LUCK, CONTROL AND THE HOLOCAUST
_______________
A Thesis
Presented to the
Faculty of
San Diego State University
_______________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science
in
Gerontology
_______________
by
Katrine Teplitsky
Summer 2013
iii
Copyright © 2013
by
Katrine Teplitsky
All Rights Reserved
iv
DEDICATION
This thesis is dedicated to my parents; who have always inspired me, supported me
and encouraged me. Also, this thesis is dedicated to my daughter, Saylor; to carry the culture
and history of the family. Finally, this thesis is dedicated to the memory of my grandparents,
all children of the Holocaust.
v
ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS
Luck, Control and the Holocaust
by
Katrine Teplitsky
Master of Science in Gerontology
San Diego State University, 2013
The purpose of this study was to analyze the narrative of Holocaust survivors to better
understand how they feel the ideas of control, luck and faith impacted their survival. The
method of research conducted was a qualitative, phenomological research design in which
the participants responded to a series of interview questions. These interviews were
conducted in the homes of the individuals and were under one hour in length, a total of ten
Holocaust survivors participated in the study. The interviews focused on the way the
participants felt the ideas of luck, faith and control impacted their ability to survive the
trauma of the Holocaust. The results indicated that their trauma was so tremendous and
illogical, that as a result they are in a constant state of internal dissonance. Their continuous
reinterpretation of the unexplainable events suffered, validated why there was no pattern to
the responses.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................... vii
INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................1 LITERATURE REVIEW ..........................................................................................................2 Literature Search ..................................................................................................................2 Historical Events ..................................................................................................................2 Faith in God .........................................................................................................................4 Luck ...................................................................................................................................10 Locus of Control ................................................................................................................13 METHODS ..............................................................................................................................18 Aims of Research ...............................................................................................................18 Hypothesis Tested ..............................................................................................................18 Methods..............................................................................................................................18 Data gathered and Tested ...................................................................................................18 The Planned Analyses Were ..............................................................................................19 RESULTS ................................................................................................................................20 ANALYSIS ..............................................................................................................................21 DISCUSSION ..........................................................................................................................22 That is Life .........................................................................................................................23 Positive Outcomes .............................................................................................................29 Random Events ..................................................................................................................33 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................36 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................38 HOLOCAUST NARRATIVES .........................................................................................40 vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe my deepest gratitude to Dr. Mario Garrett for his continuous guidance, patience
and inspiration. I consider it an honor to have had the opportunity to work with and learn
from him.
1
INTRODUCTION
The Holocaust was the systematic and premeditated effort to eliminate European
Jewry before and during World War II (1939-1945), when millions were systematically
persecuted and exterminated solely because of their social, cultural, ethnic, or religious
characteristics (Barel, Van IJzendoorn, Sagi-Schwartz, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2010). Of
the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust, approximately twothirds were killed (Dawidowicz, 1975). Over one million Jewish children were killed in the
Holocaust, as were approximately two million Jewish women and three million Jewish men
(Fitzgerald, 2011). Victims were rounded up and transported like animals to concentration
camps, where if they did not die in transit they lived to endure continuous threats to life,
depersonalization, abuse and other significant loss (Barel et al., 2010). They suffered from
degrading living and working conditions, starvation and disease. Those who survived were
subjected to atrocious experiences and will forever endure this memory (Barel et al., 2010).
In consultation with Bill Benson who has done over sixty interviews for the US
Holocaust museum, he has indicated that a large part of the survivors’ explanation is
assigned to luck, but that there are no specific questions that relate to locus of control.
Although these oral histories are very detailed, and a rich source of data for historians and
social scientists, there is little investigation of the research question posed here; is there a
sense of loss of control or luck in their evaluation of their survival? As such, it would be
necessary to explore this research question independent of these great historical resources. In
this study, it is planned to achieve this by analyzing the narrative of Holocaust survivors
when asked directly about their interpretation of faith, luck and locus of control, we might
then understand how they feel the ideas of control, luck and faith impacted their survival.
2
LITERATURE REVIEW
LITERATURE SEARCH
A literature search was conducted using the ProQuest research library, Psychinfo and
EBSCOhost databases. The keywords used to search were: Holocaust, Holocaust and trauma,
Holocaust and faith, Holocaust and luck, Holocaust and control, locus of control and faith,
locus of control and luck, luck and faith.
HISTORICAL EVENTS
Genocides worldwide are among the worst atrocities in history. The list has many, but
one stands apart from the rest, the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the mass murder or
genocide of approximately six million Jews during World War II (1939-1945). It was a statesponsored program in Nazi Germany, led throughout German-occupied territory. The
atrocities of the Nazi party were primarily directed against Jews, but other populations were
affected including the Roma (Gypsy) population, the mentally ill, the deaf, the physically
disabled and mentally retarded; homosexual and transsexual people; political opponents such
as social democrats and socialists; and religious dissidents such as Jehovah's Witnesses.
Many persecuted Jews that were living in hiding under false identities were in constant fear
of discovery; some often spent months in primitive and inhumane conditions or spent years
fighting alongside the partisans (Ben-Zur & Zimmerman, 2005).
Some of the photographic evidence bears witness to the astoundingly horrific events
suffered during the Holocaust (Barel et al., 2010). The Holocaust was surely not the first
atrocity committed against an ethnic group, but it differs strongly from others for many
reasons, mainly because none other was executed so systematically and so methodically. This
was the killing of not only men in a time of war, but innocent women and children posing no
threat. They were selected because of their religious beliefs and cultural association. The aim
was to eradicate them from the population. The Holocaust was the systematic plan to end
their existence.
The Holocaust had a slow early start; leading up to it was a period that was called
“open aggression” in Europe, particularly in Germany. During this period, nothing was
3
spared. Windows of businesses owned by Jews were smashed and homes were looted. This
aggression also included robbing, beating, raping and demolishing Jews and their property.
On Kristallnacht, in 1938, the night of broken glass, 100 Jews were killed during the
destruction (Berenbaum, 1993). Also during Kristallnacht, 26,000 Jewish men were sent to
the concentration camp for the first time, simply for being Jewish (Berenbaum, 1993). This
was the first sign of the type of ethnic cleansing that was to come, yet many of Germany’s
Jews thought this too, would pass. During this time, many Jews turned to faith, or simply
their belief in mankind.
After Kristallnacht, the Nazi regime made sure the Jews knew they could no longer
survive in their country (Berenbaum, 1993). Eventually, the true direction of the war became
clear, with its focus on the destruction of European Jewry. By September of 1939, three
hundred thousand of Germany’s Jews left the country (Berenbaum, 1993). Those that chose
to stay may have believed the worst was over, believed they didn't have control over their
future or had a divine trust in their faith.
A variety of studies conducted after the war showed that Holocaust survivors were
deeply affected by the trauma, exhibiting adverse effects as indicated by higher than average
levels of depression and other symptoms, mild psychiatric symptoms, and high levels of post
traumatic stress disorder (Ben-Zur & Zimmerman, 2005). Recent studies have shown low
levels of quality of life among child survivors, and high levels of emotional distress among
female Holocaust survivors as well as poor health status among male Holocaust survivors,
with distress-related symptoms persisting into old age (Ben-Zur & Zimmerman, 2005). The
categories for explanation of the Holocaust vary. Some do not flinch from seeing it as
punishment for Jewish sins; others resort to the image of Jews as “suffering servants”, while
others still hear a message of God from Auschwitz to obey (Kraut, 1982). Some even accept
the state of Israel as God’s just compensation for the Holocaust and judge it an acceptable
payoff. One of the most ruthlessly ironic explanations, ingenious in its own way, comes from
a Jewish atheist who reversed the traditional imagery of God testing his people (Kraut, 1982).
For him, the Holocaust represented a gigantic laboratory experiment, not of man, but of God.
It was a stupendous test, unconscious and unintentional, but a test nevertheless (Kraut, 1982).
A survivor describes this test of God, “And God failed the test and proved his own nonexistence. And I, as part of the experiment, stopped believing in him altogether” (Kraut,
4
1982, p. 185). Throughout the war, many that had faith in God were waiting; waiting for God
to prove his existence, to come and save them in their time of desperate need. When God
never came to save his people, the last believers lost faith in him and his existence, as if God
failed his own test.
The Holocaust exposes many questions left unanswered regarding those that survived
this atrocity. So much surrounds the repercussions of their survival. Was there something in
particular that can be identified to explain why some survived something seemingly
impossible to live through? The Holocaust was one of the most traumatic periods in our
history, with innocent humans being exposed to extreme savagery and methodic persecution.
Holocaust survivors provide an opportunity for studying the enduring effects of massive
trauma, extremely stressful experiences and the philosophy of survival (Barel et al., 2010).
The literature focuses on whether the Holocaust diminished the Jewish culture or whether or
not their faith was affected as well. In most cases, the faith of the surviving Jews went in one
of two directions after the war, there was no middle ground. Some either attributed their
survival entirely to God, therefore reinforcing their faith, or the opposite happened, they lost
all faith in God, completely.
FAITH IN GOD
How can a survivor watch their world disintegrate and yet retain an undying sense of
optimism? Each survivor has a different experience of Judaism and religiosity. Being Jewish
was simply a way of life for many Jews, often times they were not very religious. Jewish life
in Europe was socially determined, you didn’t work on the Sabbath, you kept Kosher and
you observed most major holidays. There were other Jews who were extremely religious,
they were knowledgeable about the Torah and studied regularly, but to the Germans these
were one and the same. In her dissertation, where she interviewed two survivors, Ann Weiss
describes how astonished she was by the fact that Lunia, one of the survivors interviewed,
who happened to be her grandmother, could trust God so much and could feel God’s love so
much, especially given the fact that she had lived through the Holocaust and had lost her
entire family. She wondered, if God is all loving, all knowing, all good and all powerful, how
is it that such bad things happen (Weiss, 2007). Weiss proclaimed that Lunia’s faith in God’s
love and her belief in God’s goodness, exist- not is spite of the Holocaust, but because of it.
5
Weiss described how Lunia felt lucky, how she believed that God helped her body and spirit
survive the Holocaust and continue to live and grow after (Weiss, 2007).
The Jews of Europe often suffered the death of their faith in God and the loss of all
hope during the Holocaust. Richard Rubenstein has written of the Jews during the war: “We
learned in the crisis that we were totally and nakedly alone, that we could expect neither
support nor succor from God nor from our fellow creatures. Therefore, the world will forever
remain a place of pain, suffering, alienation and ultimate defeat” (Berenbaum, 1993, p. 128).
The unthinkable suffering that occurred during the Holocaust to those Jews that had faith in
and prayed to God caused many to question, if not eliminate their faith entirely. They learned
that no amount of prayer could save them; they were utterly alone in their time of tremendous
need.
There are those survivors that say faith is what got them through the war, the reason
behind their survival. In her doctoral dissertation, Ann Weiss describes an interview she did
with a survivor named Max, whose life was bound by study of faith prior to the war. She
describes Max as a devoted student of advanced study of the Torah and other Jewish
religious texts. His family and studying were all he had in life. During the war everyone was
scattered in different places, but Max held onto the hope that after the war they would all be
reunited. But they were not. Weiss describes, “All had died except for Max, and as he
explained himself to me, he said with a fierceness that I have rarely seen elsewhere”, “Before
the war, I devoted myself completely to God, but God abandoned me, so from that day when
I learned that my family is everyone dead, I abandoned God, from my tears alone, you could
fill a bathtub” (Weiss, 2007, p. 53).
