"Effects of the Holocaust in people"

   The Holocaust was a tragic point in history which many people
believe never happened.  Others who survived it thought it should
never have been.  Not only did this affect the people who lived
through it, it also affected everyone who was connected to those
fortunate individuals who survived.  The survivors were lucky to
have made it but there are times when their memories and flashbacks
have made them wish they were the ones who died instead of living
with the horrible aftermath.  The psychological effects of the
Holocaust on people from different parts such as survivors of
Israel and survivors of the ghettos and camps vary in some ways yet
in others are profoundly similar.  The vast number of prisoners of
various nationalities and religions in the camps made such
differences inevitable.  Many contrasting opinions have been
published about the victims and survivors of the holocaust based on
the writers' different cultural backrounds, personal experiences
and intelectual traditions.  Therefore, the opinions of the authors
of such books and entries of human behavior and survival in the
concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Europe are very diverse

The Impact on the Victims

Liberation 

In April 1945, at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, British battle-weary soldiers familiar with the horrors of war, were shocked as they never thought they could be by the sights that confronted them. The following is yet another account: "The inmates had lost all self-respect, were degraded morally to the level of beasts. Their clothes were in rags, teaming with lice, and both inside and outside the huts was an almost continuous carpet of dead bodies, human excreta, rags, and filth."²²

Medical teams set to work to save those who could be saved, but even as they were surrounded with kindness, care, and food, it was not enough. Hundreds died as a result of the richness of British army rations. Not being used to such food, their digestive systems couldn't cope. Some were so deteriorated that there was nothing that could be done to save them. British doctors would mark a red cross on the foreheads of those who they thought had any possibility of surviving.

On the same day that the British entered Bergen-Belsen, American troops entered yet another camp at Nordhausen, where hundreds of slave laborers were found in conditions the United States signal corps recorded as "almost unrecognizable as human." The Americans and the British listened in horror as every liberated prisoner recounted stories of past atrocities.

As thousands of Jewish survivors came into the DP camps, public opinion in the United States was aroused by the despairing situation. President Truman set up a special commission to investigate. They demanded the immediate entry of 100,000 of the survivors into Eretz Israel. At the same time members of the kibbutzim sent teachers and doctors to organize and try to psychologically heal the survivors.

Psychological Effects

The long range psychological effects of the Holocaust on the mental health of survivors are indeed multitudinal and complex. There can be no doubt that profound shock enveloped those arriving at the death camps. What had once been only rumor was, in fact, truth. Shock was followed by apathy. Martin Wangh asserts that "recovery from these two states could occur only by a means of psychic splitting. This meant that some form of denial or 'psychic numbing,' 'derealization,' or 'depersonalization.' had to take place."²⁷ Also, in general, the senses became heightened, and one lived as a hunted animal, always on the alert for danger. Any aggressive, vengeful impulse had to be constantly suppressed, thus a paranoid attitude could become deeply rooted. Apathy was a period filled with extreme danger, any new arrival, who was already exhausted from the dehumanizing conditions of his transport or the ghettos, who remained in shock for any length of time, would surely be killed. And if he retreated into himself for too long, he would be shunned by other prisoners, and would be thus deprived of their support.

One way survivors coped with the prolonged horrors of the holocaust was to sustain the hope of reuniting with their families. Upon liberation, however, most of them were confronted not only with the discovery that their family members and friends had perished, but also sometimes with the horrible circumstances of their deaths. Many survivors, when physically able, returned to their home towns only to find their property destroyed or taken over, their pre-war neighbors indifferent or hostile, and their communities obliterated. Some continued their search in DP camps and elsewhere in Europe for several years. While some did find a few surviving relatives, others either never discovered what happened to their loved ones or learned that every single Jewish person they had ever known before the war had been murdered. Unable to fully comprehend their tragedy or to express their grief or rage, the survivors still had to undertake the task of rebuilding their lives. As they began these new lives, living conditions were often cramped and poor. There were few clothes and household goods available and food was rationed. Interesting and well-paying jobs were hard to come by. Most of the young refugees found themselves in menial factory or office jobs, or in domestic work.

