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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/paragraph-175-and-the-nazi-campaign-against-homosexuality. Accessed 31 May 2023.

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Hitler youth camps separated by boys and girls were created to indoctrinate Young children to spread Nazi ideology Boys' were called the Hitler Youth. The girls’ were called the League of German Girls. In 1939, more than 82% of eligible youth (age 10-18) were in one of those camps. By 1940, 7.2 million youth joined. The boys group focused on sports and physical. The girls have to learn house chores and how to take care of children. It fits the German's ideal woman.  The Scouts wear conformed uniforms and spend a lot of time in events. This is a strategy to take time/focus away from church and school, this give other authorities less power.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/eugenics. Accessed 31 May 2023.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/4dfe0529-027d-4075-a5c9-68307a5edaff.jpg/. Accessed 31 May 2023.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/eugenics?series=18. Accessed 31 May 2023.
“Everyday Life.” Young People – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for Schools, www.theholocaustexplained.org/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/controlling-everyday-life/young-people/. Accessed 31 May 2023.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hitler-youth-2. Accessed 31 May 2023.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org/collections/the-museums-collections/collections-highlights/500-years-of-antisemitic-propaganda. Accessed 31 May 2023.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hitler-youth-2. Accessed 31 May 2023.

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This letter is a translation of a list of antisemitic measures issued by Goring on 28 December 1938. During the Third Reich, after world war I, the loss of Germany flamed a lot of antisemitic ideas of Jews being a traitor to Germany. 1933, Racist ideas such as Eugenics or "Racial Hygiene" started to spread worldwide into a public mindset. They think that criminality, mental illness, poverty manners etc are hereditary instead of environmental. The government took away resources from those who are "unworthy" and give it to those who are "worthy". Like marital counseling and economic support. First, they put up signs and exclude Jews' rights to get certain jobs and go to certain places. After the Nazis Power is more secure they start to exterminate Jews and "undesirable" people.

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org/online-calendar/event/VEFBSTAYCONEISEN0121. Accessed 31 May 2023.
“World War II Holocaust Images.” World War II Holocaust Images | Eisenhower Presidential Library, www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/photographs/world-war-ii-holocaust-images. Accessed 31 May 2023.
“World War II Holocaust Images.” World War II Holocaust Images | Eisenhower Presidential Library, www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/photographs/world-war-ii-holocaust-images. Accessed 31 May 2023.
Malloryk. “The Liberation of Majdanek: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, 22 July 2020, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/liberation-of-nazi-camp-majdanek-1944.

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“Video Testimonies Resource Center.” Yad Vashem. The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/video-testimonies.html. Accessed 31 May 2023.

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German criminal code Categorized as "a-social" by Nazis

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nuremberg-race-laws. Accessed 30 May 2023.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nuremberg-laws. Accessed 30 May 2023.

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The Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor are under Nuremberg Laws. Only Pure blood Germans are citizens of Germany. Nazi legislators looked therefore to family genealogy to define race. People with three or more grandparents born into the Jewish religious community were Jews by law. People who have converted to Christians or have parents that are Jews have been derived from basic rights. Mixed raced are called "Mischlinge". Law for the Protection of German blood forbids marriage between Jew and non jew. Any sexual relationships are called "race difilement" Law extended to Black people and Roma.

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Before World War ll about 25,000 Jews lived in Tarnow, a city in southern Poland, 45 miles east of Krakow. There were harassment of the Jew, forced labor, burning of the synagogues. 1941, The Germans fine on the Jews, and Jews were required to hand in their valuables. Roundups for labor became more frequent and killings became more commonplace and arbitrary. In June 1942, people were deported to Belzec killing center. Living conditions were unsanitary, many food shortages, and a lot of forced labor.

