There were 2.7-3.6 million Holocaust survivors. These people experienced something that was largely thought to be eradicated – mass genocide. They watched their friends, their family, everyone they know dies. They experienced inconceivable situations. In the novel Night and a paper Do Wounds Ever Heal? the fact that the Holocaust had immense psychological effects on the Jewish people is expressed by the traumatic experiences in concentration camps and the drastic change in the behavior of holocaust survivors.
The novel Night shows the fact that the Holocaust had immense psychological effects because of the traumatic experiences that many experienced such as public hangings, extreme starvation, and the complete disregard of human life. The novel Night is an autobiography of Elie Wiesel’s experience in the concentration camps. Throughout the story, he experiences many traumatic events. One example of a traumatic event is a public hanging. Their Nazi captors called everyone to watch the hanging of several people, including a young boy. “That night, the soup tasted of corpses” (Wiesel 65). This quote shows his growing feeling of guilt as if he was the cause of their deaths. This shows the immense psychological effects of the Holocaust because he felt so guilty about their deaths that he thought he was the cause. Another traumatic event that occurred was when Elie Wiesel and his father were transferred to a different concentration camp. “We stayed in Gleiwitz for 3 days. Days without food or water” (Wiesel 95).
This is an extremely traumatic event because after multiple days, the human body begins to hallucinate and their bodies are completely messed up. Starvation also causes people to do whatever is necessary to survive. After being starved for multiple days on a train, people were resorting to violence. “They jumped him. Others joined in. When they withdrew, there were two dead bodies next to me… I was 16” (Wiesel 102). At 16 years old, he witnessed two men die right in front of his eyes. Childhood trauma typically stays with people for the rest of their lives, and these are some examples of traumatic experiences that damaged the Jewish people psychologically.
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The paper Do Wounds Ever Heal? Shows the fact that the Holocaust had immense psychological effects because of drastic changes in behavior post-Holocaust. One of the major behavioral changes in Holocaust survivors is the constant remembrance of death. After witnessing someone’s death, they would continue to relive the experience, replaying the event in their dreams (Douillard 4). For example, after Elie Wiesel witnessed the public hanging, the image was probably burned into his mind forever, never being able to forget. Another behavioral change in Holocaust survivors is something called “Survivor’s Guilt”. This is when a survivor of a traumatic event that left many people to die feels guilty for surviving, while others died (Douillard 5). This was a very common feeling among Holocaust survivors, as many of them lost everyone in their old life, their children, their parents, their spouses. In extreme cases of survivor’s guilt, it could push them to suicide. Another behavioral change in the Holocaust survivors is the inability to experience emotion. Due to the cruel conditions in concentration camps, if one were to dwell on their emotions, they wouldn’t be able to survive (Douillard 6). After they were liberated, some continued to shut out emotions. Regular people became emotionless creatures. This shows major behavior changes since many people’s personality completely changed. These are very substantial long-lasting psychological effects.
The novel Night and the paper Do Wounds Ever Heal? shows that the Holocaust had immense psychological effects on the Jewish people because they experienced many traumatic events and their behavior changed drastically. The Holocaust completely changed a generation and will continue to affect future generations. The events they experienced are indescribable, and inconceivable for most. Despite the common belief that these sort of events no longer happen, there are still numerous mass genocides, such as the Rwandan genocide in 1995. It’s been nearly 90 years since the Holocaust, and it’s important to listen to the trauma and the stories, to make sure this sort of event never happens again.
