The Holocaust :: essays research papers

"If we were not an eternal people before, we are an eternal people after the Holocaust, in both its very positive and very negative sense. We have not only survived, we have revived ourselves. In a very real way, we have won. We were victorious. But in a very real way, we have lost. We'll never recover what was lost. We can't assess what was lost. Who knows what beauty and grandeur six million could have contributed to the world? Who can measure it up? What standard do you use? How do you count it? How do you estimate it...? We lost. The world lost, whether they know it or admit it. It doesn't make any difference. And yet we won, we're going on." This quote is from the testimony of Fania Fenelon. The signs and symptoms that are among the Jews because of the Holocaust definitely characterize abnormality. These abnormalities include the physical effects, the spiritual effects, and the second generation. The physical effects were enormous among the Jews. The conditions of the camps defy description. The nutrition was worse than inadequate and the results being the well-known "musselmen": skeletons covered by skin. After the Jews in prison camps were freed, their diseases were treated as well as could be treated. Premature aging was one of the most prominent disabling effects of survivors. Digestive tract diseases were also very common because of the emotional disturbances and inadequate diet during their incarceration. The experience also placed them at risk of coronary diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and arteriosclerosis. All of this was consistent with the premature aging and the atrophy of the heart muscle due to the extreme undernourishment during captivity. Spiritual concerns also followed the survivors of the Holocaust. The Jews had to face up to one of the most painful realities of all...What it means to be a Jew. They had to decide whether or not to remain a Jew. The Holocaust had threatened the Jewish people near extinction. A anger directed towards the Non-Jewish world was intense because they had been persecuted by Gentiles. The Holocaust had caused an apparently irreversible rupture in the Jewish-Christian relations. Jews felt and still feel enraged because their expectations of a decent world were shattered into pieces by the most, supposedly, civilized people in the world. "Where was God?" wrote Elie Wiesel, a question asked many times among the Jews. They felt