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Lana West

English 8-2
Mr. Biegel
12 November 2009

The Holocaust: Aftermath Many Have Missed

“Honor the dead, but mistrust the living.” This phrase was whispered throughout the

concentration camps and ghettos during, and after, the Holocaust. The death rate was

huge; approximately ten million. It had many crippling effects on the human race, and

questioned the trust people had in their country. The Holocaust clearly had the most

damaging effects on the human mind in history.

In 1945, the Holocaust ended. Many people thought that the liberation of the camps

and ghettos would solve all their problems. Millions hoped in vain that life would go

back to the way it was. But, after such a traumatic event, this would prove to be

impossible. For many, some of the hardest times lay ahead. When the survivors

integrated back into society after the war, they found it very hard to adjust. It was made

difficult by the fact that they often aroused unclear feelings of fear, avoidance, guilt,

shame, and hesitation. For the things that they had been through, this was perfectly

normal. Many survivors described themselves as incapable of living life to the fullest, as

a result of barely being able to perform basic tasks such as setting a table, brushing their

hair, or even using a fork and knife to cut meat. Most survivors realized how completely

they had been isolated after they regained physical and physiological stability.
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The challenges faced after the Holocaust differed from person to person. The

challenges, believe it or not, depended greatly on the survivors’ life before the Holocaust

began. The adjustments and coping mechanisms used by survivors were affected by the

aspects of their childhood experiences, developmental histories, family constellations,

and emotional family bonds. For example, if you were very close to your mother, and

during the Holocaust she died, it would be harder for you to accept the fact and move on

compared to someone who wasn’t. After the liberation of the camps, many were left

without knowing whether or not their family or friends were alive. They would wander

around aimlessly, looking for a familiar face, listening for a voice calling their name.

Seeing this, the government took it upon themselves to try and help. They set up a few

Displaced Persons’ Camps, hoping that families and friends would be reunited. These

camps helped many, but devastated even more. The thing that pulled many people

through the hardest of times were the thoughts and memories of family members, friends,

and loved ones. There was much relief when they were reunited. But, many people just

seemed to ‘disappear.’ Some were never heard of again. Survivors went to Displaced

Persons’ Camps looking for not only the ones they wished to find, but for a sense of

relief. Instead, many found anguish, despair, and a deep sense of loss that had not been

experienced before. It is much better to know that someone is dead than never knowing

what became of them. These people would now be searching for the rest of their lives,

even if they didn’t realize it.

Because the traumatization of the Holocaust was both individual and collective, most

people made efforts to create a “new family” to replace the nuclear family that had been
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lost. Women who had lost their own children would take in children who had lost their

parents.