The story of every survivor is a different one. Each had different experiences during
the war, but for nearly all: family members, friends, homes and entire towns were all
destroyed. There were a wide range of sufferings during the war and each victim suffered
differently. These sufferings include, but are not limited to; extreme labor, lack of adequate
food, clothing and shelter; separation from family, forced witnessing of murder, beatings,
humiliation, desperation and confusion (Bender, 2004). Many of these survivors turned to
their faith in a time of desperation. Some turned to God for prayer, some for help, and some
simply for something to hold on to that could not be killed in a way, other than figuratively.
Those that survived often believed that prayer and faith were the reason for their survival, not
6
luck or perhaps a choice they made. These same believers in prayer and faith often rejected
their beliefs upon realization that they were entirely alone, that their entire family had
perished, where God was then, they often question.
Ultimately, a complete understanding and true application of the entire range of
Jewish faith experiences or lack of faith responses during the Holocaust may forever escape
us, for the possibilities of religious reactions are as unique as the number of Jews themselves
who experienced the tragedy (Kraut, 1982). Max’s story, as described by Ann Weiss is one
of faith; faith that he had in God and faith that he had in humanity. That faith is what helped
him though the war, but that same faith entirely dissipated upon his discovery that his entire
family had been killed. Lunia Weiss describes her family and religious background in her
memoir, “I came from a very religious home and my faith was very deep, through all this
ordeal I never stopped praying as I never prayed before and I don’t know why, but I was so
sure God was listening to my every word. He was the only one who could help us now, but
this did not happen” (Weiss, 2007, p. 72). Weiss describes what she remembers about Jewish
faith from her grandmother, Lunia, whom she interviewed for her dissertation: She doesn’t
remember her talking about God in particular, but she does remember how much she cared
for rituals, but there is no memory of her talking about her actual faith or God. Rituals were
so important, not for religious significance, but because of the connection to her dead
relatives (Weiss, 2007). This statement suggests that God possibly did not live on in her after
the war, but that she maintained a connection out of respect for her dead relatives.
The idea of faith, in its simplest form can be defined as: an allegiance to a duty or a
person, fidelity to one’s promises, sincerity of intentions, firm belief in something for which
there is no proof and a belief and trust in and loyalty to God, as defined by the MerriamWebster dictionary (2013). One cannot determine life’s events, particularly not the
challenging ones like death and terminal illness and certainly not the Holocaust, but within
ones grasp is the way we choose to handle our lives and our challenges, in this act of
choosing is a powerful statement of who we are and who we choose to be.
Relatively little attention has been given to the analysis of the religious faith of Jews
who experienced the catastrophe of the Holocaust and to the impact it had on their faith. This
is a very much neglected, though vital area of Jewish concern (Kraut, 1982). The Holocaust
caused its survivors to challenge the nature of God. Many may ask the question, “How could
7
God have remained silent and have permitted such atrocities?” One may also question the
possibility of human faith, “Can faith in God after the Holocaust be conceivable” (Kraut,
1982, p. 185)? Lunia Weiss (2007) describes a time where she felt exactly that, in her
memoir she says: “Next morning as if nothing happened, I was marched off to work with the
others. Exhausted, but not a scratch on me. Except a sprained ankle from that jump feet first,
from that tiny window. I tried hard not to limp and I didn’t. Four of us jumped- three are
dead and here I was with not even a knick of a bullet. Why?” (p. 112). These questions may
linger for the rest of their lives. One may think it was the prayer they said every morning that
saved them, others may think it was a split second decision they were forced to make that
made the difference between life and death.
There is one scene in particular in Elie Wiesel’s (2006) “Night,” that he does exactly
that, questions God and his faith both;
Blessed be God's name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me
rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves?
Because He kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the
Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau,
Buna, and so many other factories of death? How could I say to Him: Blessed be
Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be
tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end up
in the furnaces? Praised be Thy Holy Name, for having chosen us to be
slaughtered on Thine altar? (p. 24).
Wiesel’s faith was forever broken, as was he. He was no longer able to maintain faith
in a God who allowed this to happen to his own people. Elie Wiesel was told many times
during the war not to ever lose hope. He had already escaped what they assumed was the
gravest danger and they had to keep heart. The prisoners helped each other have faith. To
have faith in life was to have a chance at survival. To have faith that they too will see the day
of liberation. Wiesel, a former mystic himself agrees that yes, man is stronger, greater than
God (Wiesel, 2006). But then he cannot help to question him, if he is stronger, greater how
can he betray those that pray to him. Allowing them to be gassed, tortured, slaughtered and
burned while still praying to God and praising his name (Wiesel, 2006).
Elie Wiesel (2006) describes the progression he went through during the war
regarding his faith, “In the beginning there was faith - which is childish; trust - which is
vain; and illusion - which is dangerous” (p. 12). Initially, the faith was there and actually
quite strong; Wiesel was educated in the Torah and was a profound believer in God. The
8
more he prayed, the longer he lived, the more he witnessed, the less he believed. Not only did
he suffer a loss of faith, he uses words that are far more severe than that, in his book “Night”
he stated: “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and
turned my dreams to ashes” (Wiesel, 2006, p. 29). After witnessing the death and destruction
of his family and fellow believers, his faith was lost and his God was dead. He lived a life
where he was taught to believe in God, to trust in man and that every Jew was entrusted with
a scared spark, they were the chosen people. The faith of many was shattered, but some may
ask, how were the faithful able to affirm their trust in God after the war? The faith of
authentic Jews in camps and ghettos was faith of Abraham, like him, they had trust that the
covenant between God and Israel continues, that despite overwhelming atrocities,
degradation and humiliation, a Jew could still pray (Kraut, 1982). Pray to whom, you may
ask, as God seemed to not be listening for most.
Most of the survivors that had a divine faith in God and the ability to pray to him
were utterly destroyed after the war, when they found that all their prayers went unanswered.
Understandably, faith in God was shaken for most after the war. This faith was also restored
for many, when not restored; it was often rejected in its entirety. These survivors, in spite of
being treated like animals, being hunted, beaten, starved, brutalized and demoralized choose
to continue to live with dignity, compassion and hope. It is all too common to have survived,
but to have continued to live fearfully and without hope; which is to never have survived.
Although they did, technically, survive, their hearts were still pumping, but they were never
able to recover from the events they endured and witnessed (Weiss, 2007).
Benny Kraut reported that 53% of all survivors declared that the Holocaust had not
influenced their religious behavior at all and had not made them either more or less ritually
observant (Kraut, 1982). He concludes his findings by stating that “Thus, 47% of all
survivors asserted that the Holocaust had no influence on their beliefs about God” (Kraut,
1982, p. 185). The more intensely observant the survivor was and the more religious
doctrines he affirmed, the more the Holocaust reinforced his faith rather than destroyed it
(Kraut, 1982). Such a powerful statement made, but it holds true in regard to the responses
given by the survivors interviewed in Weiss’s narrative. Lunia, as described, also retained a
large amount of faith and continued to pray to God even after the war. She continued her
prayer out of respect for her culture and her relatives that perished, but she continued. This
9
speaks volumes of her character as she did not hold a grudge like many others did; she in a
sense forgave God and did not continue to blame God for the death of her family and
destruction of her life. This outlook helped her retain a positive outlook throughout the war
and in her reflections, after.
Many had a deep faith in God prior to the war, but at war’s end could no longer put
any faith in a God that allowed such atrocities to occur. Jews who lost their faith assure that
they, due to their experience and what was witnessed, know there is no God, that God is a
myth (Kraut, 1982). In his book, titled “Night,” Elie Wiesel recalls the moment this happened
for him in the camp. He stated, “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” (Wiesel, 2006, p. 20). It is not difficult to see why the idea of God was
questioned by the Jews. Elie Wiesel describes a time when another Jew in the camp also
questioned his God. Wiesel (2006) recalls what happened,
Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their
tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still
moving: the child, too light, was still breathing...And so he remained for more
than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And
we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed
him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished. Behind me, I heard
the same man asking: "For God's sake, where is God?" And from within me, I
heard a voice answer: "Where is he? This is where--hanging here from the
gallows... (p. 27).
In this moment, the prisoner still has faith and is almost pleading with God to prove
he is there, to prove he is real at that moment. Wiesel was there to point out to the prisoner
that God was there at that moment; that he was hanging from the gallows, in the face of this
child. Telling the prisoner that God no longer exists in a place like Auschwitz, at least not for
him. If for Wiesel there was no God to pray to, what was left for him, but to leave his fate to
luck.
The magnitude of the Holocaust is difficult to understand. The event resulted in an
entire race nearly disappearing. Six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, nearly
bringing to an end Jewish civilization in Europe. The survivors tell their story as they know
it, each has a different experience. Their culture, history, God and family all virtually
10
perished, and yet they live on. Some survivors were overwhelmed with guilt, and some felt
lucky to survive (Grodin, 2011).
LUCK
The survivors of the Holocaust often question why they lived while all others did not.
The question that these survivors ask is what makes them special or for lack of a better word,
lucky. Was their survival solely up to luck or were there other components involved, maybe
it was their faith that got them through, or a choice they made, maybe a feeling of control in
the situation. Survivors often emphasized the role of life optimism, social support and a sense
that their situation was comprehensible and manageable even under adverse conditions (Prot,
2012). This maintenance of a sense of control, regardless of how slight it may have been was
of very high importance to those that survived. They had a strong will to do so and made
many conscious decisions, to the best of their knowledge, to heed their survival. Horst Cahn
(2001), a German Holocaust survivor describes what he thinks of his survival in Auschwitz,
after two incidents that at the time, to him meant imminent death;
Both incidents prove that my survival was luck, fate or God’s will to keep me
around to bear witness. Both times it could have been fatal — the bullet could
have hit me someplace else, I could have fallen off the bridge and been more
seriously hurt. And the rifle butt was aimed at my face and probably would have
broken my nose, injured my eyes and my mouth. So again, someone was
watching over me (p. 63).
Cahn attributes his survival to luck, fate and God’s will to keep him alive. In the
situations he describes, ones that certainly meant inescapable death, he was spared. He often
refers to luck as the reason for his survival and Gods will for him to live on and tell his story.
Knowledge of the impending horror and attempting to leave Germany was not
enough for the Jews trying to flee in the years leading up to the Holocaust. Jews that feared
the worst and tried to flee had to jump through numerous bureaucratic hoops, making it
nearly impossible to do so. To say it wasn't easy to flee Germany and get into America,
Canada, Australia or Latin America is putting it lightly. Many Jews spent years trying to get
visas and the majority of them failed. Ann Weiss describes an example of wealth and power
as not being enough to flee, and eventually to survive. In her dissertation, “Death and Life of
two Holocaust Survivors,” she describes such an instance: “The family’s relative wealth and
position of power in the community did not save them from the tragedy of the Holocaust, but
11
it allowed Lunia a base of economic safety, physical and psychological well being until the
war erupted. Lunia also seemed to have learned early on that with power and privilege came
responsibility, another aspect of her personality, which became so visible under the stress of
the war and Holocaust, and afterward” (Weiss, 2007, p. 68). As described, Lunia learned that
she could no longer rely on the status of her family to survive and demand respect, during the
war, such status dissipated. She had to learn to be resourceful to survive, to take chances,
chances that luck will be on her side.
Doris Bergen describes the voyage of the St. Louis in her book, War and Genocide.