A frequent occurrence were marriages that seemed to disregard all ordinary criteria. Recreating a family and bringing a child into the world was a concrete attempt to compensate for their losses, to counter the massive disruption of their lives and to undo the dehumanization and loneliness they had experience. Many survivors gave birth in DP camps as soon as they were physically able. Almost without exception, the newborn children were named after those who had perished. The children were often viewed as a symbol of victory over the Nazis. They were the future.

Uprooted, dislocated, and robbed, most survivors decided to leave Europe and find a safer place to live and rebuild their lives. Most of those who had survived the war adhering to Zionism went to Israel. Others, who had relatives in North America, went there with the hope of recreating an extended family.

In the United States, in addition to the difficulties shared by most immigrants, the majority of survivors encountered a unique cluster of negative reactions and attitudes. Most arrived as penniless refugees and received initial financial aid from relatives and Jewish organizations. The survivors were provided with very little help, however, in emotional rehabilitation. Their war accounts were too horrifying for most people to listen to. In addition, bystanders' guilt for having knowingly neglected to do anything to prevent their fate, led many to believe that survivors were pointing a finger at them. Reactions such as "that's in the past," "let bygones be bygones," "be grateful and happy for getting to America," or "look at the positive side of things" led most survivors to keep silent.

The initial reaction of silence proved detrimental to the psychological well being of the survivors and to their families and to their integration into their new cultures. The silence intensified survivors' sense of isolation, and formed yet another obstacle to the mourning process. This silence, imposed by others, proved particularly painful to those who had survived the war determined to bear witness. The only option left to survivors, other than sharing their Holocaust experiences with each other, was to withdraw completely into their newly established families. It has only been within the last 10 to 15 years that people have wanted to hear, but now many of the adult survivors have already passed away.

Physical Effects

The conditions of the camps defy description. Any attempt to do so can only be a gross understatement. The nutrition was worse than inadequate; the results being the well-known musselmen: skeletons covered with skin -- living corpses. It became virtually impossible to tell the prisoners apart, the border between life and death became obscured. If deaths from the gas chamber and crematoriums are not included, mortality was still extremely high from multiple infections, frost bite, injuries from atrocities, disease of the respiratory tract, diarrhea, and first and foremost - chronic malnutrition and the diseases associated with it. Clothing and housing were inadequate beyond words. Lice and scabbies infections were rampant, along with many other infectious diseases such as typhus.

After liberation, those diseases that were readily apparent were treated as best as could be done. However, amongst some survivors diseases and defective conditions had slowly developed that nobody expected. They were not always dramatic, and the survivors never dramatized them. The connection between their sufferings in the camps and later illnesses was not obvious and doctors knew little about it. Physicians had never had the opportunity to see and examine resurrected corpses. The experiences in the camps were beyond any reach of their imagination, and the results of their experiences were therefore also completely unknown and unexpected. "The symptoms most frequently described were increased fatigability, failing memory, an inability to concentrate, restless ness, irritability, emotional liability, disturbance of sleep, headaches, and various vegetative symptoms. Anxiety and mood disorders were other aspects of the syndrome found in many of the investigated survivors. Slowly a general agreement as to the existence and disabling effects of this syndrome evolved."³²

From the general somatic point of view, there is one very predominate syndrome doctors began to notice and that was "premature aging." The general impression in practically all the physicians dealing with these patients was that they looked "older than their age." Other somatic diseases affecting several body systems were often apparent in the same patient. What was most often seen was at least two types in one patient.

The Second Generation

Children of the Survivors

In the second generation a whole new group of issues comes to light. A whole complex of emotions surround the birth of each second generation child of a survivor. Many women were justifiably fearful that they would not be able to bare children because of what they had experienced. Not to have a child was considered the ultimate defeat. Once born, these children were bound to be special. A child was tangible evidence of not only one's own survival, but also the Jewish people, and therefore, incredibly precious. For many parents, the child represented the ultimate defeat of Nazism...A life had been created against insurmountable odds. For others the birth was a profoundly religious event and was a precious gift of God.

In the postwar world, the parents held high hopes for their children. Yet as precious as they were, the parents held ambivalent feelings towards these children. The world had proven to be a dangerous place for children, especially for Jewish children. One and a half million children had died in the Holocaust. For the survivors, an intense personal war continued in which the ultimate victory would be obtained through the success and survival of their children.