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were treated like animals; they were fed scraps and forced to live in filthy conditions.  In reality, most people generally treat animals much better than the way the prisoners were treated during the Holocaust.  Both Night and The Story of Blima high[4] light the affect this had on the prisoner’s sense of self-worth.  In The Story of Blima, Blima is a woman around the age of twenty who was captured by the Nazis and is taken to Grunberg.  She is alone without her family and has no idea what is going on.  During one of [5] Blima’s first nights in the camp the author writes “In one hand she holds a whip; in the other there is a leash attached to a large German shepherd she calls Otto.  A dog is given a name, I think, but we ourselves are but numbers.”  This quote refers to the guard and the dog she keeps with her.  While the guard is brutal to the prisoners of the [6] camp, she treats the dog with love and often feeds it better than the prisoners are fed.  The prisoners are forced to witness this treatment and realize that the Nazis not only don’t view them as equal humans but also respect animals more than them.  A similar situation can be noted in Night.  Although there is no specific example of the Nazis treating an animal better, there is decline in the prisoner’s self-worth as a result of the treatment they receive while inside the camps and this is shown when Wiesel writes “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed….Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.”[7]   This is an example from Night after Elie’s first night in Auschwitz.  It shows the way the treatment the prisoners received made them feel after only one night in the camp.  Throughout the book, guards would randomly beat the prisoners senseless for enjoyment or watch them fight each other to the death for food.  They treated them as though they were circus creatures.  The prisoner’s suffering was the guard’s entertainment.  The Nazis looked down on the Jews and this caused them to eventually feel like less of a person.  The decl[8] ine in self-worth among the prisoners was a major effect of the Holocaust.

I took a very large inte[9] rest in the topic of the Holocaust after first learning of it in school.  It amazed me how something so huge and terrible ever managed to take place.  All of the books I’ve read during my research for this paper have been centered around the Holocaust and the effects it had on its prisoners.  Many of the sources are personal biographies of Holocaust survivors that are sharing the story of their experience with the world.  A major trend in all of the sources is the change of attitude and personality from the time before entering the camps to the time when the survivors are liberated.  Many people know of the Holocaust and that millions were killed as a result, but not many people know what other effects were caused.  The purpose of the question I posed it to demonstrate one of those major effects.  Although there were numerous survivors, nobody completely survived the Holocaust.  A part of every person involved in the Holocaust died during the events that they were forced to endure.  Nobody came out the same way as they were before it all began.

As with every topic, th[10] ere will be people who are uninterested in this research.  One group of people that may feel this way would be the few people who believe the Holocaust never really took place.  Because they feel the Holocaust was an occurrence that was completely made up, they would have no interest in any research I have composed.  They would conclude it all to be fake just as they imagine the Holocaust to be.  There would also be those who would view my research as boring and irrelevant because it took place so long ago.  I, myself, find it to be a fascinating topic as history does tend to repeat itself and I like to be informed as much as possible on major historical events.

 

Annotated Bibliography

Boom, Corrie Ten, Elizabeth Sherrill, and John Sherrill. The Hiding Place. Grand

Rapids, MI: Chosen, 1971. Print.

Corrie Ten Boom wrote the book The Hiding Place and had it published in 1971.

The book is about Corrie and her family throughout the Holocaust.  They themselves were not Jews, but they helped hide Jews from the Nazis and after being caught by a spy, were sent to camps. At first they are put into a camp with easy work, but are later transported to a much more rigorous camp.  Corrie ends up being the only member of her family to survive.

This book is a good example to prove that Jews were not the only people affected by the Holocaust and I will be able to use examples from this book when writing my paper.  It also shows the different levels of rigor in different camps and I will be able to use examples of this to discuss how people from different camps could’ve been affected differently.

Cole, Tim. “Crematoria, Barracks, Gateway.” History & Memory 25.2 (2013): 102-131.

            Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Aug. 2014.

“Crematoria, Battacks, Gateway” is an online article written by Tim Cole that was published in 2013.