The voyage of the St. Louis is a prime example of what major factors played a role in
survival during the Holocaust; it shows just how much luck played a role. Doris Bergen
describes the heart-breaking story: In early 1939, the Cuban government granted visas to
desperate Jews fleeing Europe. About 900 Jews set sail from Hamburg, Germany to Havana,
Cuba. Before the arrival of the ship, Cuban officials changed their mind about the refugees
and refused them entry upon their arrival (Bergen, 2003). Attempted negotiations failed and
the St. Louis set sail for Florida, hoping to leave the refugees in America. Again, attempts to
dock failed and there was no choice left, but to bring the Jews back to Europe. Various
Jewish organizations were able to negotiate refuge for a few of the passengers aboard, but the
majority of them soon ended up dead (Bergen, 2003). The stories of those that managed to
survive show that foresight alone could not save a Jew from the terror of the Nazi regime.
Doris Bergen (2003) couldn’t have said it better when she stated: “Connections, money and
determination were all factors, but so, above all, was luck, or whatever one might call chance
at a time when no Jews could be counted lucky” (p. 99). Those that managed to survive, feel
that it was likely no doing of their own. So what else is left to call it, but luck? The Jewish
playwright Bernoldt Brecht, a Holocaust survivor, put it best,
I know of course; it’s simply luck
That I’ve survived so many friends. But last night
In a dream
I heard those friends say of me:
“Survival of the Fittest”
And I hated myself. (Bergen, 2003)
12
Survivors like Brecht feel such strong guilt that what came between his own survival
and the survival of his friends and family was in his eyes, luck, and nothing more.
Ann Weiss describes two survivors in her dissertation, “Death and Life: Memory,
Narrative, life study;” Lunia and Harry. In her dissertation, she speaks of their memories of
the Holocaust and the way they reflect; “Lunia and Henry certainly did not forget their own
personal horrors, as accessible to them as the fingers on their own hands, but much more
often, it was the good, not the bad, that they chose to share and relive” (Weiss, 2007, p. 55).
This outlook is astonishing, these two survivors suffered exceptionally and yet they find
many positives in their past to reflect upon. Weiss later describes that she believes that more
than anything else, the images of life and love that they often reflected upon, account for
their sense of abiding optimism and hope throughout their lives. The idea that these
survivors were pulled from the claws of death while everyone around them was being
murdered and they were, literally, only seconds away from their own deaths leaves many
unanswered questions, not only for the survivors themselves, but for those listening to their
story. Another survivor, Alice Herz-Sommer, despite her years of imprisonment in the
Theresienstadt concentration camp and the murders of her mother, husband and friends at the
hands of the Nazis, is victorious in her ability to move on and to live each day in the present.
She has wasted no time on bitterness toward her oppressors and the executioners of her
family (Stoessinger, 2012). Aware that hatred eats the soul of the hater rather than the hated
(Stoessinger, 2012). Alice reasons, “I am still grateful for life, life is a present” (Stoessinger,
2012, p. xiii). How were these survivors able to remain human in the most inhuman
circumstances and yet retain such life-affirming, optimistic attitudes about life and humanity?
Is this positive outlook just their nature, or was it a way for them to control the situation
internally, through their outlook on life?
The survivors themselves pointed to the role of chance, of good luck, in surviving
during the war (Stoessinger, 2012). Regarding personality traits, they emphasized life
optimism that allowed them to keep up the hope of survival. Among personality traits,
optimism and openness in interpersonal contacts were again emphasized by the survivors.
Some survivors say ultimately it was their faith, in fact, that got them through the war. Others
say that after surviving the war they lost all faith in God. Holocaust survivors experienced a
significant trauma during World War II, a trauma that millions of people did not survive. A
13
positive outlook on life, faith in God and the idea of luck are the reasons those that were able
to survive, did.
Many survivors talk about what, in their opinion, enabled them to survive during the
war and return to life after the war. Their narratives refer to resilience; a mental ability to
survive that sometimes influenced their physical survival. The survivors first and foremost
speak about sheer chance, their ‘‘good luck.’’ Laszlo, a survivor interviewed by Katarzyna
Prot in her doctoral dissertation stated, “However, let me return to my good luck. . . . First of
all, when somebody tells you that he was lucky, please believe me that he was lucky indeed.
Because 6 million people were not lucky and you could not talk to them now. . . . Someone
interviewing me on some occasion about the Holocaust said: ‘‘everybody keeps saying they
were lucky.’’ And I replied: ‘‘Yes, because so it was, 6 million were out of luck” (Prot, 2012,
p. 179).
There is also the idea that you can make your own luck, but then is it truly luck? To
make your own luck means you are in control, you are creating something yourself. Or is this
idea simply implying that there is no luck in this situation, or in any, that all luck is created
by a decision that was made. One cannot sit around waiting for things to happen, waiting to
get lucky. Action needs to be taken in order for luck to be made. Lunia, the Holocaust
survivor narrated in Weiss’s dissertation gives advice about having courage. She stated,
“Have courage, be willing to take a chance, maybe it will work out, maybe it won’t, if it
doesn’t succeed, what’s the worst that can happen. You try again, something else his time.
Have the courage to try, and the courage to fail. If there’s a chance to succeed, you’ll always
wonder, if you don’t try” (Weiss, 2007, p. 123).
Often times, Holocaust survivors credit their survival to luck. Many times, they
overlook the fact that their luck may not have happened were it not for a decision; a choice
they made, a chance they took that allowed them to be what they would call “lucky.”
LOCUS OF CONTROL
Resiliency amongst Holocaust survivors is a topic that has not been adequately
addressed. Factors advantageous to greater resiliency include: having an internal locus of
control, having a spouse who is also a survivor, being an activist, or having a strong faith
(Grodin, 2011). An internal locus of control has been found to have a protective function and
14
is associated with stress resilience among children, adolescents, young adults as well as in
adults (Baron, Eisman, Scuello, Veyzer, & Lieberman, 1996). Individuals who believe that
they can control events will be less affected by disaster than those who do not believe that
they can control outcomes and those who have lost the belief in their ability to prevent
disaster (Baron et al., 1996).
Ann Weiss describes how Lunia never sufficiently credited her own brains and
courage. She did not disparage herself by saying it was “nothing,” but neither did she
highlight the actions by seeing them exceptional in any way. Upon interviewing Lunia,
Weiss determined that in fact her actions were quite exceptional, courageous and quick
thinking. Sometimes, the control had and decisions made in a situation may not be
acknowledged or recognized by the individual. Likely, they thought God was intervening at
that point (Weiss, 2007). Lunia does acknowledge, however, that she knows she is alive
today because of her family’s love that gave her strength and made her have faith in herself,
faith strong enough to take the lead and control her life.
A study was done by Paul Suedfeld in 1996 where he evaluated coping strategies
among Holocaust survivors. In this study, the survivors were separated into categories based
on age during the time of Holocaust as well as their experiences during particular periods.
They measured 13 different coping categories across all age ranges. One such category, selfcontrol was mentioned most during the late Holocaust period. The supernatural protection
category was highest among adolescents, followed by adults, but was zero among the
children. They reported a high incidence of self-control during the late Holocaust period.
During the Holocaust, religious practices and faith were a way to both affirm one’s self and
ones control over the environment. Suedfeld’s study had interesting findings regarding this
coping strategy. They found that adolescent survivors were more likely to cite faith as a
source of strength to survive, children made no reference to using faith for survival, other
than during the late Holocaust period. Child survivors were also more likely to comment that
the events of the Holocaust destroyed their religious faith (Suedfeld, Krell, Wiebe, & Steel,
1997).
The narratives recorded in Suedfeld’s study show how these Holocaust survivors
mentally organize, try to make sense of and interpret their life events. Although most of these
survivors acknowledge that luck and in some cases supernatural protection had a role in their
15
survival, they often downplay their emotional strategies of dealing with challenge and instead
structure their stories around self-control, persistence and problem solving strategies
(Suedfeld et al., 1997).
Primo Levi (1993), a survivor of Auschwitz, knew he absolutely had to make
decisions to maintain his sense of self, which he needed in order to survive. From the
moment Levi stepped foot off of the train and onto the lifeless soil of the notorious
Auschwitz death camp, the process of dehumanization began. Levi describes how the choice
was the prisoners’ to make; they chose to walk straight and not hunched over because they
wanted to remain alive. They polished their shoes not because they were told to do so, but
because it helped them maintain a sense of dignity, in a place where they were meant to have
none. This sense of dignity, self-respect and the ability to make a choice is exactly what
allowed survivors like Primo Levi to live to bear witness and survive to tell their story. Levi
(1993) stated, “We are slaves deprived of every right, exposed to every insult, condemned to
certain death, but we still possess one power, and we must defend it with all our strength for
it is the last - the power to refuse our consent” (p. 41). This thought allowed them to at least
internally believe they were in control of the situation and had the ability to make even the
most minuscule of decisions. This sense of control was a spark of hope that helped keep men
like Levi from hitting rock-bottom. The ability to make decisions alone can be a matter of
life or death. One of these decisions include admitting one’s self to Ka-Be; an abbreviation
for Krankenbau, the infirmary at Auschwitz. Doing this was a way to protect oneself, but it
was always taking a great risk. The risk here is to be certain that you are not too sick and not
too healthy. Being too sick is a sure way to be sent directly to the crematorium and too
healthy you will be sent back to work. What is important here is using admittance to the KaBe as a chance to get stronger and healthier, but more importantly it was a choice they were
able to make, putting them in control of the situation. This sense of control was vastly
important to the survival of a prisoner in Auschwitz and was an extreme factor in helping
prisoners retain their sense of humanity, when there was nothing else left.
Horst Cahn, another Auschwitz survivor talks about times when the prisoners were
able to play tricks on the guards for extra food and clothes. He describes the result of one
such scenario, “We all felt good about being able to outsmart the S.S., things like that not
only gave us extra food, etc., but also we felt good being able to accomplish something —
16
something to give us hope about being able to survive by trying some outrageous trickery
and being successful” (Cahn, 2001, p. 66). More important than the food and cigarettes they
got out of their trickery, was the sense of control in a situation, giving them back a bit of both
confidence and humanity.
In his book, titled “At the mind’s limits: Contemplations by a survivor of Auschwitz
And its realities,” Jean Amery emphasizes the role of religious faith or ideology in survival
(Amery, 1980). This theme was also present in the narratives of the respondents in Prot’s
study: A survivor named Oliver describes how the survivors had faith, they were convinced,
believed till death that communism would win, fascism would lose, and then a beautiful life
would begin. And they were ready to endure everything for this goal, without an idea it was
very hard to survive. This is a faith not in God, but faith none the less, a faith to keep them
going. These survivors live their lives bound by hope, not by horror, these are the qualities
that enabled them to survive physically and emotionally, the unimaginable events of the
Holocaust, but also allow them to live now with a sense of love and the possibility of a better
world to come. Their unshakable optimism played a major role for those that went on to lead
lives with a sense of goodness, hope and purpose.
