Why does Elie say that nakedness was “the great equalizer?”

Elie says that nakedness was "the great equalizer" because it made them all equal, none more superior or important than another. They are all in the same predicament, at the mercy of the officers in the camp.

Explanation:

Elie Wiesel's memoir "Night" is a recollection of his time during the German's discrimination of the Jews under Hitler's Nazi regime. The event which prosecuted millions of Jewish people came to be known as the Holocaust, the worst genocide in the history of humanity.

The very first night they arrived at the camp, Elie recounts how they were 'judged' according to their health, age, profession and separated into different jobs or 'groups'. And then they were asked to strip naked, their old clothes removed and they were made to wear new ones, "uniforms" that can better identify and 'label' them as prisoners. This instance of being naked is, according to Elie, "the great equalizer" for in being naked, they all seem to be the same and share the same fate and circumstance. No one seems to be superior or wealthy or beautiful or even confident than another, as they were all in the same situation of 'unclothed', vulnerable, and at the mercy of the SS officers.

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