Survivor's Guilt In The Holocaust

Events that occur randomly and that are traumatic can take a toll on all aspects of an individual that endure them, what if an individual were in a gruesome situation and the lives of human beings were lost under their unintentional control? How would they feel for the rest of their lifetime? In the article “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt” by Nancy Sherman, she describes the emotional reality of soldiers in their home are often at odds with the civilian public, and are struggling to carry the burden of feeling responsible of traumatic situations. Survivor’s guilt is the bold feeling that survivors have after a tragic event taking place when others have passed away. Soldiers in battle experience losses during combat. They will have a subjective

People endure hardships every day, but it is how they choose to react to them that is most important. One such hardship was the Holocaust, which was the murdering of millions of people at the Nazi concentration camps throughout the course of WWII. Eleven million Jews, homosexuals, and gypsies were killed during this genocide. Every survivor of these concentration camps was forced to decide between hiding or vocalizing the crimes they had seen committed, and many couldn’t find the strength to speak up. Thankfully, there were those such as Elie Wiesel, who didn’t rest.

I have always had this odd fascination with the Holocaust. I don’t have a familial history attached to it or anything, yet I’ve still felt connected to it. My first encounter with the Holocaust was in elementary school. A Ukrainian Jew, a survivor of the Holocaust, came into my classroom and talked with the students through a translator. What I remember most clearly is when he mentioned every nationality that he met while in a concentration camp: Russians, Slovaks, Germans, Polish, the list goes on and on. It was when he was listing these places that we no longer needed the translator to understand him. We knew what he was saying. I’ve never understood why this memory has been stuck in my mind for so long. But, our trip to Poland and Greece has given me an idea as to why this memory has stuck with me for over a decade.

Guilt is an emotion that comes from believing one was responsible for a particular mistake whether the assessment was accurate or not. (Powell)It can be described as “a bothered conscience” or “a feeling of culpability for offences”. One feels guilty when there is a feeling of responsibility for an action one regrets. (Barker, Guilt and Shame).A wrongdoer must deal with guilt by making atonement- by making reparation and penance. How a person deals with guilt long term is what really affects their future.

A living corpse Do you think the holocaust could happen again? Do you think if people aren 't aware of history that it can repeat self? If people aren 't aware of what happened in the holocaust and how horrific it was, then people wouldn 't know what to do if it happened again and people wouldn 't know how to prevent it from happening again. This memoir points out the worst parts of a personal experience of Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor.

In the world today, there are good kind hearted people, and there are also individuals who have immoral ulterior motives. But, to truly gain an insightful view of the person is to regard their actions under extreme conditions and pressure. While Elie Wiesel suffers during the Holocaust in his memoir Night, he witnesses the actions—whether good or bad, of the people he meets, and their motives that were never forgotten, as displayed in the novel. Since the Holocaust was an extreme event that caused pressure to make the right decisions, and suffer by the hands of the Nazis, or to act with neglect to the victims and be ridden with guilt, it can be said many Holocaust victims suffered, and some of the bystanders noticed and took action. One such

“The time has come… you must leave all this…”(Wiesel 16) They had to leave all their belongings behind believing one day they would be back, but in the reality of the holocaust it was most likely they would never be back. In a way when they left all their belongings behind , but they also left many of their stories, identities but biggest of all their soul. Of course being in the ghetto was a horrible experience but none of them imagined that only the worst was yet to come . After being in the Ghetto for a short period of time they had to be transported in the trains to the concentration camps.

Survivor guilt...mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong. I feel like survivor’s of life and death situations should not feel guilty. Survivor’s of life and death situations should not feel guilt because they didn’t do anything. But, we should not forget that some people believe survivor’s should feel guilt. My opinion on it is survivor’s should not feel guilty in a situation.

Elie Wiesel and his family made the decision to not bear witness for many reasons, but in the end they came to regret it. His way of making sure that others do not make the same mistake was through his memoir Night. The only thing thing that came from The Holocaust are the lessons we learn from it. This is why it is essential for people to bear witness at all times. History tries to repeat itself.

When asking anyone what the Holocaust is, there is a very standard answer as to what it was. It is infamously known as the mass killings and imprisonment of Jewish people throughout most of Western Europe. What people fail to acknowledge is that there is more to the Holocaust than this “standard answer.” There have been multiple accounts of what it was like to be in the Holocaust such as the famous books The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Night by Elie Wiesel. The memoir A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Thomas Buergenthal serves the same purpose as any text about this atrocity has served: to inform the public about what truly went on in the concentration camps and beyond.

One person could be the difference of 1,000 lives. The Holocaust now serves as a time to learn what can happen and how innocent people can be hurt over something that could have been avoid. It serves as a time to not repeat our mistakes. It shows us the consequences of the action of others. Most of all it’s initial to ask ourselves about the lessons we learn because even though we say that the Holocaust won’t ever occur again, it still is, all over the

These survivors who experienced this event, have been scarred for the rest of their life. We can listen to their stories but we can’t imagine and experienced what they have gone through. For example, Szymon Binke, Hilma Geffen, and Baker Ella, were the survivors of the Holocaust. Szymon Binke was born in 1931 in Poland, his family moved to the city after the Nazi’s invasion. Nazis deported his family to Auschwitz where his mother and sister were gassed, while, Szymon was placed in Kinder block but after sometime he ran away to meet his family in Auschwitz.

Of all the terrible events in history, the Holocaust may be the worst of them all. This tragedy was so terrible, I cannot think of the ones who instigated it as human beings. It was against many morals and standards that the world views today as common ethics. The most terrible part of this is, perhaps, how today’s new and younger generations are not sufficiently educated about this disaster. Although many younger generations do not know about the Holocaust, it’s importance should be emphasised in today’s society to learn from it, to realize that every human life is important, and to appreciate the blessings of the present day.

Aristotle wrote, “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light (Aristotle)”. The Holocaust was one of the darkest times humanity has ever seen. A machination brewed by an extraordinarily perverse man that resulted in the deaths of millions, and robbed millions more of their faith and hope. Families were torn apart, towns were destroyed, and humanity lost, all to satisfy one man’s extreme racism and psychotic agenda. If however, one only chooses to focus on the darkness, they might overlook the light, specifically in the two stories of boys who survived against all odds and shared their tales years after defying death.

Finding a Path to be Good Again Guilt is an emotion of a sinner, but guilt is not an emotion of evil. In fact, guilt is only felt by a conscientious individual who is aware of doing wrong, and through this strange emotion, people learn what wrong is. Therefore, guilt can be an emotion of opportunity to fix wrong if responded in the right way. However guilt can also intimidate as it is a forceful emotion that haunts people when it is not dealt with.