The survivors emphasized also that hope and faith in surviving were important. A
survivor describes how he never thought he could die there. He always believed, in hiding
and during selection, he always believed he would be able to survive (Prot, 2012). Another
survivor, Maria, describes how she didn’t know where it was coming from, but all the time
she was absolutely sure nothing wrong could happen to her (Prot, 2012). A survivor, Oliver
describes how he could never, not even once think he could not stand it anymore. Oliver
describes how in the camp if one day someone said he could not go on like that, the next day
he was dead. He describes how it was to be a young person in the camps, “you are beaten,
hungry, thirsty, sick. You cannot imagine, being a young person, how you can continue your
life. You have nobody, your home was taken away, robbed. There is nobody left, not only
from your family, but no other Jew. I wanted to survive in order to tell my brother what
happened to our family. That was my motivation to survive” (Prot, 2012, p. 179). This
motivation for survival was seen not as luck, but as control. This survivor was consciously
aware of the need to survive, the need to share what has happened. He was mentally
17
controlling the situation, knowing he had no choice but to live to tell the world, to tell his
family.
It is recognized that in the chaotic world of the Holocaust, a lack of information often
made survival a matter of chance. In the apparent absence of logic, predictability, or
regularity, optimal survival strategies were both difficult to identify and in any case
unreliable. Death could come to anyone who happened to stand in the wrong line, appear at
the wrong time, volunteer or fail to volunteer for a work assignment, catch a random
infection, or somehow arouse the anger of a guard, soldier, policeman, neighbor or informer
(Suedfeld et al., 1997).
The literature pertaining to the Holocaust and its history is diverse and broad from
political, theoretical, psychological, sociological and the public health standpoints. It would
be entirely incorrect to imply that this study will address them all, with a subject so
expansive and broad. This unassuming review of literature pertaining to the Holocaust is just
a glimpse, as it would not be possible to include all the existing sources. The focus of this
study is on the ideas of luck, control and faith. A large part of the survivors’ explanation is
often assigned to luck, but that there are no specific answers that relate to luck in comparison
with locus of control. Although many oral histories already exist that are very detailed and
serve as a rich source of data for historians and social scientists; there is little investigation of
the research question; is there a sense of loss of control or luck in survivors’ evaluation of
their survival?
18
METHODS
AIMS OF RESEARCH
The aim of this study was to explore psychological factors that, according to
Holocaust survivors, enabled them to stay alive during the war and adapt in the postwar
period.
HYPOTHESIS TESTED
There was no specific hypothesis. This study was a phenomenological exploration of
the concept of luck, faith and locus of control. Holocaust survivors experienced a significant
trauma and their outlook on life, faith in God and the idea of luck were explored as possible
explanations as to why they survived.
METHODS
Participants in the study are European Jews who survived the Holocaust. Persons
studied were selected using the convenience sampling technique. Interviews with the
participants were carried out during one month in 2013 in San Diego, California. A total of
10 survivors were interviewed. The key method used was face-to-face structured interviews.
Verbatim notes were taken of survivors’ narratives about their lives in response to the
specific interview questions. Responses of the participants’ subjective perceptions of various
aspects of their past experiences were recorded verbatim. Participants’ name, address, date of
birth, or any other unique identifiers were not recorded. The notes formed the basis for the
results and analysis sections. Since this was an exploratory phenomenological study, the
analysis focused exclusively on the clients’ expressed recollection of their level of perceived
control and luck during the Holocaust. No data was recorded or collected on the clients’
unique information. Demographic data only extended to age and gender.
DATA GATHERED AND TESTED
Data analyzed was the responses recorded from the interviews conducted. The
purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation between Holocaust survivors and their
views on life, faith and control and their survival. The interview explored whether survivors
19
of the Holocaust share a certain outlook on life that promoted their well-being after the
Holocaust.
THE PLANNED ANALYSES WERE
The correlation between the attitude of Holocaust survivors and their outlook on life
and their actual survival as well as additional relationships among responses of the subjects
to the interview questions. The potential benefit of this study was affirmation that a positive
outlook on life, faith and control in a dire situation greatly influences the ability to survive a
severe trauma.
The study was approved for protection of human subjects by the San Diego State
University Institutional Review Board.
20
RESULTS
A total of ten European Holocaust survivors participated in the research study, five
men and five women. Some were recruited through friends and others expressed interest via
the services they receive from Jewish Family Service of San Diego. Interviewed were two
survivors from Romania, three from Ukraine, two from Poland, one from Czechoslovakia,
one from Austria and one from Moldova. The participants had a mean age of 84.6 years with
a standard deviation of 5.78 years. Among the female participants, the mean age was 86.6
years with a standard deviation of 4.93 years. For the male participants, the mean age was
82.6 years with a standard deviation of 6.39 years. There were two participants under the
age of eighty at the time of the interview, five participants between the ages of eighty and
ninety and three participants aged ninety and over. The majority of the interviews were
conducted in English, while two of them were conducted in Russian and later translated into
English. The participants left Europe via different avenues, many for Israel and later on to
America at various stages in their lives. The participants that were from the former Soviet
Union came only after the fall of communism in 1990. The participants from other parts of
Europe fled Europe for Israel after the war and later moved to America. Each interview was
conducted at the home of the participant and was less than an hour in length. The participants
were asked to answer a set of nine interview questions about their personal experiences
during the Holocaust (see Appendix).
21
ANALYSIS
This was a phenomological research study in which dissonance was present in the
analysis of the results. When conducting the content analysis, the initial thought was to code
the responses by question. This did not provide any clear cut themes. The next idea was to
code them by themes that were present among the responses. When trying to organize it this
way, themes were present, but they were not coherent. That is where the theory of cognitive
dissonance emerged. There was no clear cut way to organize the responses, but to
acknowledge the constant theme of cognitive dissonance present in the responses.
22
DISCUSSION
The process of interviewing Holocaust survivors elicited variable responses which
were initially extremely difficult to categorize. There was unique variation in how each
participant responded to the interview questions, with no consistent themes present. Thus,
there was no rigid pattern of describing their experiences. The analysis of results is based on
narratives located in the Appendix. After attempting to define the responses on the basis of
luck versus God it become very obvious that the participants did not see the interpretation of
the Holocaust in those terms. Although those terms were concepts that they used, the method
of interpretation was divergent. It seems that there was not one way of interpreting trauma of
the Holocaust. The responses indicated that there was dissonance.
Used as a possible tool to arrange these narratives was the theory of cognitive
dissonance. This theory is neither conclusive nor comprehensive, but served as a tool to
organize and explain the variance among responses. Within this academic tool there are three
concepts, these concepts used to help interpret the results were “That is Life,” “Positive
Outcomes,” and “Random Events.” The responses were organized using these concepts as a
way to help understand the conflicting narratives. These themes are not clear cut and
exclusive constructs, but rather academic constructs that helped to interpret the often
contradictory responses. At times, all three concepts were applicable as ways to interpret and
better understand the responses as the concepts are not exclusive.
More than 40 years ago, Leon Festinger made the suggestion that inconsistency
between pairs of cognitive elements causes the psychological discomfort known as cognitive
dissonance (Festinger, Riecken, & Schachter, 1956). The theory of cognitive dissonance is
the ability of a person to believe in two diametrically opposite ideas at the same time, often causing discomfort. Being in such a state of flux or having unresolved experiences can often
cause feelings of guilt, anger and anxiety.
The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have
a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to
create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of
the dissonant elements (Harmon-Jones, & Mills, 1999). It is the distressing mental anguish
23
and uncertainty felt when a person may have an opinion that does not fit in with other
opinions they hold. A key assumption is that people want their expectations have a sense of
equilibrium (McLeod, 2008). Likewise, another assumption is that a person will avoid
situations or information sources that give rise to feelings of uneasiness, or dissonance
(McLeod, 2008). Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes,
beliefs or behaviors (McLeod, 2008). This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an
alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore
balance (McLeod, 2008).
There are many ways of dealing with cognitive dissonance. These strategies can be
used independently or together in order to reduce the dissonance of an amoral and inhuman
event within a moral humane existence. One may try to reduce the dissonance by changing
one or more of the beliefs or opinions involved (e.g. most of my family survived),
categorized under the “That is Life” theme. The narratives incorporated into this theme are
consistent with placing blame on others as a way to diminish survivors’ guilt they may feel.
The second way one might deal with dissonant thoughts would be to focus on the positive,
supportive beliefs and behaviors (e.g. I was helped), categorized here under the “Positive
Outcomes” theme. The third way one may deal with this dissonance would be to altogether
change the conflicting belief so that it is consistent; often by externalizing and placing blame
(e.g. it would have happened to any group), categorized under the theme titled “Random
Events”. These three strategies for dealing with cognitive dissonance are used as themes to
categorize the responses given by the ten survivors interviewed (Festinger et al., 1956).
It was found that the best way to interpret this variation within responses was to apply
the theory of cognitive dissonance and organize the responses according to the way the
survivors attempt to minimize their cognitive dissonance. The themes used to categorize the
narratives according to the ways used to minimize dissonance were titled; That is Life;
Positive Outcomes and; Random Events.
THAT IS LIFE
In an attempt to minimize dissonance, one may change their existing cognition so
they are consistent with other beliefs or behaviors. This category was used to group instances
24
where within the response it was seen that there was an attempt to change the belief so it is
consistent with others.
Among the participants, the responses were variable when responding to the question
of whether or not they had any guilt, resentment or anger about what happened to them and
their family during the war. Many of the responses were surprisingly not directed at the
Nazis, but at other populations. One survivor, a 76 year old male directs his anger at the
Jewish religious community. He stated “They say don’t resist, obey, follow and that is why
my entire family died, because they did not resist.” He also directs his anger at America, for
not intervening sooner, for not allowing ships with Jews trying to flee into America. Another
participant, a 90 year old female survivor of Auschwitz explained that she feels anger, but no
guilt. She stated “I feel anger, but no guilt. Anger not so much for the Germans, but toward
the Slovaks who in 1942 were gathering the Jewish children and giving them up to the
Germans for a reward of 500 crowns per Jew.”
Some do direct their anger at the Germans and blame them for the war. An 81 year
old female survivor describes how she feels about the Germans; “Yes, I cannot understand
how the Germans, who were intelligent people with families of their own could do such
things to us Jews and then go home to their own families and kiss their children.” She states
her confusion and anger and shared how she expresses this anger, when asked: “I do not
carry the anger with me, and do not express it, but I do ask God “how could you let this be”
how could all this be possible.” She shows anger directed not only at the Germans, but at
God as well. This can best be explained by the theory of cognitive dissonance. There is
oscillation present here in assigning responsibility both to God and to the Germans. Placing
blame is consistent with the “That is Life” construct of changing existing cognitions to
minimize dissonance. Questioning where God was while the Jews were being slaughtered. In
response to the same question, a 93 year old survivor of Auschwitz stated; “I do not have any
guilt, but I am angry only at those who directly wronged us. I am not angry at the entire
German population because not all of them knew what was happening, but most of them did.
They knew their lamp shades were made of our skin, that their mattresses were stuffed with
our hair and they were wearing our clothes and cosmetics. I want all those that wronged us
brought to justice.” When asked who she directs this anger at and how she expresses it, she
stated; “ I express my anger through sharing my knowledge. When I was 72 years old I first
25
heard of the deniers of the Holocaust and that really made me angry, I fight back by speaking
at schools and writing to share my experience, my proof that the Holocaust did happen. I
want justice for what was done to us.”
Asking an 87 year old male survivor whether he has any guilt, anger or resentment
about what happened to him during the war he responded with: “I have a lot of feelings about
the war and I always will, I will never forget. I know I could never live in Germany, A
country that could commit such a tragedy against European Jews. I am angry at fascism,
fascism that took my youth and murdered my parents in their youth.” It seems through these
responses there is great emphasis placed on keeping the memory alive and the history
straight. Through expression of their personal stories these survivors are able to feel a sort of
justification for what happened to them and the Jews of Europe.
