We Must Remember That Night
By Natan Zeichner
Athens, Georgia

When the shackles were finally broken upon the liberation of the Death Camps, and the few who managed to cling to life were freed (it is estimated that one in twenty-eight survived), the starved, tortured, and sick individuals were cursed with numerous physical ailments. They suffered from diseases such as dysentery, kidney disorders, typhoid, aggravated heart conditions, infections, and malnutrition related disorders to name a few. In many cases, these ailments proved to have chronic effects on the victims and it took years to rectify these medical conditions. However, if chronicity of physical infirmity may not have been the worry of the moment, the liberated had to confront many acute dangers as well. Elie Wiesel revealed in Night that immediately after his liberation, he suffered from food poisoning and was dangling between life and death (Wiesel 109). Others, with their digestive systems ravaged by disease and malnutrition, suffered acute medical crises and, sometimes death, upon eating large quantities of food. No less devastating were the effects of the interface between the physical and mental traumas. For example, research reports indicate that Holocaust survivors suffer higher levels of chronic pain, have more pain sites, experience more depression, and utilize more medical services (Yaari, Eisenberg, Adler, and Birkhan 181). Thus, the long-term medical symptoms appear to be a result of interaction between physical and mental processes in Holocaust survivors. Yet, even if the victim escaped long-lasting physical consequences, no survivor appeared to avoid the emotional scars caused by the horror of genocide.

To begin to understand the grave psychological impact of the Holocaust on its survivors, I must try to imagine myself as a prisoner in a Death Camp. The concentration camps were erected to fulfill only one aim: The annihilation of the Jewish Nation. Before achieving this heinous goal, the physical destruction of the inmate was preceded by the psychological destruction of the Self. To that aim, the newcomer to the Camp was faced with altered norms for conduct and survival, with situations fraught with cynical and macabre interactions with those who oversaw the Camp and their executioners, in a fearsome and horrific surreal world. Weeping, for oneself or others, or saying Kaddish, the prayer for the deceased (Wiesel 31), may have been the few meaningful attempts made by the victims to survive, for "they had the courage to suffer" (Frankl 100). The Nazis stripped away the identity of their prey by taking away personal objects, watches, hair, clothes, and even shoes. The inmates were robbed of their name and, deprived of it, they became e119104, or A-7713, or the bearer of any other blue tattooed number. Consequently, while a victim was once a person, a professional, a family member, a holder of many social roles, the radically altered norms of the Camp thrust the victim into the abyss of personal void. Indeed, the physical punishment did not ravage the victims as much as their psychological annihilation. In fact, when the magical hour of liberation finally came, the rescued were thrust into a dreamlike state of freedom that they could not comprehend (Bluhm 96). Despite the numerous attempts by the Nazis to conquer the human individual they were not always successful. Those who survived are said to have held on to the purpose for living. Yet, in search for meaning, while some survived, others died. To give one’s life for another was one way to give death a meaning. As such, in an ironic and sad manner, the Id-based instinct for survival was replaced by finding meaning in death. Alas, when the persecuted lost his identity, his Self, and the meaning for life, emotional and physical death often followed (Frankl 97).

The life-maintaining promise of meaning and purpose while in the Camps, was to clash with reality upon liberation. The loved ones whom the survivors hoped to be reunited with were long gone. Their children, emblematic of a future, were heartlessly murdered like all the others. Life as free men seemed meaningless. Moreover, it was a life lived with guilt, the survivor’s guilt for having made it while their loved ones perished. Society outside the Camp complied with different norms and enjoyed a reality that was alien to the former inmate. It can be said that the survivors were traumatized by the Holocaust suffered additional trauma upon their liberation. Consequently, depression, suicide, and many symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) became the lot of the liberated (Favaro, Rodella, Colombo, Santonastaso 87). Nightmares, emotional numbing, memory and concentration problems, physical symptoms, irritability, and more are the legacies of the trauma. Indeed, its reaches are far and widespread. Survivors, their offspring, and others are still affected by the horror. Some suppress their experiences and do not talk much about them. Others may have exposed their families to the horrors of the Camps vicariously. Regretfully, greater prevalence of PTSD is seen in second-generation families of survivors (Baranowsky, Young, Johnson-Douglas, Williams-Keeler, and McCarrey 247). Names such as Auschwitz, Dachau, or Buchenwald still curdle the blood of many today. Movies such as "Life is Beautiful" spur controversy and pain in many who cannot accept the depiction of even a small slice of the Holocaust from an unusual, and some say irreverent, perspective. Indeed, the consequences of the Holocaust proved to be eternal for the survivors.

The extent of the horror and the depth of the Holocaust’s impact are of such magnitude that I can only attempt to understand it in its bizarre and inhumane context. The human toll was unthinkable. As the bodies lay in tatters, the human spirit was searching for salvation. Balm was found in death with meaning or life in search of it. I am perplexed at the horror wrought by my fellow humans. The impact unabated, is a constant reminder to me that the Holocaust was the modern technological expression of an ancient sentiment against the Jewish People. We must never forget that night for as dawn rose over the liberated Death Camps a flame of human resurrection was kindled. This flame now burns strong and is strengthened by every tale told of the horror. Alas, as the last survivors begin to fade away, the flame’s brightness is threatened. It is up to my generation to keep the flame lit, thus, never allowing night to fall again.

Works Cited

Baranowski, Anna, B., Marta Young, Sue Johnson-Douglas, Lyn Williams-Keeler, and Michael

McCarrey. "PTSD" Transmission: A Review of Secondary Traumatization in Holocaust

Survivor Families." Canadian Psychology 39 (1998): 247-256.

Bluhm, Hilde O. "How did They Survive? mechanisms of Defense in Nazi Concentration Camps." American Journal of Psychotherapy 53 (1999): 96-122.

Favaro, Angela, F. C. Rodella, G. Colombo, and P. Santonastaso. "Post-traumatic Stress

Disorder and Major Depression among Italian Nazi Concentration Camp Survivors: A

Controlled Study 50 Years Later." Psychological Medicine 29 (1999): 87-95.

Frankl, Victor. Man’s Search for Meaning. New York: Pocket Books, 1984.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. Trans. Stella Rodway. 25^th edition. New York: Bantam, 1986.

Yaari, Ariela, Elon Eisenberg, Rivka Adler, and Jesmond Birkhan. "Chronic Pain in Holocaust

Survivors." Journal of Pain & Symptom Management 17 (1999): 181-187.