I have been thinking a lot about the Holocaust and how horrible it must have been to live in such a time with all of the tragedies and horrific tasks that prisoners were force to do. Thus, to lighten my outlook, I was “Googling” stories of survival and recovery associated with the Holocaust tonight and I came across quite a few stories about how hard it was to sleep after being liberated. While researching in my own state of teenage insomnia, I thought that it seemed fitting for me to take a deeper look. Most talked about having nightmares about the skeletons that they were surrounded by each day, and all of the death they saw, but one stuck out as being truly horrifying. In Philip Bialowitz’s book, A Promise at Sobibór: A Jewish Boy’s Story of Revolt and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland, he states “I have suffered from insomnia since the Holocaust and have often been awakened by nightmares. One recurring nightmare is of the time I was forced to remove the decomposed bodies from the cattle cars at Sobibór. These memories are not forgettable” (179). We have talked in class a few times about people taking jobs to stay alive, but I don’t think it struck me how horrible some of the tasks were, until just now. I can’t imagine doing such a thing, even if it was my only ticket to survival-land. I know that we don’t actually know what we would do in these situations until we are forced into them, but I am too appalled by said actions that I find it highly doubtful that I would ever find myself participating in them. However, if it did come down to it, and I was forced to move partially decomposed bodies of people I may have previously known, I am sure that I would have nightmares too, would you?
Any other thoughts on this subject or the things that many Jews, Poles, etc. had to do in order to survive another day?
I agree with you Paige I cant really see myself doing any of this, but many soldiers today suffer from insomnia for example my step dad to this day its hard fro him two sleep he has been home for 2 years now since he was deployed and I see him a little bit shaky when he sleeps. he sleeps but when he wakes up he is still tired but I think that when he sleeps he just remembers everything he saw in Iraq. personally I would suffer from insomnia if I ever lived through the holocaust or even just by being in the military and getting deployed and seeing friends die and innocent people suffer and die without really having a part of what is going on.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we'd all like to think we wouldn't want to take any part in moving dead bodies.I am sure I'd have nightmares about something so graphical,I get nightmares with simple horror movies. I feel like many of the survivors had a hard time adjusting to society for what they had been threw.How is it that one goes back to a "normal state of mind" after witnessing inhumane actions or even assisting in them.In the last scene we saw of Schindler's List of the boy going into the bathroom in order to survive was very eye opening because everyone reacted in such a disgusting way but it shows the things people were willing to do to stay alive one more day."Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die"
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