In analyzing the responses given to the interview questions, there were some
responses that did not directly answer the question in the desired way. But rather told a story,
summarizing their personal events, leaving the response up for interpretation. For example,
when asked the question: “Why do you think your family did not survive, and you did?” A
76 year old male participant responded with: “My sister was murdered while my mother was
holding her in her arms. We were all being rounded up, 15,000 Jews and sent to the police
station where they opened fire on us. My sister was scared and was screaming and a
Romanian soldier stabbed her to death to stop her from screaming while my mother held
her.” The trauma he describes in response to the question is unimaginable, but for him it was
a memory he lived. He does not directly respond to the question, but rather tells a story, a
summary of what happened. This event was so tragic and so illogical that it is difficult to put
into words, but it clearly impacted him deeply. Sometimes there are things that one cannot
explain, these are things that have stayed with these survivors and likely will stay that way
forever. They are in a constant state of dissonance inside; continuous reinterpretation of the
unexplainable event validates why there is no pattern to the responses.
Comprehending the vast range of Jewish religious experiences and cultural
association may never be entirely understood. Each Jew has a understanding of their personal
Jewish association, whether it be via faith or ethnicity. For example, when interviewing a
female survivor who was ten years old at the time her town was occupied by the Nazis, her
response to the interview questions were unexpected. She witnessed the murder of her
26
mother, father and brother in the forest outside her town, watching from behind a tree where
her mother hid her. After the massacre of all 28,000 Jews from her town she was found by a
German soldier, standing where her mother left her. The soldier asked her what she was
doing there and told her he had a daughter about her age at home and felt some compassion
for her. He pointed in one direction and told her to run, run until she sees a small house with
a woman and her seven children there. He explained to her that he had been bringing food to
the woman and her children and that she would help her if she mentioned the soldier once
she found the woman in her home. She followed his instruction and found the house,
explained as she was directed to and the woman was kind enough to hide her. The woman
hid her there until she could sneak her into the neighboring village, which had become a
concentration camp and ghetto. From there she was adopted by a Jewish couple and the three
of them lived out the war in the concentration camp. When asked if there was any event in
particular that caused her to lose faith in God, she answered and explained that she was from
a very religious family and she said: “My mother would tell me all the time to always have
faith in God, after the war I kept believing in God to keep the memory of my mother alive.”
When asked whether or not she thinks her outlook on life influenced her ability to survive the
war, she said “I feel that God saved me during the war, I was praying to him and he helped
me.” In both of these examples, these survivors do acknowledge their lives being saved by
either family members, German soldiers or a Christian woman in the forest, and they also
credit their survival to God. Often times though the responses given to the interview
questions left much room to interpret the response. Most answers were not as direct as
anticipated. Through interpretation, it became clear that often within a single response, two
opposing themes were held.
The trauma that occurred during the Holocaust to Jews that had faith in and prayed to
God caused many to question, if not abandon their faith entirely. For some, they learned that
no amount of prayer could save them; they were utterly alone in their time of tremendous
need. It was not uncommon to have survived, but to have continued to live knowing of
unanswered prayers; which in turn diminished their perception of surviving.
When asking a 93 year old female survivor of Auschwitz if there was an event in
particular that caused her to lose faith in God, she responded with: “After I returned from
Auschwitz I kept asking “Why?”, “What did we do?”, “What did one million and a half
27
children do to be annihilated, if there was a God, how could he tolerate this?” She went on to
explain that she no longer had a religion. She had her own religion that was one of ethics,
that asks, “What can you do for your fellow man?” An 81 year old female Holocaust survivor
recalls the event that caused her to lose all faith in God. She reminisces: “At the beginning of
the war, as soon as our town was invaded by the Germans they took all the Jewish men and
hung them alive in the slaughterhouse like animals, including my father.” She recalls another
event that stands out in her mind as a specific instance that caused her to lose all faith, “I was
hiding in a tunnel under the street and watched as a German soldier took a baby from its
mother and pulled the baby apart, from that moment on I no longer have faith in God.” When
asked to respond to the same question, to recall whether or not there was a specific time faith
was lost during the war, a 90 year old male survivor described his experience: “After the war
I had no family and was still in the Red Army, where it was forbidden to have a religion or
faith in God. I no longer had a family and had no cultural connection to Judaism any longer.
There was a time during the war where I prayed to God, I did not necessarily believe he was
there or he existed, but I prayed for my family to survive the war and for us to be reunited.
But my entire family perished and with them so did my God.” After witnessing the death and
destruction of family and fellow believers, the faith of many was lost and their God was
dead.
One of the participants, an 87 year old male, in response to the question that asked
whether or not he thought his outlook on life influenced his ability to survive the war; he did
not acknowledge that his outlook had anything to do with his ultimate survival. In his
response to the question, he stated:
During the war, it was difficult to think at all, I only lived at that exact moment. I
didn't know what was coming in 5 minutes, let alone tomorrow. I never thought
about the future or my survival. I did what I could to stay alive at that moment; I
had no plans for the future, no plans for survival. We thought our life would stay
the way it was forever, Hitler would not fall. Of the 100,000 Jews that lived in
Odessa before the war, only 2% survived.
He recognizes that the power of surviving just one more minute is what kept him
going. There was no logic to the Nazi persecution in the camps, no way to prepare yourself
or anticipate their next move or choice. The best thing he could do was to make a choice to
do whatever was in his power to survive just one more minute, but the choice was his to
make.
28
The survivors of the Holocaust often question why they lived while all others did not.
The question that many survivors asked themselves in this study is what makes them special
or for lack of a better word, lucky. The survivors themselves pointed to the role of chance, of
good luck, in surviving during the war (Stoessinger, 2012). One of the interview questions
asks, why do you think your family did not survive, and you did? A 90 year old female
survivor of the Auschwitz death camp answered with “I was just lucky. Lucky I did not get
caught before I was. There was no choice I made, just lucky. I was taken to Auschwitz in
October 1944; we were liberated on the first of April 1945.” The survivors first and foremost
speak about sheer chance, their ‘‘good luck.’’ Acknowledging luck as a reason for survival
helps to relieve some of the guilt associated with surviving such a trauma when so many
others that were both close to you and just like you, did not. Mentally defining their reason
for survival to sheer luck may help to alleviate some of that guilt and dissonance.
There are those survivors who credit their survival to an external influence, an event
or a person they had no personal influence on. Sometimes, it was a skill they had that was
found useful and thus made it more likely that the Nazis would keep them alive. In the case
of a 76 year old male survivor it came down to exactly that, a special skill. When asked if
there was an event in particular that he recalled that allowed him to survive, his responses
indicated that it was not a particular event, but rather a skill. His response was as such: “My
father was a watchmaker and an inventor; this helped us a great deal when we were in the
concentration camp in the town of Magilev in Transnistria. In the camp everyday Jews were
beaten starved and shot, but we had some protection because my father could make
prosthetics and I knew how to help him make limbs.” He goes on to describe how this saved
his life and the life of his parents because there were so many hospitals around with the
wounded and they needed him and his father to make prosthetic limbs for the injured. The
captain at the hospital and his wife would risk their own lives to bring them food in the
middle of the night and protect them when the Germans would come by and ask them to turn
over any “Juden”. These responses and the nuances within them are all interconnected. It
may seem as though this participant was able to survive the horrors of the Holocaust due only
to the kindness of a military captain who kept him and his family alive.
It is remarkable how many of these survivors were able to remain human in the most
inhumane circumstances and yet retain such life-affirming, optimistic attitudes about both
29
life and humanity. Is this positive outlook just their nature, or was it a way for them to
control the situation internally, through their outlook on life? In the dissertation of Ann
Weiss, she quotes a survivor as saying “Action needs to be taken in order for luck to be
made.” Lunia, the Holocaust survivor narrated in Weiss’s dissertation gives advice about
having courage. She stated, “Have courage, be willing to take a chance, maybe it will work
out, maybe it won’t, if it doesn’t succeed, what’s the worst that can happen. You try again,
something else his time. Have the courage to try, and the courage to fail. If there’s a chance
to succeed, you’ll always wonder, if you don’t try (Weiss, 2007, p. 123).” The response she
gave, eludes the reader to assume she is in a state of cognitive dissonance. She states that she
was lucky, but also makes the statement that luck must be made by taking a chance. Likely
without ever realizing it, she holds two opposing views. Although most of these survivors
acknowledge that luck and in some cases supernatural protection had a role in their survival,
they often structure their stories around self-control, persistence and problem solving
strategies (Suedfeld et al., 1997).
These excerpts from the narratives above fit well within the “That is Life” category of
ways to minimize cognitive dissonance. The narratives incorporated into this theme are
consistent with placing blame on others as a way to diminish survivors’ guilt they may feel.
Whether placing blame on their fellow Jews, the Nazis or their countrymen, the blame is
externalized as a way to diminish guilt and preserve pride. The participants sometimes did
not directly address the question asked, but they often described the events in a way that
placed blame elsewhere. This is often the best way they can understand what happened and
why.
POSITIVE OUTCOMES
The concept of Positive Outcomes was used to group responses where there was more
focus on supportive beliefs that outweigh the dissonant belief or behavior. Often times,
within the responses it is seen that the survivors may interpret their struggles as reason for
their mental and physical strength, but may struggle to acknowledge for Holocaust as the
reason for this.
The Holocaust is difficult to understand because it is an event that contradicts both
moral and social human behavior. Guilt is a significant theme among Holocaust survivors,
30
but not all of them are able or willing to identify it. When asked directly if he has any guilt,
resentment or anger about what happened to him and his family during the war, a 76 year old
male survivor answered with: “… I was sick once too and ready to die, but I was saved by
the Russian army. I am not angry. I cannot be angry at entire populations when I am alive
because of them, they saved me. I am guilty about what happened to my sister.” Though he
does readily admit to having a feeling of guilt, he also leaves much room for interpretation of
his response.
Survivors often emphasized the role of life optimism, social support and a sense that
their situation was comprehensible and manageable even under adverse conditions (Prot,
2012). This maintenance of a sense of control, regardless of how slight it may have been was
very important to those that survived. All had a strong will to survive and made many
conscious decisions, to the best of their ability, to heed their survival. Regarding personality
traits, they emphasized life optimism that allowed them to keep up the hope of survival.
When asked the question, do you think you would have survived had you looked at
events during the Holocaust in a different light? An 81 year old female Holocaust survivor
answered with: “ I do not think so, but I will never know. I do think that if I looked at things
differently I would not be alive if I was not strong. I feel lucky that I have such a positive
outlook even now; by nature I hide all the bad things in the back of the brain. What good
would it do me to cry all the time.” Within her response to one question, three separate
themes are present. She gives a hierarchical and complex response; one theme which she
offers easily is strength, and then luck that she somehow nurtured through her positive
outlook, and then we see the admission that she is not completely transparent. This variance
in themes expresses the constant oscillation of ideas and attempts to understand and explain
what happened.
A 90 year old female survivor of the Auschwitz death camp responded to the
question, “Do you feel that your outlook on life influenced your ability to survive the war?”
with this response: “Yes, my positive outlook influenced my ability to survive the war. Also
my time in Budapest alone under false papers made me mentally very strong. Also, the fact
that I was not from a rich family helped quite a bit because I was always working at home. If
I was from a wealthy family like my friend in the camp was, I would have broken down
faster and suffered more when I got to Auschwitz like she did, but I was strong mentally.” In
31
her response, we also see more than one theme present. We see her acknowledging mental
strength, a positive outlook and also physical strength. The presence of these three themes
would be explained best by the cognitive dissonance theory, where one can hold different
contradictory or opposing themes and apply them to the same idea. Not necessarily due to
confusion, but often because it is easier this way, to leave room for interpretation, than to
identify that there is no explanation, no systematic way to explain these atrocities they
suffered and ultimately survived.
