, etc. They were a number.
Another example is the physical prowess of the Jews when they enter the camp. They are stripped and sheared. Once they are given new clothes they are nearly unrecognizable from one another. Levi says that they had no use for a mirror for their reflection was all around them.
A recent example of this treatment toward detainees can be seen in psychologist Phillip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment. In his experiment, Zimbardo's "Prisoners" were stripped, numbered, and "shaven" (they were given pantyhose for a cap). This led these young men into mental collapse and the two-week experiment ended early after only a few days. In his memoir about the experiment Zimbardo attributes the abrupt end to the fear of irreparable damage to the prisoners' sense of self.
De-humanization leads to the demolition of one's existence. If I'm not me, then I am not at all.
AK and Moriah
One major theme with internment/detention centers (not exclusively German ones) is de-humanization. A very obvious example in the reading is the number given to the Jews. Their names were taken away and they were no longer the person that had a family, a job, a religion, etc. They were a number.
Another example is the physical prowess of the Jews when they enter the camp. They are stripped and sheared. Once they are given new clothes they are nearly unrecognizable from one another. Levi says that they had no use for a mirror for their reflection was all around them.
A recent example of this treatment toward detainees can be seen in psychologist Phillip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment. In his experiment, Zimbardo's "Prisoners" were stripped, numbered, and "shaven" (they were given pantyhose for a cap). This led these young men into mental collapse and the two-week experiment ended early after only a few days. In his memoir about the experiment Zimbardo attributes the abrupt end to the fear of irreparable damage to the prisoners' sense of self.
De-humanization leads to the demolition of one's existence. If I'm not me, then I am not at all.
AK and Moriah
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