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Between 15,000 and 20,000 Jews lived within the Krakow ghetto boundaries. The Germans established several factories inside. Brickswork and texile factories used Jews forced labor. There were resistance leaders underground promoting welfare and supporting education. The Jewish Council(Judenrat) was responsible for determining the new housing assignments. Within the Kraków ghetto, Yiddish was the official language, not Polish. 15,000 Jews were crammed into an area previously inhabited by 3,000 people who used to live in a district consisting of 30 streets, 320 residential buildings, and 3,167 rooms. As a result, one apartment was allocated to every four Jewish families, and many less fortunate lived on the street.

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German forces occupied Minsk, capital of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) in the Soviet Union. About 80,000 people were forced into the Ghetto. The German authorities forced Jews to work on labor projects in factories inside the two ghettos, as well as outside the ghettos, especially in the Shiroka Street labor camp and the opera house (where the occupation authorities supervised the sorting and storage of confiscated Jewish private property). In August 1941, Jews established an anti-German underground in the Minsk ghetto. Beginning in August 1941, German authorities repeatedly conducted mass killing operations against the residents of the Minsk ghetto.

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https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lodz
Glazer, Susan D. “Ghettos under the Nazis.” My Jewish Learning, 19 May 2017, Glazer, Susan D. “Ghettos under the Nazis.” My Jewish Learning, 19 May 2017, www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ghettos-under-the-nazis/.
“The Jewish Ghettos: Separated from the World.” Facing History & Ourselves, www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/jewish-ghettos-separated-world. Accessed 30 May 2023.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/minsk. Accessed 30 May 2023.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ghettos. Accessed 17 May 2023.

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One of the first ghetto was established in Lodz, Poland. located about 85 miles southwest of Warsaw, Poland. It is a major industrial center The Jews of Lodz formed the second largest Jewish community in prewar Poland, after Warsaw. About 160,000 Lodz Jews were forced there. It is surrounded by barbed wire fencing. The living conditions was horrible, people were starving and had neither running water nor a sewer system. In January 1942, German authorities began to deport Jews from Lodz to the Chelmo killing center. By the end of September 1942, they had deported approximately 70,000 Jews and about 4,300 Roma

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On 2 October 1940, Ludwig Fisher Governor of the Warsaw District in the occupied General Government of Poland, signed the order to officially create a Jewish district (ghetto) in Warsaw. There were a total of 395,000 residents of Warsaw by  1941. There are too many people, 146,000 people per square kilometer, which means 8 to 10 people per room on average. Street Trading becomes popular due to instant poverty with little to no money brought into the Ghetto. Between October 1940 and July 1942 around 92,000 of Jewish residents of the ghetto died of starvation, diseases, and cold which accounted for nearly 20% of the entire population.

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Henry Szor, MD

Abstract

Despite the fact that 50 years have passed since the Nazi regime and the Holocaust the psychic sequelae are far from being overcome. The majority of Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans still list their experiences as the "most significant stressors" of their lives. The literature provides ample evidence that posttraumatic stress disorder among survivors persists into old age. However, there is still a need to define the differences in frequency, clinical presentation, severity, and comorbid conditions among aging Holocaust survivors. Age at the time of trauma, cumulative lifetime stress, and physical illness are reported to have a positive association with more severe posttraumatic symptomatology. The presence of comorbid Axis i psychiatric disorders (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual [DSIVI]), has been the focus of research by our group, demonstrating that their interaction with earlier trauma leads to a course of chronic, debilitating disease. Despite reactivation of traumatic symptoms during aging and continuous mental suffering, the majority of Holocaust survivors show good instrumental coping and preserved functioning.

