Catastrophes and Stress

The Holocaust which was one of many of the controversial events that have happened in the history of our world demonstrated a significant amount of cruelty and dehumanization. Because of such a controversial event, many have suffered through physical and unfortunately psychological upheaval and distress. With previous knowledge and novels’ read on the Holocaust, it came to be known that the event was triggered through obedience and conformity due to the not specifically the Germans’ beliefs of anti-Semitic and propaganda, but more of leader Adolf Hitler. The time of the Holocaust was used to dehumanize which enhanced the understanding of mental health and human psychology. During the Holocaust, many psychological principles affected individuals forever. The principles include groupthink and of course knowing the outcome of the event. Such principles sooner explain the reality of life because it stresses how individuals react due to their past experiences like the Holocaust and most importantly how traumatic events build them as who they are today.  Innocent Jews went through starvation, terrible working conditions, and the elimination of race through torture such as gas chambers. Furthermore, the history of this controversial event is now being used to be alert of the health and wellness of those who have gone through such events that sooner change their behavior and mentality for the better or even worse.

Inaction will sometimes lead to guilt. In the novel, Night by Elie Wiesel; Wiesel, a young adolescent, experienced the torture of concentration camps during WWII. Upon arrival families were separated - men to one side, women on the other; some never saw their families again. Elie and his father lives’ were based on surviving as one. Although his daily existence was focused on his father’s survival, occasionally the idea of surviving only for himself was much more appealing, That idea was so promising that from time to time, Elie faltered in protecting his father, immediately after Ellie felt very guilty. There were times in the camp were Elie couldn’t do anything because he was afraid. The camps filled Elie with fear and with fear comes the guilt of not doing anything.

Eventually, the victims were sent into gas chambers to be killed. Individuals allowed this to happen, but why? Learned Helpless, Social Identity theory, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are psychological concepts that prove why individuals allow human atrocities to happen.

Sorscher and Cohen (1997) define a Holocaust survivor as a Jew born in Europe who experienced the Holocaust either in hiding, in under-ground resistance, as a refugee, or in concentration or forced labor camps. Survivors of Nazi Persecution, also known as SNPs, are well described under the broad heading of the Concentration Camp Syndrome, or CCS (Sigal, Silver, Rakoff & Ellin, 1973). After the war, survivors experienced an overwhelming amount of traumatic episodes, with some of the symptoms increasing, as they grew older. Survivors exhibited chronic depression with obsessional thoughts of past events, anxiety,

People that survived the Holocaust were optimistic and/or hid but today most are guilty. They have guilt in them because they survived while others were dying amongst them.Surviving World War II meant freedom but many did not get to that point, unfortunately. They were brutally murdered or died either from working too much , starvation, and/ or diseases that spread like wildfire. Unbelievably, smells from the gas chambers, where victims were poisoned with gasses, are still present at concentration camps locations . Many survivors have never been able to get over this horrific event that took place because of the terrifying memories from the camps. Memories of how ruthlessly people were being killed, disgusting food, and the hard work, haunt

survive. People will usually not feel the effects of guilt or pain at that moment in time because it was for their own sake to live. During the Holocaust, everybody thought they were going to die in the concentration camps, that death was inevitable in the camps, so surviving alongside their family members or by themselves as much as they could was the end goal. Many people changed mentally and physically because of what they experienced during their time in the camps, which could be the cause of some regrettable actions that could have been prevented if the person did not experience such brutal treatment by the Nazis. In Night by Elie Wiesel, the author writes

As part of the human coping mechanism, people hope that life can return to normal after a traumatic event. This is rarely the case, however. Many prisoners released from concentration camps continued to suffer after being released. In the report “Multigenerational Perspectives on Coping with the Holocaust Experience” written by Dan Bar-On et al, numerous studies are cited that support the claim that the Holocaust left a lasting effect on its victims, causing marital problems, anxiety, depression, and other personality disorders. The authors cite a correlation between the concept of the “conspiracy of silence,” the survivors’ perceived need to forget and move on from their traumatic past and the prolonged emotional and behavioral effects of the Holocaust

When many think of the Holocaust as a solely negative experience, and while it may seem easy to write the event off as a dark time in history that seems remote and unlikely to affect us today, there are some positive results, including the lessons that it brings for current and future humanity. The lessons that the Holocaust brings are applicable to every person in the world. While many of these lessons do focus on the negative aspects of the Holocaust, like what circumstances permit such a vast genocide and how many people can die because of widespread racial hatred, there are also those that focus on how some people, in all parts of Europe and throughout the world, retained their good human nature during the Holocaust. For example, what made some gentiles in Europe during that time willing and able to help Jews. Currently, Yad Vashem has recognized 26,513 rescuers throughout the world (Names), and the actual number of rescuers could likely be close to twice that amount (Baron,1). It is important that we analyze the reasons behind these rescuers’ choices to be upstanders instead of bystanders because we can learn about our own motivations when we face decisions between helping others and protecting ourselves, and possibly those we love, from harm. Fulfilling one’s self-interest was a potential motivation for helping Jews that will only be briefly addressed. This type of rescue potentially benefitted both the Jews and the Gentile rescuers; these Gentiles only helped Jews survive because they found personal gain, likely social or economic, in the action (Baron). However, in the situation that existed while rescuing the Jews, most efforts included the high possibility that both the rescuer and the rescued would end up worse off than they had begun with no potential for personal gain on either side. So those rescuers’ motivations are less easily explainable.

