animal refrences

I noticed that Elie Weisle took two different references to animals and connected them at both the start and the end of the reading (I read a little too far till page 38). The first comparison was to cattle. Elie Weisel describes how they were transported in a "cattle car" showing they are getting the same level of treatment that one would give a group of cattle. It is as if they are simply a herd of animals being moved from place to place, no idea where they are going. They are all in an unknown fear as, as a group of helpless animals would be. He returns to the reference when discussing the crematoria where they were killing Jews like "cattle in the slaughterhouse," showing how little value the Germans gave to the lives of the Jews. The second reference was to dogs. The german soldier explains earlier in the chapter how they will be "shot like dogs" proving their readiness to take away the lives of 80 of them as if they were a group of rabid canines. Weisel also described how the Germans looked upon the group of Jewish men at Auschwitz "as one would a pack of leprous dogs clinging to life." comparing the supposedly healthy and strong Jewish men as a group of diseased animals. Both of these comparisons, to a group of cattle of being shuffled from place to place and a group of helpless, diseased dogs clinging to life to further emphasize the value, or lack thereof, that the Germans associated with the Jew's lives.