Elie Wiesel's Night Elie Wiesel's Night is a novel set during the Holocaust, in which approximately six million Jews were blamed for the German Depression during World War I and were murdered mass during World War II. The man behind this genocide, Adolf Hitler, had several goals during the Holocaust. Hitler not only wanted to experiment and control the Jews, but also to dehumanize the Jews by subjecting them to ridicule and violence. Even today, the unthinkable acts committed by the Nazis instill apprehension in the hearts of men and women around the world. The disturbing acts of disregard for human life, women and children included forever scaring society with hatred and judgement. Jews were rounded up into “concentration camps” and tortured for the simple fact that they were born into a Jewish culture – no rhyme or reason other than to please Hitler and his Nazi retinue. On a daily basis, the Nazis forced Jews to fight for their food and water, keeping them alive only to perform forced labor, and when they could no longer be of use to their captors, they were exterminated. Another example of such dehumanization occurred in the burning of fully aware people, including but not limited to; women, children, the elderly, homosexuals, the sick and the disabled. Upon arrival in the extermination camps they were immediately deposited in the crematoriums. “Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there” (32 Wiesel). For the Nazis to kill and burn human beings while they were alive or throw them into gas chambers just because they considered them undesirable is an unthinkable inhumane act. During the Holocaust period the Nazis were known to be some of the...... middle of paper......war. Jimmy Cross, for example, ultimately burns the photos and letters of his lover Martha to ensure that his only goal was war and to help him separate fantasy from reality. Ultimately, I felt as if the "things" depicted in The Things carried with them objects of a delicate nature, regardless of whether they were objects substantial or insubstantial to the war itself. The “things” were not weapons or even the personal baggage of the soldiers, but rather the emotional baggage.” The war gave soldiers the grave and profound emotional burden of having to be notified of death. As the narrator says, “It was the burden of being alive (p.85 O'Brian).” O'Brian's The Things They Carried reflects on the burden of war and informs the reader how war can affect and change an individual. How those “things” carried by soldiers affected them not only physically, but also mentally.