Abstract

A pesar que han transcurrido 50 años desde el régimen nazi y del Holocausio, las secuelas psiquicas aun no han sido superadas. La mayoria de los sobrevivientes del Holocausto y los veteranos de la II Guerra Mundial todavia relatan sus experiencias como los "factores estresantes más significativos de sus vidas". La literatura ofrece una amplia evidencia acerca de la persistencia del trastorno de estrés postraumático entre los sobreviventes a lo largo de los años. Sin embargo, aun existe la necesidad de definir las diferencias en cuanto a frecuencia, presentación clinica, severidad y comorbilidad entre los sobrevivientes de edad avanzada-del Holocausto. Se ha informado que la edad en que ocurrió la experiencia traumática, la acumulación de factores estresantes a lo largo de la vida y la enfermedad fisica presentan una asociación positiva con la sintomatologia postraumática más severa. La presencia de algún trastorno psiquiátrico del eje. I (del Manual Diagnóstico y Estadistico, DSM) ha sido el foco de investigación de nuestro grupo y se ha demostrado que la interacción con traumas precoces conduce a una enfermedad de curso crónico y debilitante. A pesar de la reactivación de sintomas traumáticos durante el envejecimiento y el continuo sufrimiento mental. la mayoria de los sobrevivientes del Holocausto muestran una adecuada adaptación y un buen funcionamiento en la vida diaria.

Résumé

Cinquante ans nous séparent du régime nazi et de l'Holocauste mais ce temps écoulé n'a pas effacé les séquelles psychiques chez les survivants, loin de là. Pour la majorité de ceux qui ont subi l'Holocauste et des vétérans de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, cette période constitue le "stress le plus éprouvant" de leur existence. L'état de stress post-traumatique persiste chez les survivants même lorsqu'ils atteignent un âge avancé, comme le démontrent de nombreuses données rapportées dans la littérature. Il serait toutefois nécessaire de mieux définir les différentes modes de présentaion des troubles rencontrés chez les survivants âgés de l'Holocauste: fréquence, présentaion clinique, sévérité, comorbidité. Il existe une corrélation positive entre la plus grande sévérité de l'état de stress post-traumatique et l'âge du sujet au moment du traumatisme, la répétition d'événements stressants au cours de la vie et l'existence de pathologies somatiques. Nous avons centré nos recherches sur des sujets souffrant également de troubles psychiatriques de l'Axe I (classification du DSM Manuel Diagnostique et Statistique des Troubles Mentaux) et nous avons pu établir que l'interaction entre ces troubles et l'existence d'un événement traumatique antérieur aboutit à une évolution chronique et débilitante de la pathologie psychiatrique. Cependant, bien que l'on observe une réactivation des symptômes de l'état de stress post-traumatique chez les sujets âgés et alors que leur souffrance mentale est toujours présente, la majorité des survivants de l'Holocauste témoigne d'une bonne fauclté d'adaptation aux contraintes matérielles et psychologiques de la vie quotidienne.

Research into posttraumatic psychiatric morbidity has a long history. Since the first descriptions of "soldiers' heart" syndrome in the American Civil War, wars, natural catastrophes, mass fires and accidents, rape abuse, and torture have all added to our understanding of the effects of trauma on the human psyche. Despite the accumulating data and the magnitude of human suffering, the unique diagnostic categorization of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a "latecomer" in formal psychiatric classification systems.

Two factors have delayed the progress in diagnosis and understanding of PTSD: (i) the attribution of this disorder to combat-related events; and (ii) the tendency to view the symptoms developing after a trauma as "normal response." Thus, in the first half of this century, the psychiatric approach to trauma has varied widely After World War II (WWII), the American Psychiatric Association included "gross stress reaction" in the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Surprisingly, this entity was dropped from DSM-II and only the advent of DSM.-IV in 1994 separated acute stress disorder from PTSD. In addition, DSM-IV offers as specifiers the definitions of "acute" or "chronic" to describe the course of the disorder, as well "with delayed onset" to acknowledge appearance of the disorder 6 months (or later) after exposure to the trauma. It is important to note that the current classification also relinquishes the emphasis of the uniqueness of the traumatic event and conceptualizes PTSD as common to many different types of events. In these events, the individual experiences, witnesses, or is confronted with death or serious injury, and responds with intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

Despite the refinement and opcrationalization of diagnostic criteria for PTSD, relatively little is known about the course of the disorder. In the March 1999 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, three published studies used longitudinal designs to address both the acute and chronic effects of trauma. The study by Koren and colleagues, in conjunction with retrospective studies of the natural history of PTSD seem to emphasize that the course of PTSD is one of an increase in symptoms in the early phase (1 to 3 months after trauma), followed by a plateau. Is this "plateau" phase lifelong? Do PTSD symptoms remain severe and disabling throughout the life cycle? Are maturation, aging, and reintegration into society factors that affect the course of PTSD?

