The Holocaust

The Holocaust was a tragic event 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 lucky 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 thoughts.

All of the people that were in the holocaust were very sad. They did not have there families. They saw there families burned before there very eyes. Babies, children, mothers, fathers, just about anything living was killed. Survivors were also affected spiritually. Many Jewish people after the Holocaust were deeply wounded with the thought that during their time of need they had to walk alone. "Where was God?" "Did God let this happen?" were all questions that needed to be asked after the Holocaust. His silence raised questions about the reality of a God. They had thought that God had let them down. That they for some reason might have done something to make him some how mad. To this day no one really knows why he didn't do anything. All we could have done as they did is pray. The unanswered questions forced many to no longer believe, and lose the faith they had been following because of feelings of betrayal and neglect. For these survivors there is no God. What about the child survivors who were so young that when it all ended they had forgot their religion all together? They had no one to answer their questions or guide them on a spiritual path.

According to studies researched in this paper, there are five main categories of Survivor syndrome. The first is the Death imprint, which is the idea of not only death itself, but of all forms of torture and gruesome images of death. For many survivors they can recall the smell of smoke and the voices of the tortured. Some survivors are trapped in time; mentally they are unable to escape the torture that they had witnessed. In other words, they are unable to move beyond the imagery and are stuck in time. The survivors are mentally scarred with images they can never escape or share. The inability to sleep or work is a direct consequence of what they endured in the death camps. The second category is where the guilt of death is found. Here is where the survivors feels remorse for the loved ones they had lost and ask "why them and not me". The survivor remembers feeling helpless at times of need, "why didn't I resist" or "how could I have saved someone." The survivor can not escape the feeling of debt to the lost and feels guilty. Some survivors have been known to feel guiltier about the Holocaust then the actual Perpetrators . Guilt is the most common feeling among survivors and is passed to children each generation. To cope with this guilt there are many support groups that are opening doors wide for the Jewish people to come and be set free from the needless guilt. Yet many survivors have shut themselves out from the rest of the world and have lived lives of solitude because the guilt is too much for any one person to carry. This guilt is a direct cause of the Holocaust and