The Holocaust & Survival Behavior

The analyses and narratives presented in the three books suggest very strongly that modes of survival, resistance and rescue were possible during the Holocaust. Without question, instances of the failure of these modes of behavior likely outweigh instances of their success. Nonetheless, the text establishes that such activities were possible and practiced regularly throughout the Holocaust.

The Holocaust examines the Holocaust through the essays of numerous scholars and other writers. Though authors in the book disagree as to the true philosophical causes of the Holocaust - was it the desire to eradicate all undesirable genetic elements or only the Jews - none disagree that the impetus for the slaughter of so many Jews was a desire to eradicate them from society. For example, in his essay titled "Holocaust: Genocide of the Jews," Donald Niewyk documents the Nazi's plan for extermination of the Jews. Survival of the Holocaust, therefore, by its very nature was an act of resistance. Survival, therefore, was not impossible because, clearly, as Niewyk notes, some 200,000 people survived the concentration camps ("The Genocide" 129). How they survived, however, and what forms of resistance they employed, if any, to ensure their survival remains a matter of debate, as demonstrated by the differing opinions espoused by the authors in Niewyk's book.

Bruno Bettelheim writes that survival was possible, but only through lack of resistance. He argues that the longer pris

Related Essays

Donald Niewyk's book The Holocaust .... that modes of survival, resistance and rescue were possible during the Holocaust. Without question, instances of the failure of these modes of behavior likely .... (1390 6 )

Violent Human Behavior .... the power to deter attacks), the survival game remains .... more than for other kinds of behavior," or that war .... Even students of the Holocaust do, concludes Farrell .... (1754 7 )

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder .... the level of creating self-defeating behavior which requires .... came to be known as the "survival syndrome" associated with the Holocaust (Jaffe, 1968 .... (1960 8 )

Art Spiegelman's, The Complete Maus .... he finds culpable for their behavior towards oppressive .... The depiction of Vladek Spiegelman's survival of the concentration camps during the Holocaust serves as .... (1183 5 )

The Complete Maus (I & II) .... he finds culpable for their behavior towards oppressive .... The depiction of Vladek Spiegelman's survival of the concentration camps during the Holocaust serves as .... (1183 5 )

ot as a means of culling favor with the officers, but as a means of perhaps gaining knowledge or power that could be used to survive. Simhlarly, Des Pres contends that the prisoners did not stand tall and straight during roll call because they were trying to mimic the officers, as Bettelheim argues. Rather, Des Pres cites prisoners who stated that the prisoners stood tall and straight during roll call to help prop up weaker prisoners who could not support themselves (117). Des Pres concludes that the "survivor is the figure who emerges from all those who fought for life in the concentration camps" (119). Clearly, he believes that survival and resistance were possible. One could also argue that the acts of resistance used by the prisoners to help other prisoners were, in fact, acts of rescue. Certainly, without the help Des Pres describes, many other Jews would likely have died in the camps. Niewyk also notes the lengths to which Jews went to survive. For instance, one survivor tells of a mother giving her child urine to drink so the child would not become too dehydrated ("The Genocide" 143). Niewyk's retelling of the horrors of the Holocaust through a transcript of a survivor's story helps to illustrate the almost complete lack

Category: Psychology - T