Veterans of WWII and Holocaust survivors offer a unique opportunity to evaluate the course of PTSD through the life cycle of people who have been subjected to extreme and massive psychic trauma in their youth. The majority of Holocaust survivors and more than half of WWII veterans interviewed 50 years after the war spontaneously listed it as the "most significant stressor" of their life. With the aging of veterans and survivors, reports of reactivation of PTSD have been published. Physical ill health, retirement, loneliness, comorbid psychiatric illness, anniversaries, reunions, and use of alcohol and psychotropic medication are all factors implicated in the exacerbation of both arousal and reexperiencing symptoms of PTSD. For many WWII veterans, PTSD has lasted 50 years, although masking of intrusive symptoms in midlife was usual. The rates of active PTSD reported among the veterans range from 12.4% to 45%. It is noteworthy that veterans who suffer from comorbid psychiatric conditions report no significant reduction in symptoms over the preceding 10 years.

The Holocaust was the most traumatic experience to occur in the 20th century. Most of the survivors are now elderly and for them, aging is a phase of severe crisis.

Psychiatrists and other health professionals can facilitate the voicing of the suffering of people who spent their lives in the persistent shadows of the Holocaust. Indeed, in the last decade, many studies have focused on the long-term consequences of this massive traumatization. Among the particularities of survivor suffering were: being outlawed, discrimination, defamation, total absence of rights, loss of individuality, life-threatening ewer a long period of time, torture, physical hardships, ill health, being uprooted, few or no survivors in the family and elsewhere, lack of graves for victims, and the realization at the end of WWII that language, culture, and home are lost forever. In later life, when friends are gone, the need to share with others becomes urgent; to bear witness is vital.

In 1997, Sadavoy reviewed the late-life effects as reported in studies of Holocaust survivors and WWII veterans. He concluded that survivor syndromes indeed persist into old age, that Holocaust survivors as a group have adapted well to instrumental aspects of life, but that there is a deficiency of treatment studies in this population. The Traumatic Stress Studies Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, provides more specific data, as do several research groups in Israel. Converging lines of research demonstrate that aging Holocaust survivors are in a sense a "fragile" group. Cumulative trauma, recent stress, and lack of social support increase the probability of retraumatization in old age. Nevertheless, it is surprising that using DSM criteria to diagnose present PTSD in aging Holocaust survivors, the reported rates in controlled studies are 46% to 55.5%. Major comorbid psychiatric illness was excluded from these studies. This may be a significant drawback, as depressive and dissociative features, as well as markers of the adrenocortical (steroidal) pathway, are notably abnormal in nontreatment-seeking survivors. Increased risk of suicide, depression, chronicity of schizophrenia, and development of late-life paranoia have all been reported in aging Holocaust survivors. Thus, there is a need to study the presence of comorbid PTSD in the minority of survivors who suffer from psychiatric disease. This may aid in understanding the complex relationship between massive psychic trauma and the course of PTSD in subjects who have been under close observation by mental health professionals most of their lives.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the presence of "active" PTSD in a group of aging Holocaust survivors who were either repeatedly hospitalized, or spent most of their lives in long-stay psychiatric institutions.