The articles discusses the affects that revisiting the crematoria and barracks have on survivors and their family members.  Different people’s experiences and emotions are shared throughout the article as the author interviewed them.  Many people reported it as being a difficult experience but also very helpful in the sense that it allowed them to move on and it gave the children of survivors a better understanding of what happened and made them feel closer to their parents.  The importance of these return visits and what it does emotionally for the visitors is also highlighted throughout the article.

This article could be helpful to my research as it discusses how the Holocaust made its survivors feel and what kind of effect that then had on the families of survivors.  The author did extensive research and interviews over Holocaust survivors and their family members which proved the article with lots of solid examples and references.  This article would be helpful to me when discussing how survivors tried to overcome some of the effects the Holocaust had on them.

Cosman, Ioana. “Remembering the Holocaust: Dreams During and After a Long

Traumatic Experience.” Philobiblon: Transylvanian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Humanities 18.1 (2013): 116-126. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Aug. 2014.

“Remembering the Holocaust: Dreams During and After a Long Traumatic Experience” is an academic journal article published in the Transylvanian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Humanities and written by Ioana Cosman.

This article shows the research done on a study that tested for correlation between the prisoners’ dreams and their experience during the Holocaust.  It compares the differences between prisoners’ dreams who were in the camps for longer amounts of time than others.  The article also briefly discusses the behavior of many survivors and how it affected their dreams, for example how many survivors tried to avoid all material that would remind them of their experiences during the Holocaust.

The author worked in the department of psychology at a university and conducted a study to figure out the correlation between dreams of survivors and their experience during the Holocaust.  This article will be useful when discussing the effects the Holocaust had on its survivors because it shows the way the survivors’ lives were affected even after being freed.  It provides a proven example of the way the prisoners of the Holocaust would be permanently changed due to their experience.  I can use this article as proof that many survivors were unable to recover from the Holocaust because they were haunted by nightmares and memories constantly.

Isaacs, Anne. Torn Thread. New York, NY: Scholastic, 2000. Print.

Torn Thread is a book published in New York by Scholastic in 2000 and written by Anne Isaacs.

Eva is only twelve years old when she enters the labor camp, and she does it to take care of her sick sister who has been captured by the Nazis during a raid.  Her father arranges for Eva to be sent to the camp because he thinks it will be safer than in the ghetto.  She and her sister sew blankets and uniforms for the soldiers every day.  The book discusses the hardships in the camp and how the girls barely survived.  The epilogue discusses Eva’s life after being freed from the camp.

While the book contains information regarding the Holocaust, it isn’t all relevant to my research topic.  The book focuses more on how scared Eva was and the tough choices her father had to make in order to keep his daughters alive.  There are definitely many examples of how the people in the story are affected but not necessarily of how the Holocaust affected their sense of self-worth.

Jacobs, Janet. “Sites of Terror and the Role of Memory in Shaping Identity Among First                           Generation Descendants of the Holocaust.” Qualitative Sociology 37.1 (2014): 27-42.                    Business Source Complete. Web. 27 Aug. 2014.

Janet Jacobs wrote the article “Sites of Terror and the Role of Memory in Shaping Identity Among First Generation Descendants of the Holocaust” published in the journal Qualitative Sociology in 2014.

The article is about research done on the effects the historical Holocaust sites have on its survivors and their descendants.  It discusses people’s reactions towards the Holocaust sites, and how visiting those sites affected the children of survivor’s.  Some children visited the places with their parents and they talk about how their relationship with their parent became stronger after visiting places with such strong memories attached.

The article provides useful examples of how the survivors were affected even years after their release from the concentration camps.  I can use these examples to make my research more valid.  One topic in the article is the way children of survivors believe they were raised differently because of what their parents had to go through.  This isn’t exactly relevant to my research topic, but could be used to support the statement that the survivors were drastically changed as a result of what they went through inside the camps.

Littell, Marcia Sachs. “Breaking the Silence: The Beginning of Holocaust Education In

America.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 49.1 (2014): 125-133. Humanities                                    International Complete. Web. 27 Aug. 2014.

“Breaking the Silence: The Beginning of Holocaust Education in America” is a journal article published in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies that was written by Marcia Sachs Littell.

