How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits, his clothes, in short of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often easily loses himself…it is in this way that one can understand the double sense of the term "extermination camp." (2.26)
The process of dehumanization takes place quickly in the camp by taking away all signs of the prisoners' identities in their lives as free men. It's not only the physical self that can be exterminated.
Quote #5
I have learned that I am Haftling. My number is 174517. (2.27)
The destruction of identity is complete. The men are now prisoners, known by their numbers. It's interesting that in science fiction stories, robots are often known by their numbers. We all know the difference between a person and a non-person: we have names.
Quote #6
"When this music plays we know that our comrades, out in the fog, are marching like automatons; their souls are dead and the music drives them, like the wind drives dead leaves, and takes the place of their wills. There is no longer any will: every beat of the drum becomes a step, a reflected contraction of exhausted muscles. The Germans have succeeded in this. They are ten thousand and they are a single grey machine; they are exactly determined; they do not think and they do not desire, they walk." (4.47).
One of the defining qualities of a man is his will. We can make choices and plans; we assume that our actions can have some effect in the world. In Auschwitz, the system is designed to destroy the will and with it, a sense of oneself as a human being.