Subjects

At the end of WWII, nearly 500 000 Jews survived the Holocaust. Of these, approximately 300 000 immigrated to Israel in two main periods: shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, and between 1989 and 1992 when large groups of Jews immigrated from the former USSR. It is estimated that 200 000 survivors are now living in Israel, most of whom are now elderly. In the 1950s, nearly 2000 Holocaust survivors were repeatedly or chronically hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals in Israel. The most common diagnosis then was that of schizophrenia. In 1998, there were 700 such patients hospitalized in long-stay wards. The Abarbanel Mental Health Center is Israel's largest academic psychiatric center. 'Ihe center's psychogeriatric division consists of three wards encompassing 110 inpatient beds. From January to June 1998, for the purpose of the present study, all aging Holocaust survivors were interviewed.

Holocaust survivors were defined as subjects that were in Eastern or Western Rurope under the Nazi regime during the years 1933 to 1945. Inclusion criteria for the study were: (i) age ≥65 years; (ii) being a Holocaust survivor. Rxclusion criteria were: (i) DSM-IV diagnosis of dementia; (ii) inability (cognitive impairment or language difficulties) to endorse the Impact of Event Scale (IES); and (iii) patient's refusal to participate in the study.

Methods

All patients had previously been diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria as part of an ongoing study project (the data relevant to this project are detailed in reference 16). For purposes of the present study, the IES and revised PTSD inventory (R-PTSD) were used.

The IES comprises two subscales describing and quantifying intrusive and avoidance experiences. The RPTSD inventory is based on endorsement (by the interviewing researcher) of DSM criteria for the presence of PTSD. Both these instruments were previously used and validated in studies of Holocaust survivors and trauma victims.

Data are presented as means ± standard deviation (SD) and ranges. We used these simple statistical measures as the aim of the study was to present a descriptive audit.

Results

During the period January to June 1998, 93 Holocaust survivors were being treated at the Abarbanel Mental Health Center psychogeriatric wards. Of these, 32 did not fulfill the criteria of the study, and were excluded. All 61 participating patients underwent a semistructured interview. After the interview all endorsed the IES.

Our series comprised 41 women and 20 men. Mean age for the group was 77.1 years (± 6.8; range 65-91). Ihe majority of subjects were in Eastern Rurope during the Nazi regime (43 of 61; 70.5%). Axis I (DSM) psychiatric diagnoses for the group were as follows: 32 of 61 (52.5%) schizophrenia, 17 of 61 (27.9%) affective disorders, and 12 of 61 (19.6%) other psychotic disorders.

The R-PTSD inventory facilitated diagnosis of comorbid PTSD in 91.8% of patients (56 of 61). As previously shown, the inventory correlated well with the Schizophrenia Clinical Interview for Diagnosis (SCID). Thus, comorbid PTSD can be said to be reliably diagnosed in the overwhelming majority of subjects in the present study. The IES results demonstrated a significant difference between intrusive and avoidance symptoms. While both subscales were scored as significantly higher than the reported means for the normal population, intrusions were scored as notably more prominent than avoidance. Mean intrusion score was 42.7 ±4.1 (range 3651) and mean avoidance score was 29.7±3.4 (range 2731); < 0.01 [paired Student /-test]). The IES scores in the present study are in the range of a previous study of elderly subjects suffering from PTSD reported by our group.

Discussion

Our sample represents a unique group of elderly Holocaust survivors who show a high comorbidity of chronic PTSD (91.8%), with psychotic disorders more than 50 years after the experience of the massive psychic trauma of the Holocaust.

The occurrence of chronic PTSD of such magnitude for an extremely prolonged period is striking. It is significantly higher than the rate reported for war veterans, ranging from 12.4% to 45%. This difference may be related to the unique nature of the Holocaust trauma, combining dehumanization, confrontation with death, and massive loss for a prolonged period. Beal demonstrated that the co-occurrence of imprisonment in addition to the experience of combat led to a higher incidence of PTSD and other psychological symptoms, compared to combat experience alone. Furthermore, Kidson ct al show that the specific nature of the traumatic experience, such as taking of casualties, or the experience of combat stress, resulted in more pronounced severity, and was significantly associated with the occurrence of PTSD in WWII veterans. Thus, the specific nature of the traumatic experience may influence the occurrence of PTSD and its persistence over time. Beyond this aspect, the coexistence of a severe psychotic disorder in our scries of patients seems to bc decisive. As demonstrated by Kidson et al, even minor pathologies, such as anxiety and depressive disorders, were more common in war veterans with PTSD. Therefore, this seems to suggest that the severity of the coexistent psychiatric morbidity, such as schizophrenia, may explain the high incidence of chronic PTSD present for such a prolonged period.

