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The psychological effects of the holocaust on Jews
The psychological effects of the holocaust on Jews
The psychological effects of the holocaust on Jews
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A person may have heard second hand accounts of those who have experienced the Holocaust, taking in the stories as facts without really thinking about them. But when one listens to one retelling his or her story of what occurred in the Holocaust, one can actually feel the other’s pain and suffering. Upon hearing Mrs. Gluck-Stewart’s personal narrative of the Holocaust, I underwent the feelings of horror, pain, and fear.
While listening to Mrs. Gluck-Stewart’s stories of what transpired to her during and post-Holocaust, I felt horror flooding my senses. I chiefly felt his emotion when Mrs. Stewart related how the Germans forced young musicians to play for them, as the inmates disembarked the trains and were selected for life or death. It is horrifying ow the Nazis yemach shemo forced the women to play for their enjoyment, as they watched people being taken to certain death. How could one be so beastly as to view people’s death as some form of entertainment, going as far to “employ” musicians for the event?!Additionally, horror surged throughout my entire being when Mrs. Stewart recounted some of the Non-Jews reactions to
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Stewart’s rollercoasters of fear as Mrs Stewart recounted how she escaped from the “liberating” Russians and attempted to reach her father in America. When she related how she escaped and was trapped by the boorish and crude Russians in a barn, I felt a wave of fear engulf me as she explained her predicament. I also could not believe the extent of the Yad Hashem, which saved her in the climax of her plight, returning her to Yiddishkeit. The same fear washed over me, when Mrs Stewart described how she was stuck in the Russian camp masquerading as the Czech mayor’s daughter with other girls who could not speak Czech, and the daily fear that they would get caught and sent to Siberia instead of home. I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief when the train finally took them out of the Russian
Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” (Elie Wiesel) The Holocaust is a topic that is still not forgotten and is used by many people, as a motivation, to try not to repeat history. Many lessons can be taught from learning about the Holocaust, but to Eve Bunting and Fred Gross there is one lesson that could have changed the result of this horrible event. The Terrible Things, by Eve Bunting, and The Child of the Holocaust, by Fred Gross, both portray the same moral meaning in their presentations but use different evidence and word choice to create an overall
Elizer’s personal account of the holocaust does not merely highlight the facts of the holocaust: millions suffered and the event was politically and religiously motivated, but provides an in depth investigation to what a person endured mentally, physically, and emotionally. Beginning as a teenager, Elizer thought highly of God and of his own beliefs, however, that quickly diminished when he was put into a system of sorting and killing people. During the holocaust, Elizer was not the only person to change; almost everyone suffered and changed differently. The stressful and harsh times affected Elizer just as they affected the person working next to him in the factory. Elizer quickly began to question everything “I pinched myself: Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?” (Wiesel 32). Although Elizer forms this mentality, he also finds the will to survive, to protect his father, and to not turn into the people that were aro...
The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...
The Holocaust was a very impressionable period of time. It not only got media attention during that time, but movies, books, websites, and other forms of media still remember the Holocaust. In Richard Brietman’s article, “Lasting Effects of the Holocaust,” he reviews two books and one movie that were created to reflect the Holocaust (BREITMAN 11). He notes that the two books are very realistic and give historical facts and references to display the evils that were happening in concentration camps during the Holocaust. This shows that the atrocities that were committed during the Holocaust have not been forgotten. Through historical writings and records, the harshness and evil that created the Holocaust will live through centuries, so that it may not be repeated again (BREITMAN 14).
When in America, Helen found that it was hard not to talk about past and the stories of her imprisonment. “Some survivors found it impossible to talk about their pasts. By staying silent, they hoped to bury the horrible nightmares of the last few years. They wanted to spare their children and those who knew little about the holocaust from listening to their terrible stories.” In the efforts to save people from having to hear about the gruesome past, the survivors also lacked the resources to mentally recovery from the tragedy.
"Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. University of South Florida, 1 Jan. 1997. Web. 19 May 2014. .
Testimonies allow future generations to read, hear and learn from the people who experienced, witnessed, or perpetrated the genocidal policies and crimes of the Nazis and their collaborators. These testimonies are valuable resources which can enhance our understanding of the Holocaust and related issues. Oral testimonies provide listeners glimpses into the history of the Holocaust that cannot be obtained from documents or written records. While textual documents are essential for the study of the Holocaust, an individual’s testimony can supplement those document...
The tone of Wiesel’s memoir emanates a sense of hopelessness and it reeks of pitiful death with every page of his memoir. Each chapter was an emotional time-bomb prolonging such a living nightmare. Elie’s perspective of the Holocaust was inclusive and provided the audience with memories rather than pages of facts, like Lopate’s work. Such an inclusive perspective contributed to the overall mood of the audience on the Holocaust and attributed to a sense of witnessing the action through words. Such that one might feel emotionally moved after reading Elie’s memoir compared to reading Lopate’s pitiful defense
The Holocaust continues to exist as a black mark in the history of Germany; through the government supported torture and extermination of both men and women, more than 6 million lost their lives. As a consequence of the collective tragedy for both sexes, there has been much debate pertaining to the focus of gender specific suffering in Holocaust literature; for this reason, the Holocaust accounts of women writers were largely ignored prior to the 1970’s. Many historians still refute disparities existed between the male and female experience. However, it is worth noting that the social, familial, and cultural expectations of men and women, both prior to and during the war, varied greatly. Moreover, these diverging roles promoted distinctively different coping, processing, and accounting of the tragedies stemming from the Holocaust. By examining the unique experiences of women, both within and outside the concentration camps, one can logically conclude these remarkable accounts broaden the scope of Holocaust literature. Embedded gender roles helped the survival efforts of women, and these unique female perspectives are valuable in accurately portraying the Holocaust experience.
Dwork, Deborah, and R. J. Van Pelt. Holocaust: a History. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.
“Guilt is cancer. Guilt will confine you, torture you, destroy you as an artist. It’s a black wall. It’s a thief.” – Dave Grohl. The Holocaust is a terrible event that happened in our world’s history. It’s an event so sickening that some people would rather erase the Holocaust from their minds. Even though the Holocaust was a horrendous event, the knowledge and the history of it still needs to be continued. It’s a very defining part of our history and for some it’s a defining part of their lives. This brings up the dilemma of how the knowledge, history, and reality of the Holocaust should be passed down to future generations. Some argue that the
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.
Thousands of people were sent to concentration camps during World War Two, including Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel. Many who were sent to the concentration camps did not survive but those who did tried to either forgot the horrific events that took place or went on to tell their personal experiences to the rest of the world. Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi wrote memoirs on their time spent in the camps of Auschwitz; these memoirs are called ‘Night’ and ‘Survival in Auschwitz’. These memoirs contain similarities of what it was like for a Jew to be in a concentration camp but also portray differences in how each endured the daily atrocities of that around them. Similarities between Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi’s memoirs can be seen in the proceedings that
As the Jews first went into the ghetto, it was scandalous to see a little lass shouting ‘goodbye Jews’ her right to be heard could still be heard in the after that view. This showed how much she had been unfair by Hitler’s cant.