The Holocaust was the systematic killing and extermination of millions of Jews and other Europeans by the German Nazi state between 1939 and 1945. Innocent Europeans were forced from their homes into concentration camps, executed violently, and used for medical experiments. The Nazis believed their acts against this innocent society were justified when hate was the motivating factor. The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping on a society. It forces societies to examine the responsibility and role of citizenship, in addition to approaching the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction. (Holden Congressional Record). Despite the adverse treatment of the Jews, there are lessons that can be learned from the Holocaust: The Nazi’s rise to power could have been prevented, the act of genocide was influenced by hate, and the remembrance of the Holocaust is of the utmost importance for humanity.

The Nazis killed over six million Jews and millions of other Polish and Soviet civilians in the Holocaust. They also killed gypsies, physically and mentally disabled people and homosexuals. The number of survivors today are quickly dwindling down. Clinical psychologist Natan Kellermann defines a Holocaust survivor as any Jew who lived under Nazi occupation and was threatened by the “final solution” (Kellermann 199). This definition can be applied to not only Jews, but to anyone in general whose life was threatened by the Nazis. When these survivors were liberated, they believed the suffering was over, but for many, this wasn’t the case. The trauma of the horrors they faced is still evident in their life. By analyzing the effects of post traumatic stress disorder after the Holocaust, readers can see that the aftermath of the Holocaust is still prevalent in the survivor’s everyday life; This is important to show that while the trauma may not be overcome, the survivor can be more at peace with the events.

The Holocaust is widely known as one of the most horrendous and disturbing events in history that the world has seen; over six million lives were lost, in fact the total number of deceased during the Holocaust has never been determined. The footage of concentration camps and gas chambers left the world in utter shock, but photos and retellings of the events cannot compare to being a victim of the Holocaust and living through the horror that the rest of the world regarded in the safety of their homes. Elie Wiesel recognized the indifference that the

A quote from Albert Einstein states “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”. As difficult as it is to describe the terrible deeds of those who were part of the Holocaust, it is true that those who did nothing are at fault just as much as those who carried out the actions. When one thinks of the Holocaust today it is difficult to picture that such events were done by human beings. Societies have advanced but it is important to acknowledge the reason as to why many bystanders refused to help or why they were so indifferent to the pain felt by the Jews. “The psychological mechanisms used to come to terms with the suffering of another appear to be very similar, whether the person is standing right before us or is 2,000 miles away. (Barnet:118) Barnett explains that ideological and moral principles also come into play, as do self-interest and the weighing of the possible consequences of our actions. We try to establish what is or is not possible. In the end, our decision will be determined not so much by whether we actually have the power to change a situation, but whether we have the will to do so. (Barnett, 118). In the case of many of the individuals who chose to become bystanders rather than change the situation they were not willing to get involved. Although not every German was a bystander, those who

Human beings always try to hang on to their basic human instincts of compassion, caring and a general sense of forgiveness. As humans no matter the situation we may find ourselves in we always try to stick to our good-natured instincts. As we see in a number of occasions a person suffers tremendously yet they do not seem to lose their humanity. In her essay, Holocaust Literature: Fragments of Life and Language the author, Sheena Gillespien, talks about how anything is possible, nothing is beyond the compacity of a human being to carry out. The author says that although we cannot comprehend the extent of the evil done during the second world war, we can only imagine it from the documentation that did survive.

“The fact is they know I went through hell.” -Professor Bacharach, Holocaust Survivor. Ever since many centuries ago, Jewish people were treated unfairly and unjustly according to their religion and characteristics. The Holocaust was a fearful and painful genocide because of anti-semitism throughout European countries. Up to six million Jews died in the harrowing genocide, along with the death of many other religious and ethnical groups ("Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution"). As much as a fraction of the number of Jews survived. With much grief and sorrow during the Holocaust, the survivors had to suffer the emotional and physical trauma after the event. Survivors had to face the reality of rebuilding their lives after the

When one cannot deal with guilt within oneself, the feeling of guilt can be transferred to affect another. Art struggles throughout his life to understand why he never had a great relationship with his father. After trying to write with no luck, Art heads to his regular appointment with Pavel, another Holocaust survivor. Pavel suggests that maybe “(Vladek) took his guilt out on YOU, where it was safe… on the REAL survivor.” (7, p 44) Vladek felt guilty about surviving the Holocaust, but instead of accepting it,