It is difficult to say whether the occurrence of PTSD in our group represents lifelong suffering, beginning close to the end of the traumatic experience and persisting for more than 50 years, or whether it represents a phase of symptomatic reactivation occurring in WWII veterans in their old age, as demonstrated by Macleod.

The exposure to trauma puts into effect mechanisms of coping (directed towards the environment), as well as defense mechanisms (directed towards traumatic memory and its psychic repercussions). It is generally acknowledged that most Holocaust survivors have succeeded in mobilizing effective skills for coping, manifesting themselves by recreating families and adapting to social roles. However, the impact of the Holocaust on ego functions led to the activation of defense mechanisms, mostly of splitting and ensuing encapsulation, numbing, and avoidance. As in psychosis, the coexistence of psychosis in our patients led to processes of fragmentation of the ego, thus impairing the exercise of these ego functions. Again, this may have been a decisive factor in the occurrence of active PTSD symptomatology. Furthermore, the primary process (psychosis) may have uncovered the core memories of the traumatic experience and prevented the possibility of masking. One of our patients only described a cannibalistic experience during extreme starvation in the Theresienstadt concentration camp when in the manic-psychotic phase of his bipolar disorder. While euthymic or depressed, he was unable to recall or recollect this experience. Our sample demonstrates a relative preponderance of intrusive symptomatology versus avoidant features. This finding may also be related to the disorganizing effect of psychosis on the ego.

Conclusion

Our findings show that the comorbidity of psychosis and PTSD in Holocaust survivors leads to a lifelong debilitating illness. Nonpsychotic survivors usually succeeded in achieving a sense of integrity through "historicizing" their memories (establishing a continuity between early, positive pre-Holocaust memories, through traumatic memories during the Holocaust and memories of reestablishing the fabric of life in the post-Holocaust period). In contrast, the psychotic survivors were unable to reach this equilibrium and, for them, memory is a lifelong burden.

Selected abbreviations and acronyms

IES

Impact of Event Scale

PTSD

posttraumatic stress disorder

R-PTSD

Revised Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (inventory)

SCID

Schizophrenia Clinical Interview for Diagnosis

REFERENCES

1. Saigh PA., Bremner JD. The history of posttraumatic stress disorder. In: Saigh PA, Bremner JD, eds. [ Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Comprehensive Text. New York, NY: Allyn & Bacon. 1998:1-17. Google Scholar]

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Lifelong posttraumatic stress disorder: evidence from aging Holocaust survivors

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Despite the fact that 50 years have passed since the Nazi regime and the Holocaust the psychic sequelae are far from being overcome. The majority of Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans still list their experiences as the "most significant ...

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Abstract

Objective: Survivors of the Holocaust are expected to be at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but few empirical data are available. This study investigated PTSD symptoms in Holocaust survivors with well-documented exposure to trauma.

Method: The German files of 124 Jewish Holocaust survivors who were judged to be free from bipolar affective disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and organic brain syndrome were selected from those of 145 applicants to West German compensation boards. The psychiatric assessments were reexamined for explicit descriptions of current PTSD symptoms according to the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria. A subgroup of 20 Auschwitz survivors with tattooed identification numbers were also compared with the 45 survivors who had not been in concentration camps.