Many survivors talk about their positive outlook on life and how it helped to enable
them to survive during the trauma of the Holocaust and return to life after the war. In
response to the question: “Do you feel that your outlook on life influenced your ability to
survive the war?” A 76 year old male Holocaust survivor responded with: “I do believe my
life outlook allowed me to survive the war, I was always positive. Even during the war, in the
camps we would tell jokes and laugh and sing. This influenced our survival and my father
was positive all the time which helped us. If we were negative we were as good as dead.”
Their unshakable optimism during the war carried through to play a major role for those that
went on to lead lives with a sense of goodness, hope and purpose.
Is this positive outlook just their nature, or was it a way for them to control the
situation internally, through their outlook on life? Individuals who believe that they can
control events will be less affected by disaster than those who do not believe that they can
control outcomes and those who have lost the belief in their ability to prevent disaster (Baron
et al., 1996). The same 76 year old male survivor emphasized the importance of mental
strength and never giving up. When asked if he thinks he would have survived the war if he
had looked at the events during the war in a different light, he stated “I was a child during the
war and I did as I was told by my parents, but I think if I was discouraged I would have given
up and died, it is all in your mind, you must never give up.” This positivity is something that
the survivors seemed to carry with them through the war and into their post-war lives. They
often realized the impact it played on them during a time of horror and let the positive
outlook lead them in their lives.
The responses of these two survivors and their decisions to stay alive, whether it be to
reach their lifelong goals or simply to see the sun rise again, the choice was theirs and they
made it. Even the simplicity of having a conscious choice to make, helped them to survive. In
32
his book, Survival in Auschwitz; Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz, knew he absolutely
had to make decisions to maintain his sense of self, which he needed in order to survive. He
was consciously aware that having a choice was reason to move forward and to live. Levi
describes how almost every decision was made for them, but not the decision to maintain
their dignity (Levi, 1993). This sense of dignity, self-respect and the ability to make a choice
is exactly what allowed survivors like Primo Levi to live to bear witness and survive to tell
their story.
Thoughts and dreams like these allowed them to at least internally believe they were
in control of the situation and had the ability to make even the most minuscule of decisions,
allowing them to strive harder toward their ultimate and often only goal, of survival. This
sense of control was a spark of hope that helped keep men like Levi from hitting rockbottom. The ability to make decisions alone can be a matter of life or death and it was a
matter of life in the case of the two participants previously mentioned.
The survivors whose responses fit into the “Positive Outcomes” theme of ways to
deal with cognitive dissonance interpret their struggle to survive as reason for their strength,
both mental and physical. They struggle to acknowledge the trauma endured during the
Holocaust as the reason for their ultimate survival due to guilt. Due to feelings of guilt being
attached to these thoughts they will not directly state this, but often will indirectly
acknowledge this. Occasionally, they will recognize this. For example, when asked directly if
he has any guilt, resentment or anger about what happened to him and his family during the
war, a 76 year old male survivor answered with: “I do feel guilt, but I am constantly fighting
it. I feel that I survived because of survival of the fittest, a saying that I truly hate. I do not
like the idea that those that died were not strong, they had no choice. I do feel they could
have fought harder, not gone like lambs to slaughter. If they were to die anyway, they should
have died fighting.” Within his response he does recognize that he is strong because of the
trauma of the Holocaust and having these thoughts anger him, yet he admits to having them.
As a way to diminish his guilt, he also blames the Jews for their death and destruction, for
not fighting harder to the death.
33
RANDOM EVENTS
The concept of “Random Events” was used to categorize ways one may try to
minimize their dissonance by reducing the importance of their conflicting belief. This
concept is centered around the idea that the Holocaust could have happened to anyone else.
That is was an entirely random event that in no way could have been predicted. This concept
was used as an academic construct to help understand the conflicting narratives.
Each survivor has a different experience of Judaism and religiosity. Being Jewish was
simply a way of life for many Jews, often times they were not very religious, but were
considered just as Jewish as the next. Of those that were interviewed, if they were old enough
to have had faith prior to experiencing the Holocaust, lost their faith as a result of the trauma
endured. Those that were either too young to remember or lucky enough to avoid the most
horrifying events, if they had a belief that was more than cultural to begin with, kept their
faith. One such example is a survivor that was able to escape; she was living in Bulgaria at
the start of war and speaks of her faith in God and the importance of maintaining it
throughout the war. She reminisced that, “God was the only thing that kept us going, that’s
the only thing that saved us; it was something to hold onto.” Yet this same survivor
acknowledges that there were some pragmatic events that also contributed, such as King
Boris III, the King of Bulgaria at the start of the war who saved the lives of Bulgaria’s 50,000
Jews including her and her family. In this case, although her suffering is not to be dismissed,
it is different from the suffering of a survivor of Auschwitz or ones that lost their entire
immediate family. When asked whether or not she has any resentment, guilt or anger about
what happened to her and her family during the war she answered “No, I think more and
more that it wasn’t an easy life. That Bulgaria was the only country in all of Europe that
didn’t give up their Jews and send them to Auschwitz; I thank God for letting me survive.”
These responses can only be explained by the theory of cognitive dissonance, in which a
person holds two opposing views to explain a phenomenon, in this case as an interpretation
of a significant trauma.
Doris Bergen stated: “Connections, money and determination were all factors, but so,
above all, was luck, or whatever one might call chance at a time when no Jews could be
counted lucky (Bergen, 2003, p. 99)” When asking an 87 year old male survivor of the ghetto
34
and concentration camps in Ukraine whether or not he thought there was an event in
particular he could recall that allowed him to survive the war, he responded with:
worked doing all sorts of things, but most of all I was lucky. I did not shower for
two years, walked barefoot in the snow and had no clothing left. The clothes I had
on my back I sold piece by piece for a piece of bread from the Christians who
would come by the camp. No event in particular, simply because I was young
(Bergen, 2003)
In responding to the question, he attributes his survival to luck, his physical strength,
age and his choice to sell his clothing for extra bread. Each of these themes directly oppose
the other, here we can see the idea of luck vs. control within a single response. This can best
be explained when two or more opposing concepts are held causing internal friction between
the two. He says he was lucky to survive, but goes on to explain how he traded his clothing
for food and how his youth and physical strength fostered his survival in the camp. He
reconciled his internal friction by accepting both as equally important.
Many survivors talk about what, in their opinion, enabled them to survive during the
war and return to life after the war. Their narratives often oscillate between resilience; a
mental ability to survive that sometimes influenced their physical survival. When
interviewing a 93 year old female survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, she was asked if
she feels that her outlook on life influenced her ability to survive the war. In her response,
she stated “I always knew that as long as my sister was with me I would survive the war, I
knew she would not let me die.” When the same survivor was asked if she thinks she would
have survived had she looked at the events during the Holocaust in a different light? She
answered, “ I didn’t think about anything, there was no time to think, I just schlepped along
with my sister. The only thing I thought about was I hoped the madness would come to an
end so I could live my dream and finish school and go to college and get somewhere in life, I
was ambitious and very smart.” Within her responses, she acknowledges the role her sister
played in her survival without acknowledging her own role. She does not bring any attention
to the fact that the way she held onto her own hopes, dreams and aspirations throughout the
war may have impacted her survival in any way. She views her sister as the sole reason for
her survival. Within a response to a single question, she whether knowingly or unknowingly,
she attributes her survival to two influences. Her own personal goals and mental strength and
desire to pursue them, as well as her sister who did whatever she could to keep her alive. This
35
can be interpreted as an example of the theory of cognitive dissonance, she readily offers her
sister as the reason for her survival, but also attributes it to her hopes, dreams and aspirations.
Another way to dissipate the cognitive dissonance associated with surviving a severe
trauma is to have some belief that the trauma that occurred was entirely random, that it could
have happened to anyone else and could not have been predicted. Looking at the Holocaust
in this light is a way for the survivors to reduce the importance of the conflicting belief they
have. If the event was random and unpredictable, they can lessen the guilt they have
associated with their survival.
There are those survivors that say faith is what got them through the war, the reason
behind their survival. They often use it as a heuristic tool to explain the unexplainable
atrocity they suffered from which they survived first-hand. An atrocity as conflicting as the
Holocaust is difficult to come to terms with, especially when guilt of surviving is so clearly
associated with many that did not share the same fate. This inconsistency so clearly present
in the responses of the survivors interviewed. The responses highlight psychological
discomfort known as cognitive dissonance (Harmon-Jones, & Mills, 1999). The faith of
many was shattered, but some may ask, how were the faithful able to affirm their trust in God
after the war? Dissonance in terms of faith is caused by unanswered questions. If there was a
God, why did he let prayers go unanswered and so many innocent Jews to be murdered. If
God does not exist, then why did those that prayed for their own survival, survive?
These survivors live their lives bound by hope, not by horror, these are the qualities
that enabled them to survive physically and emotionally, the unimaginable events of the
Holocaust, but also allow them to live now with a sense of love and the possibility of a better
world to come.
36
CONCLUSION
The Holocaust exposes many questions left unanswered regarding those that survived
this atrocity. So much surrounds the repercussions of their survival. A variety of studies
conducted after the war showed that Holocaust survivors were deeply affected by the trauma.
Holocaust survivors provide an opportunity for studying the enduring effects of massive
trauma, extremely stressful experiences and the philosophy of survival (Barel et al., 2010).
When analyzing the results gathered from the narratives taken during the interviews,
it became clear that there was significant variation among responses. After initial attempts to
categorize the responses as anticipated failed, a theory arose. The theory of cognitive
dissonance is the best way to interpret the divergence among responses. The survivors whose
responses were categorized under the theme “Positive Outcomes” had a way of interpreting
their struggle to survive as reason for their strength, both mental and physical. They struggle
to acknowledge the trauma endured during the Holocaust as the reason for their ultimate
survival, likely due to guilt of survival. Due to feelings of guilt being attached to these
thoughts the survivors interviewed never explicitly stated this, all but one, who clearly
recognized this.
Another way the survivors attempted to dissipate their cognitive dissonance
associated with their survival was through expressing the belief that the trauma they endured
was entirely random, that it could have happened to anyone else and could in no way have
been predicted. Looking at the Holocaust in this light is a way for the survivors to reduce the
importance of the conflicting belief they have. If the event was random and unpredictable,
they are able to lessen the guilt they have associated with their survival.
The other responses were categorized under the “That is Life” theme as their way to
minimize cognitive dissonance. The narratives incorporated into this theme were consistent
with placing blame on others as a way to diminish their guilt of survival. Whether placing
blame on their fellow Jews, the Nazis or their countrymen, they externalized the blame as a
way to diminish guilt and preserve their pride. Occasionally, the participants did not directly
address the question asked, but often described the events in a way that placed blame
elsewhere. This is often the best way they can understand what happened and why.
37
Sometimes, there are things, especially severe traumas that are simply unexplainable.
