The Holocaust Essay, Research Paper

Brooks Rawlings May 5, 1999 Holocaust Essay Ogle, per. 1 After the Holocaust: Effects on the Jews Did the Nazis really expect the Jews to come out of the Holocaust without any harm done? Unfortunately, as is obvious, many Jews suffered not only during but after the Holocaust. After the war was over, the Jews were basically told to just go home, except they didn’t have homes anymore ( Schindler’s List). Jews had to rebuild their lives, and start from scratch after they were freed. Jews were all kept at work or death camps and many, if not all saw someone die at least once. They saw their family and friends be taken in the “selection” and they knew their awful fate: death ( Wiesel 29). This traumatized many Jews after the war, especially children. Jews lost so many family members, either by death, or separation ( Wiesel 30). The Holocaust had a lasting affect on the Jews after the war because they had to build new lives, were subject to mental trauma, and loss of family. The first issue the Jews had to face was rebuilding a new life after the war. Before the Holocaust, the Jewish population flourished, people had nice homes and were living happily( Wiesel 5). Then during the Holocaust the Jews were killed by the thousands, at every work and death camp, people died by the second ( Schindler’s List). However, after the Jews were set free, they had nowhere to go and no one to turn to ( Schindler’s List). At the end of the movie Schindler’s List, a soldier comes to a group of liberated Jews and says,” You can go now,” then the Jews say,” Where will we go?” ( Schindler’s List). Jews could not return to their homes, because in the beginning of the war they had been destroyed by the Nazis ( Wiesel 16). The Jews had no valuables, the Nazis took that as well ( Schindler’s List). Lastly, Jewish people had no one to turn to for help, since their family members had mostly all died ( Schindler’s List). The Jews had to re create life on their own. At the end of the war the Jews had to start all over because they had nothing to sell or trade, they had nowhere to live, and they had no one to turn to because all of their family members were killed.

As if building a new life was not hard enough, the Jewish prisoners of the Holocaust suffered severe mental trauma as well. One reason for this is that they had seen so many people die, just right in front of their faces ( Schindler’s List). Sometimes it was even family or friends. This was very traumatic for the Jews. Mental trauma was also caused by lowered self esteem, the SS officers would tell the Jews every day how much they resembled rats, and other insults ( Schindler’s List). This completely demoralized the Jews. After the war it was hard for them to get their lives back to normal, usually they never did. Jewish couples and families were immediately separated at selection, men were separated from women ( Wiesel 27). This alone could cause a person to be traumatized because of the loss of someone they loved so dearly. All of these reasons caused Jews to experience mental trauma after the Holocaust. In addition to the mental trauma the Jews faced, they also had to deal with the separation of their families. Sadly, children were taken from their mothers ( Schindler’s List). This had a long term affect on the Jews because of the sadness it caused. Mothers felt as if their whole reason for living had been taken away. After the war, and Jews were free, they had no one to turn to, their whole families were gone. Secondly, loss of family affected the Jews because there was no one to borrow money from and no one to house them until they found jobs. Some Jews did not even want to accept the fact that their loved ones had moved to the next life. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel’s father dies. In denial, Elie cries out, “No, he isn’t dead, not yet!”( Wiesel 94). The loss of family in the lives of Jewish people made it tough on them after the Holocaust. The war was not really over when fighting was finished, it never actually ended until the Jews had enough strength to put all their memories behind them. This, for most Jews would take them the rest of their lives. In the Holocaust, almost six million Jews were killed at camps either in crematories, or by gunshots. The SS officers were very cruel toward the Jewish people, they showed no mercy. Both in the movie Schindler’s List and the book Night, the Jews came out of the war devastated, they did not know what to do next. Overall, the aftermath of the Holocaust had a far worse effect on the Jewish people who survived, than did the actual experience at the death and work camps because they had to build new lives, they were experiencing mental trauma, and had lost family during the Holocaust.