Results: Sixty-three percent of the total sample had been detained in concentration camps, and an average of 78% of their first-degree relatives were reported killed in the Holocaust. Forty-six percent of the total sample met the DSM-III-R criteria for PTSD. The most common symptoms were sleep disturbance, recurrent nightmares, and intense distress over reminders. The tattooed Auschwitz survivors had significantly more symptoms and were three times more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD than the survivors who had not been in concentration camps.

Conclusions: The results suggest a greater risk of chronic PTSD in survivors who were exposed to atrocities. Most survivors had not received adequate psychiatric care.

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national center for biotechnology information

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Symptoms of PTSD in 124 survivors of the Holocaust - PubMed

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Objective: Survivors of the Holocaust are expected to be at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but few empirical data are available. This study investigated PTSD symptoms in Holocaust survivors with well-documented exposure to trauma.

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"Out Out Out!"

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Seudo-scientific medical experiments were conducted on inmates of Auschwitz. The doctors included were

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The average life expectancy did not exceed a few weeks or months after imprisonment. Prisoners were stripped off their clothes and belongings, change to striped uniform and numbers were tatooed on their arms in Auschwitz, and some stiched on their clothing. It is Nazi's way of dehumanizing the prisoners, and taking away their identity. They have to wear the same uniform day and night(often filled with lice). Jews wore two yellow triangles which formed the Star of David, political prisoners wore red triangles, Roma wore brown triangles, although they were also sometimes classed as ‘asocials’, which was represented with black triangles, homosexuals wore pink triangles, and Jehovah’s Witnesses wore purple triangles. Poor attire, overcrowding, and persistent starvation caused the rampant spread of contagious disease. There were also poor medical resources. They shower out of one bucket for hundreds of inhabitants.

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The SS and Kapos.

SS(The Schutzstaffel) is a small sub-division of the SA responsible for protecting Hitler. Then they were in charge of racial policy.
Kapos were inmates of Nazi camps who were appointed as guards to oversee other prisoners in various tasks. Three main types of Kapos: work supervisors- make sure the prisoneres work efficiently and don't escape, block elders- supervised the barracks, responsible for counting the prisoners and handing out food, and camp administrators-supervise work in the kitchen, storeroom, work as secretaries/intepreters. Kapos were often disliked but hold more power than the regular prisoners due to preferential treatement.

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People were treated like animals instead of human, sick men were replaced and thrown away immediately without value. The life was a "number" to the Nazis instead of a human life. Food was scarce and cut during the War. Food portions become smaller and less nutritious, to soup for lunch and dinner with just one piece of bread. SS guards would often stole or limit the amount of food that the prisoners actually recieved. Calories per person per day averaged 1300 Cal. 1944, when German war economy starts faililng, food were cut to 700 Cal per day. Prisoners managed to trade on the black market in the camps. But Prisoners often starved to death. Up to 6 people sleep in each bed in the 36 bunks in a barrack.

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Prisoners had to rise extremely early, often before 5 am. They have to line up daily in the morning and each evening called the appel. They were forced to stand completely still, often for hours at a time, exposed to harsh weather and violence. Routines were instructions and orders. Wake up early, arranges the bed's straw, the lineup, marching labor, forced labor, waiting for the meal, return to the camp, another lineup, and back to the barracks.

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Extermination Camps Belzec, Chelmno, Sovivor Treblinka, Auschwitz. Jews were separated into men and women when they first got to the Camps, they were selected by their physiques. The young, elder, and pregnant women were immediately sent to the gas chambers. People that look strong were sent for forced labor. There were Gas Bans where victims were poisoned by carbon monoxide poisoning. They sent dead people to graves. People were led to the Chambers thinking it was showers and then die within half an hour.

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Example of laborers at work in Krakow-Plaszow camp in German-occupied Poland. 

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Extermination Camp- Used from 1941-1945 by the Nazis. The intent was to murder and annihilate all races deemed ' degenerate ' primarily Jews but also Roma.

Labor Camp- (Arbeitslager) housed eastern workers and foreign workers. People worked to produce supplies for an increasingly strained war economy or in construction efforts. Conditions were inadequate.