For this group of Holocaust survivors interviewed, the trauma of the Holocaust is
unexplainable and will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Their continuous
reinterpretation of the events they suffered are so difficult not only to express, but to
understand. Their trauma so tremendous and illogical, that they are in a constant state of
internal dissonance. This constant dissonance leaves them extremely emotional and unable
to come to terms with what happened because their thoughts surrounding the Holocaust are
still in a state of flux, leaving these thoughts simply unexplainable. The theory of cognitive
dissonance is the best grounds for understanding and interpreting the responses of those
interviewed. A prediction would be that there is constant dissonance among survivors of the
Holocaust and other severe physical and emotional traumas.
For these survivors, expression and acknowledgment of their story helps to dissipate
the internal turmoil. Sharing their personal histories and leaving a legacy gives some comfort
to these survivors that their history shall not be lost and the proof of their suffering will be in
writing.
38
REFERENCES
Amery, J. (1980). At the mind's limits: Contemplations by a survivor of Auschwitz and its
realities. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Baron, L., Eisman, H., Scuello, M., Veyzer, A., & Lieberman, M. (1996). Stress resilience,
locus of control, and religion in children of holocaust victims. The Journal of
Psychology, 130(5), 513-513.
Barel, E., Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Sagi-Schwartz, A., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J.
(2010). Surviving the holocaust: A meta-analysis of the long-term sequelae of a
genocide. Psychological Bulletin, 136(5), 677-698.
Ben-Zur, H., & Zimmerman, M. (2005). Aging holocaust survivors' well-being and
adjustment: Associations with ambivalence over emotional expression. Psychology
and Aging, 20(4), 710-713.
Bender, S. M. (2004). Transgenerational effects of the holocaust: Past, present, and future.
Journal of Loss & Trauma, 9(3), 205-215.
Berenbaum, M. (1993). The world must know. New York, NY: Back Bay Books.
Bergen, D. L. (2003). War and genocide: A concise history of the holocaust. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Cahn, H. (2001). Loss, liberty and love: My journey from Essen to Auschwitz to the United
States. Newport Beach, CA: Storymakers.
Dawidowicz, L. S. (1975). The war against the Jews, 1933-1945. New York, NY: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston
Faith. (2013). In Mariam-Webster’s online dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/faith
Festinger, L., Riecken, H., & Schachter, S. (1956). When prophecy fails. Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press.
Fitzgerald, S. (2011). Children of the holocaust. Mankato, MN: Compass Point Books.
Grodin, M. A. (2011). Caring for aging holocaust survivors and subsequent generations.
American Imago, 68(3), 543-559, 579.
Harmon-Jones, E., & Mills, J. (1999). Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in
social psychology. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Kraut, B. (1982). With God in hell/the faith and doubt of Holocaust survivors. Judaism,
31(2), 185.
Levi, P. (1993). Survival in Auschwitz, the Nazi assault on humanity. New York, NY: Simon
& Schuster
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Cognitive dissonance theory - Simply psychology. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html
39
Prot, K. (2012). Strength of holocaust survivors. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 17(6), 173186.
Stoessinger, C. (2012). A century of wisdom: Lessons from the life of Alice Herz-Sommer, the
world's oldest living holocaust survivor. New York, NY: Random House.
Suedfeld, P., Krell, R., Wiebe, R. E., & Steel, G. (1997). Coping strategies in the narratives
of holocaust survivors. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 10(2), 153.
Weiss, A. (2007). Death and life of two holocaust survivors: Memory, narrative and life
study. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304836198
Wiesel, E. (2006). Night. New York, NY: Hill & Wang.
40
APPENDIX
HOLOCAUST NARRATIVES
41
1).Did your family survive?
1a.) Why do you think your family did not survive, and you did?
F90- No. I was just lucky. Lucky I did not get caught before I was. There was no choice I
made, just lucky. I was taken to Auschwitz in October 1944; we were liberated on 4/1/45
M90- No, we were a family of 6. I was the oldest, with one brother and 2 sisters, mom and
dad. It was a miracle I survived on the front for 4 years while my family all perished at home
in Ukraine.
M76- My sister did not survive, but my parents did. My sister was murdered while my
mother was holding her in her arms. We were all being rounded up, 15,000 Jews and sent to
the police station where they opened fire on us. My sister was scared and was screaming and
a Romanian soldier stabbed her to death to stop her from screaming while my mother held
her.
F81-26 members of my family died during the war. My parents and I survived, but both of
parents died shortly after the end of the war. My father 4 years after and my mother 6 years
after. I was strong and always fighting, I never gave up and worked all the time
M87- My father died in a concentration camp my mother died of typhus and starvation in
the ghetto in December of 1942 where we lived in a cow barn, with no heat, no food and
hardly any shelter. I was young and I was very strong, only 15 years old when I was deported
from Odessa with my mother and my younger sister.
F93- My mother was gassed as soon as we got to Auschwitz, my sister and I survived
Auschwitz, my sisters’ 2 year old son was gassed. My brother died in a labor camp, my
father and other siblings left before the war started. Of my family members that were sent to
Auschwitz only my sister and I survived. My brother died of starvation in a labor camp. He
was married and was in the labor camp with his wife. I learned after the war that he gave the
majority of his portion of food to his wife and died because if it. I never saw his wife again
after the war; I was so angry that my brother lost his life for her. I survived because of my
sister Rose. She was my God, my mother, my father. She stole for me and she fought for me,
there was no way she would let me die. In my heart, I think she treated me as if I were her 2
year old son that was gassed; she would do anything to keep me alive.
F86- No, my entire family was killed. I watched them get shot and pushed into a grave in the
forest. I survived because my mother managed to hide me behind a tree and after I watched
42
my parents and my brother get shot and killed from behind the tree a German soldier saw me
and saved me, he felt sorry for me. In broken Russian he told me he had a little girl at home
that was the same age, so he had compassion for me.
M84- My mother and siblings survived the war, my father was killed. I survived because I
was strong and could work hard and be useful to the Germans while I was in the
concentration camp.
F83- On my mother’s side her parents perished, my grandparents. They were taken directly
from Vienna to Auschwitz, I have their deportation papers. I have an uncle that was 21 years
old and was in Dachau. Hitler gave a 3 month window to any young Jews that could get an
affidavit to get to America to get out. My father’s brother was in New York and my mother
telegrammed him from Bulgaria to write the affidavit for my uncle to save him and get him
to New York. It worked and he got out of Dachau and into New York. Where he studied law
and became a lawyer who worked the Nuremberg trials, he worked for the secret service. He
then organized the saving of Jews in Vienna and helped them escape to America and Israel.
My grandmother on my mother’s side was also killed by the Germans, they demanded that
all Jews go outside in the night in December, she had not even a jacket on and she caught
pneumonia and 2 days later was dead. We survived because we were able to get from Vienna
into Bulgaria where we were saved by the King.
M76- Only my mother and I survived the war. 150 members of my family perished, my
father died in the Warsaw ghetto. My mother saved my life; she took a risk and escaped from
the Warsaw ghetto. My mom paid people off with her jewelry to hide us underground and
bring us food; they were sympathetic to the cause.
2) Was there an event in particular you recall that allowed you to survive?
F90- Yes, I was in Auschwitz and I made a friend there who had been in the camp for over 2
years already. She told me that I should volunteer for work, that the conditions in the work
camp were better than in the death camp. When I heard a German soldier talking about
selecting children to work ‘easy” labor in a factory, I volunteered because I spoke German
and was able to understand him. He selected me because I saw small as it was and was so
malnourished that he mistook me for a young child. He took us to a job at an ammunition
factory in Germany where I could sit while I worked. This saved my life. The choice my
43
parents made to send me away to Hungary with false papers saved my life. It was not a
choice I made because I was still a child and I did as I was told. I was not aware of what was
happening and what was to come. If I was with them in Czechoslovakia I would have ended
up like them, dead. My parents could have come with me, but my mother wanted to stay and
my father stayed with her. They paid for a man to take me into Budapest and there I created
my own false papers. I changed all my information, but I kept myself Jewish. I am
embarrassed to tell people that I was so stupid to make myself Jewish in my false papers.
M90- When the war came on June 22, 1941 on the 5th day the Germans started bombing my
town. The next day I got a letter that I was to report to the front the next morning. I woke in
the middle of the night and gathered my belongings. My entire family was crying and
praying for my safe return, I was not because I did not understand what was going on. From
my town we were a group on 30, we were bombed as we marched and shot at by German
planes. We lost half of our men and our commander a few days in. Once we got to our first
post, we spent one month digging holes for the German tanks to fall into. They were 7 meters
wide by 3 meters deep with a straight wall at the end. It was very hard physical work, but we
were fed well. Had I not gone to join the front the next morning I would have died alongside
the rest of my family.
M76- My father was a watchmaker and an inventor; this helped us a great deal when we were
in the concentration camp in the town of Magilev in Transnistria. In the camp everyday Jews
were beaten starved and shot, but we had some protection because my father could make
prosthetics and I knew how to help him make limbs. This saved our life because there were
so many hospitals around with the wounded and they needed him. The captain at the hospital
and his wife would risk their own lives to bring them food in the middle of the night. In 1943
the hospital was evacuated and the captain took him and his father and mother with him
because the front was coming closer to the hospital. As they traveled by train, they would
stop at every station along the way and German soldiers would ask “Juden?” and the captain
always said no, risking his life. Then they were ordered back to Magilev, they got there and
there was no food, was nothing. Then one day in late July early August all the soldiers
disappeared, they were gone. I had Typhus and was practically dead, a skeleton. A Jewish
battalion from the red army speaking Yiddish came to liberate us and immediately took me
44
with them to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine for a blood transfusion, food and care. I stayed
there for 3 months regaining my strength. I then returned home to my parents In Iasi.
F81- I was very young; my parents did whatever they could to survive, giving me the bread
from their mouth. My grandfather had tame doves and pigeons that he kept as pets and used
as carriers, he even caught and killed one so I would have something to eat.
M87- I worked doing all sorts of things, but most of all I was lucky. I did not shower for 2
years, walked barefoot in the snow and had no clothing left. The clothes I had on my back I
sold piece by piece for a piece of bread from the Christians who would come by the camp.
No event in particular, simply because I was young.
F93- It was a daily struggle to survive, I was only alive because of my sister Rose, she saved
my life many times over.
F86-
He told me about a woman who would help me and that Germany was going to lose
the war, he told me to run through to the other side of the forest until I saw a house. At that
house was a woman who lived there with her seven children, the soldier use to bring them
food and he knew she would help me if I told her he sent me. I ran the entire day until I saw
the house. When I got there the woman greeted me and helped take care of my swollen feet
and then hid me in the basement of a bombed out house next door. When the Germans came
searching the next day with their dogs, they did not find me. The next day the woman got me
safely into the city which was a ghetto/concentration camp. From there a Jewish couple who
had no children adopted me and I got out of the camp.
M84- I was physically strong and a strong believer in God, my family was very religious.
F83- I was born in Vienna, we ran from the Nazis into Bulgaria which was German occupied.
Bulgaria was a kingdom at the time, under King Boris III. Hitler demanded that all Bulgarian
Jews be transported to Auschwitz, but King Boris III said no Jew would be sent to Poland,
not even one. Hilter pressured the king to send his soldiers to fight the red army, but Boris
also refused this. He said he would not have brothers fighting brothers. Hitler invited Boris to
Berlin, king Boris returned in a casket 3 days later. He was poisoned. After his death, the
Greek orthodox that was present in Bulgaria said no, they would not give up the Jews. We
were locked in our homes, because Bulgaria was occupied by Germany, we could only go
out every day from 8am-10am and that was it. We all had to wear our identifying Jewish
stars. My father was taken away from us to work in a lager. Then all of Bulgaria’s Jews
45
decided to run away, we ran into the forest and created our own village. We lived in tents for
2 years, with no food, no schools, with nothing. The Germans stole our youth. The only thing
we could think about was our survival. Germans were catching the Jewish partisans that were
in the forest and dumping their bodies in front of our camps.