This article focuses on the education of the public on the topic of the Holocaust after that time period had ended.  Immediately following its commencement, the Jews tried to move on with their lives and nobody wanted to linger on the subject of what had just previously taken place.  This article discusses the timeframe in which teachings of the Holocaust began and who was responsible for this change.

This article is not really relevant to my research topic.  It focuses more on the education of the Holocaust so it doesn’t provide any examples I could use of experiences that may have affected the survivors.  Although it is full of interesting information, I don’t think it will be helpful to me in my research.

Sender, Ruth Minksy. The Cage. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1986. Print.

The Cage is a book published by Aladdin Paperbacks in 1986 and written by Ruth Minsky Sender.

This is the story of Riva who becomes the guardian of her three younger siblings when she is only 16 because her mother is taken by the Nazis while they are living in a ghetto.  The book is about Riva’s time in the camps after her and her brothers are captured, her poetry, and how a Nazi soldier helps her survive. The book ends many years later with Riva explaining her experiences to her young daughter.  The book is a good example of the way many children were forced to grow up early and were deprived of a normal childhood.

The author of the book is a Holocaust survivor and shares her true story with the world in her book.  Many examples of how the Nazi officers treated the Jews are described in this book which I will be able to use as proof for my research topic.  There is also examples of kind and helpful officers which I could possible use to create a counterargument to my research.

“Trauma, Historiography and Polyphony: Adult Voices in the CJHC’s Early Postwar

Child Holocaust Testimonies.” History & Memory 24.2 (2012): 157-195. Humanities                     10International Complete. Web. 27 Aug. 2014.

“Trauma, Historiography and Polyphony: Adult Voices in the CJHC’s Early Postwar

Child Holocaust Testimonies” was published in the journal History & Memory in 2012.

The beginning of the article discusses polyphony in interviews with Holocaust survivors.  It briefly discusses the statistics of the survivors and shares a few quotes from survivors.  The author also mentions how not all interviewers were credible and can be named accurate.  It also talks about the authenticity of some of the information from interviews and if it all can be reliable.

Because the article is about polyphony in testimonies, it does not relate to my research topic and will therefore not be useful to me in my research.  It provides no valid examples to back up my research on the decrease of self-worth in Holocaust survivors.

Wachtel, Shirley Russak. The Story of Blima. West Berlin, NJ: Townsend, 2005. Print.

Shirley Russak Wachtel wrote The Story of Blima and it was published in 2005.

The Story of Blima is the personal story of Blima Weisstuch and it’s about her experience in the concentration camp Grunberg.  Before being captured, Blima refused to listen to the warnings about Hitler and the Nazis, but one day she was grabbed off the street.  She works in the camps and survives mainly from the help of one of the commanding officers who favors Blima.  She later finds her sister-in-law in one of the camps and they both survive and make it to freedom.  After being liberated, Blima is able to reconnect with her brothers and eventually marries and moves to America to start a new life.

The book is descriptive when discussing the way the prisoners were treated by the Nazi officers.  It also goes very in depth when describing the emotional effects felt by the prisoners after experiencing the loss of loved ones and the abuse of the officers.  This book goes along perfectly with my research by providing specific examples of the ways the Jews were affected.  I will be able to use lots of information from this book when supporting my research.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Straus and

Giroux, 2006. Print.

Night was written by Elie Wiesel and published by Hill and Wang.

Night is the story of Elie Wiesel’s experience with the Holocaust and different concentration camps.  The book focuses on Elie and his father as they are transported between camps and forced to endure the hardships that go along with being in such places.  The book is full of terrifying events that glorify just how unimaginable the Jews’ experience must have been.  Elie is confronted with life or death situations every day and must suffer the pain of losing everyone he is close to.  The information presented in Night is accurate because the book is a nonfiction piece.  Elie Wiesel is a real life Holocaust survivor who is known for his novels regarding the topic.

This book contains endless examples of treacherous experiences that the prisoners of the camps were forced to endure.  By providing a close look into what the concentration camps were really like, Night supplies useful information to help prove exactly what the Jews and other prisoners had to experience during the time period of the Holocaust.  There are also many examples of the brutality of the officers and how it caused the prisoners to change that I will be able to analyze during my research.