Dehumanization and genocide is the central theme of Daniel’s Story. Without dehumanization, the Nazis can’t systematically kill the Jews. Dehumanization lays the framework for mass murder. The Nazis methodically strip away the humanity of Daniel’s family and the other Jews in Germany. They boycott Jewish shops, organize a night of destruction and violence (Kristallnacht), expel them from professions, and forbid them from sharing the same spaces as Germans. The Jews can’t eat at restaurants or use swimming pools. About Lodz, Daniel says, “The Nazis didn’t even want Jews walking on the same street Christians used, so they built the footbridge over it” (126).

Mr. Schneider, Daniel’s teacher, echoes the dehumanization when he calls Jews an “inferior species” and “a close relative to the vermin in our gutters” (12). The Nazis don’t just cast the Jews as less than Germans, they present them as rats, and people exterminate rats, or, as Daniel puts it, “They are just eradicating a vile species—like cockroaches” (81).

The dehumanization turns Daniel’s best friend, Hans, into his antagonist, and it leads to a fight with the Hitler Youth boys. Daniel says, “[E]verywhere there were posters, exhibits, and articles that described to the German people how terrible Jews were” (16).