M76- My mother took me and escaped from the Warsaw ghetto, we were lucky she didn’t
get caught. So many were not lucky, I was only 5 years old. We were hiding underground
until the end of the war when the Russians liberated us. I really have no memories of the war,
I spent 4 years underground, never came out. I don’t know if I don’t remember because of
lack of nutrients and vitamins from no food and living underground, or if I choose to not
remember.
3) Did you believe in God before the war?
F90- Yes, I did believe before the war, I went to Hebrew school as a child and I just didn’t
have a choice, my parents made me go. My mother kept a kosher house, but my father was
never religious. It was more cultural than religious, we kept all holidays. After the war I
could no longer believe in God after what happened to me and my family, it was not
immediate, it came on gradually.
M90- Yes. When I was a child I went to Hebrew school and synagogue and celebrated
everything culturally.
M76- God was part of my life and was in my blood before the war, my home shared a wall
with the synagogue and I went to school there, it was a part of my culture.
F81- I was too young to believe in anything, but we kept a Jewish home and respected all the
Jewish laws.
M87- No, in the USSR no one believed in God. We were atheists. If you believed in God you
were banned from school. We never prayed and there were no synagogues in Odessa, all
were destroyed by the communists before the war. Before the war we spoke Yiddish, but that
was the only connection I had to Judaism before the war, but that was all that was needed.
We never believed in God or prayed to him, we did not keep a kosher house.
F93- Yes, I did. I was raised Orthodox, we kept Kosher at home.
F86- Oh yes, I was from a very religious family.
M84- Yes, all the time
46
F83- Of course.
M76- I didn’t even know I was a Jew, as a kid I always wondered why I had to hide, why I
was so different from everyone else.
4) Was there an event in particular that caused you to lose all faith in God?
F90- No particular event, just the war in general.
M90- After the war I had no family and was still in the red army, where it was forbidden to
have a religion or faith in God. I no longer had a family and had no cultural connection to
Judaism any longer. There was a time during the war where I prayed to God, I did not
necessarily believe he was there or he existed, but I prayed for my family to survive the war
and for us to be reunited. But my entire family perished.
M76- My faith was always there, but after the war it was a different type of faith, I looked to
faith differently. A faith I am still searching for. My father became an atheist after the war.
F81- Yes, at the beginning of the war as soon as our town was invaded they took all the
Jewish men and hung them alive in the slaughterhouse like animals, including my father. I
was hiding in a tunnel under the street and watched as a German soldier took a baby from its
mother and pulled the baby apart. I no longer have faith in God.
M87- After the war I had no faith in God. I was left without parents, without any family, any
money or a home. Even after the war I struggled daily to survive without money and without
food. From 1944-1950 we had nothing. My sister and I hardly survived; we had enough
money from my school stipend to buy 2 slices of bread daily, which we shared. That was the
only food we had to eat for 2 years, while I finished school. I was only considered a Jew
during the war, until that point I was not. I was a communist like everyone else. After the war
I had to hide the fact that I was ever in a ghetto or concentration camp, I couldn't talk about it
or write it anywhere.
F93- After I returned to Auschwitz I kept asking “why”, “what did we do”, “What did one
million and a half children do to be annihilated.” If there was a God, how could he tolerate
this? My religion now is one of ethics, what can you do for your fellow man, a religion of
ethics.
47
F86- My mother would tell me all the time to always have faith in God, after the war I kept
believing in God to keep the memory of my mother alive. I still pray every morning and
every night.
M84- All through the war I had faith in God.
F83- God was the only thing that kept us going, that’s the only thing that saved us; it was
something to hold onto. I Maintained faith after and during the war, even today.
M76- I didn’t know anything about God after the war, I never had a bar mitzvah, I didn’t
know about Judaism until we moved to Israel after the war.
5)Do you feel any guilt, resentment or anger about what happened to you and your family
during the war?
F90- I feel anger, but no guilt. Anger not so much for the Germans, but toward the Slovaks
who in 1942 were gathering the Jewish children and giving them up to the Germans for a
reward of 500 crowns per Jew.
M90- I do feel guilty that I survived. I feel most guilty that my family cried for me and
prayed that I would survive the war and come home uninjured from the front while they
stayed home in the village and were “safe”. Yet I survived 4 years on the front and they all
died. I do know that there was nothing I could have done to save them. I learned toward the
end of the war, when I wrote home to some of my friend s in my hometown that my family
had been killed. I learned that in 1942 they were forced to do heavy labor with no food and
no pay. Later my father and all the men were taken away on cattle cars and later killed while
the woman and children stayed behind to work. On the 20th of June in 1942 all the Jews from
the town were taken into THE forest and murdered over a ditch they dug. All were shot in the
head and pushed over the edge; this included my mother, brother and 2 sisters.
M76- I do feel guilt, but I am constantly fighting it. I feel that I survived because of survival
of the fittest, a saying that I truly hate. I do not like the idea that those that died were not
strong, they had no choice. I do feel they could have fought harder, not gone like lambs to
slaughter. If they were to die anyway, they should have died fighting. I was sick once too and
ready to die, but I was saved by the Russian army. I am not angry. I cannot be angry at entire
populations when I am alive because of them, they saved me. I am guilty about what
happened to my sister. F81- Yes, I cannot understand how the Germans, who were
48
intelligent people with families of their own could do such things to us Jews and then go
home to their own families and kiss their children.
M87- I have a lot of feelings about the war and I always will, I will never forget. I know I
could never live in Germany, A country that could commit such a tragedy against European
Jews. I am angry at fascism, fascism that took my youth and murdered my parents in their
youth.
F93- I do not have any guilt, but I am angry only at those who directly wronged us. I am not
angry at the entire German population because not all of them knew what was happening, but
most of them did. They knew their lamp shades were made of our skin, that their mattresses
were stuffed with our hair and they were wearing our clothes and cosmetics. I want all those
that wronged us brought to justice.
F86- Yes, I have a lot of emotions, I still wake up at night crying.
M84- Guilt is not something I should feel, that falls on the Germans and the Nazis, some of
them did more than they wanted to. I am very angry.
F83- No. As time goes by, I think more and more that it wasn’t an easy life. Bulgaria was the
only country in all of Europe who didn’t give up their Jews and send them to Auschwitz. I
thank God for letting me survive.
M76- Now that I understand, my anger is at the religious community, they say don’t resist,
obey, follow and that is why my entire family died. Because they didn’t resist
6) Who do you direct this anger at and how do you express it?
F90- I direct my anger at the Slovaks, but I do not express it.
M90- We all had so much anger at the Germans and were like wild animals when we finally
entered Germany with the red army, but when we saw their woman and helpless children
there we felt sorry for them and did nothing to hurt them, not like what they did to ours. We
weren’t going to round them up and shoot them just for being Germans, like they did to us
Jews. I have no anger now at any Germans; they are just normal people like the rest of us.
M76- I direct this anger toward the Romanians for being overzealous. I no longer express this
anger.
F81- I do not carry the anger with me, and do not express is, but I do ask God “how could
you let this be” how could all this be possible
49
M87- I hold onto my feelings always and ever forget. I remember all the people that were
with me in the ghetto, of them there are only four people are still alive; they were children
when they were in the ghetto.
F93- I express my anger through sharing my knowledge. When I was 72 years old I first
heard of the deniers of the Holocaust and that really made me angry, I fight back by speaking
at schools and writing to share my experience, my proof that the Holocaust did happen. I
want justice for what was done to us.
F86- My anger is toward the Germans, they were murderers.
M84- I talk to myself about it, I do not express it.
F83- I thank God for letting me survive, As a result of the war and living in fear my whole
life I still continue to be scared of everything. I see the future as no good, I only see
everything bad. As a child even walking to kindergarten I had to hide and walk on side
streets so they wouldn’t kill me.
M76- I also have anger toward Roosevelt for not bombing the transports, for not letting ships
into America
7)Do you feel that your outlook on life influenced your ability to survive the war?
F90- Yes, my positive outlook influenced my ability to survive the war. Also my time in
Budapest alone under false papers made me mentally very strong. Also, the fact that I was
not from a rich family helped quite a bit because I was always working at home. If I was
from a wealthy family like my friend in the camp was I would have broken down faster and
suffered more when I got to Auschwitz like she did, but I was strong mentally.
M90- Yes, I always maintained a positive outlook and always followed orders. We were
always told that we would win the war; we would come out on top. Any negativity was not
heard of.
M76- I do believe my life outlook allowed me to survive the war, I was always positive.
Even during the war, in the camps we would tell jokes and laugh and sing. This influenced
our survival and my father was positive all the time which helped us. If we were negative we
were as good as dead.
F81- I was always strong, always working and cleaning and doing something to stay strong
and occupied.
50
M87- During the war, it was difficult to think at all, I only lived at that exact moment. I didn't
know what was coming in 5 minutes, let alone tomorrow. I never thought about the future or
my survival. I did what I could to stay alive at that moment; I had no plans for the future, no
plans for survival. We thought our life would stay the way it was forever, Hitler would not
fall. Of the 100,000 Jews that lived in Odessa before the war, only 2% survived.
F93- I always knew that as long as my sister was with me I would survive the war, I knew
she would not let me die.
F86- I feel that God saved me during the war, I was praying to him and he helped me.
M84- I always believed I would survive the war
F83- I was so young that I looked up to my father and his opinions on politics and the war; I
was very close to him. I was never sure I would survive; I just took it day by day.
M76- We learned to survive, I had no skills to understand what was going on at the time, so I
built my own world, and it was like a game to me while I was living underground. Today I
can’t see any Holocaust movies because I can’t watch what others went through that I didn’t
because I was hiding underground.
8) Do you think you would have survived had you looked at the events during the Holocaust
in a different light?
F90- If I was negative I would not have survived, I did not want to give in so I stayed strong.
If I would have given in that would have been the end.
M90- No way would I have survived had I looked at the war differently. There was no time
for any negativity, if you let your guard down you were as good as dead.
M76- I was a child during the war and I did as I was told by my parents, but I think if I was
discouraged I would have given up and died, it is all in your mind, you must never give up.
F81- I do not think so, but I will never know. I do think that if I looked at things differently I
would not be alive if I was not strong. I feel lucky that I have such a positive outlook even
now; by nature I hide all the bad things in the back of the brain. What good would it do me to
cry all the time?
M87- I didn’t think I would survive, I didn’t think about anything at all. I was young, strong
and did what I was told. I didn’t think because I couldn’t.
51
F93- I didn’t think about anything, there was no time to think, I just schlepped along with my
sister. The only thing I thought about was I hoped the madness would come to an end so I
could live my dream and finish school and go to college and get somewhere in life, I was
ambitious and very smart.
F86- I do not know the answer to that, I was a very strong believer in God and I always knew
he was going to help me and he did. I know he is there, I still pray to him.
M84- It is hard to say, I was expecting a miracle, to survive would be a miracle.
F83- I don’t know, God really helped us a lot, a lot. For every one of us in Bulgaria to be
saved was truly a miracle.
M76- I learned to survive, the lesson is to trust your instinct, no guidance from anyone, use
your intuition only.