All Packed Up With Nowhere To Go

This is an image taken of salvaged suitcases from victims of the concentration camps during the Holocaust. The prisoners were under the impression that they were to leave their belongings in these suitcases to be returned to them when they left the camps. This is not what happened, however, as they were merely taken away from the inmates. By doing this, they were not only taking away their possessions but also their humanity in a sense. The people in these camps are now penny-less without anything to call their own except for a crust of bread, and that is only a maybe. This relates to Night because Elie and his family go through this process of dehumanization as well. Wiesel says on page 24, “The world had become a hermetically sealed cattle car.” This quote means to show the Jewish peoples’ sense of fear, and how they were suffocating not only physically but mentally as well. The picture above not only shows the sheer volume of people who had to go through this, but also how they had to go through it with absolutely nothing; everything was taken from them, even their right to be a human. The things that were contained within these suitcases held value to their owners, but also stories and memories too. The Nazis took away the Jewish peoples’ tangible possessions, and their actual roots as well. If that isn’t one definition of pure hate, I don’t know what is.