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The first major Nazi camp to be liberated was Majdanek, located in Lubin, Poland. From July 23-24, 1944. It was liberated by the Soviet Union while they advanced westward. The evacuated prisoners were sent to concentration camps further west. There was evidence of mass murder committed by Nazi Germans. They invited journalists to inspect the camp and the evidence. For many prisoners, liberation was only the beginning of their journey to freedom. Evacuated Jews mostly have nowhere to go, no money, and no family members.

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The picture above shows an Austrian Jewish survivor describing to Eisenhower and his entourage the use of the gallows in the camp. Future president Eisenhower was Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower. He visited the newly liberated Ohrdruf concentration camp in Germany. He saw the atrocities of the Holocaust, the living skeletons and body piles. And fear that one day the horrors of the Holocaust might be denied. Eisenhower invited the media to document the scene.

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the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression; release.

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Halina Friedman was born in Lodz, Poland and her family fled to Warsaw during the war. Anna, her mother spoke fluent German and had an Aryan appearance, and was resourceful which would help her save Halina and other family members. They were in the Warsaw ghetto where Halina could see skeletons and dead bodies from the window. The government promised to give two meals to the workers' children if they go to a kindergarden, but one day there were shot. Halina was injured but was able to walk home in the night. Her and her grandfather was hidden in a bakery by her mother, then they wagoned and Jerzy and his stepmother Teresa smuggled Halina and her family under the bunkers of their home. Her mother was taken away while they were escaping. She immigrated to Israel and volunteered for the Eran organization for 35 years. She married Abraham who is also a Holocaust survivor.

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Simcha Applebaum had a wonderful life with her mom Rachael and his dad Yaakov in Malcz Pruzhany. In November 1942, the Applebaum family was deported to Auschwitz. They were pushed out like garbage bags, and he saw people in stripes. They took his mother away and he and his father was put to work carrying bricks to build Crematoria IV and V. And his father felt ill, and Simcha was left all alone. But he wanted to live. He was first sent on a death march to Gleiwitz and he jumped from the train and escaped in Czechoslovakia. He hid but was caught by the Gestapo. Tortured and sent to Buchenwald and then Sachsenhausen. After two years, Simcha was forced again on a dead march in the direction of the Baltic Sea. He then imigrated to Israel. He had a family now in Israel.

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Monopol Camp, was a cigarette factory in Skopje. 

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On March 11, 1943, Shela and her entire family along with all the Jews of Stip was taken to the Monopol camp. She and her sister Bella were sent to Pristina due to her sister's Italian citizenship, her sister fell into depression and died of suicide. Then Shela was taken in by Sonya Cohen, and the woman has Muslim friends that took them to Djakovica a Muslim family. Shela got typhus but was betrayed at the hospital and sent to a concentration camp for political prisoners where she had to watch the hangings alone. After being released, she was moved to different families and at last to an orphanage in Belgrade with children like her, she was overcome with relief for the first time. In Israel, she met his husband and brought her into his family, that is where she called home.

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CNN poll: Anti-Semitism in Europe

Anti-Semitic stereotypes are alive and well in Europe, while the memory of the Holocaust is starting to fade, a sweeping new survey by CNN reveals. More than a quarter of Europeans polled believe Jews have too much influence in business and finance. Nearly one in four said Jews have too much influence in conflict and wars across the world.

One in five said they have too much influence in the media and the same number believe they have too much influence in politics.

Meanwhile, a third of Europeans in the poll said they knew just a little or nothing at all about the Holocaust, the mass murder of some six million Jews in lands controlled by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s.

Those are among the key findings of a survey carried out by pollster ComRes for CNN. The CNN/ComRes poll interviewed more than 7,000 people across Europe, with more than 1,000 respondents each in Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland and Sweden.

People surveyed in exclusive CNN poll

The poll was commissioned and completed before the killing of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh -- the deadliest ever attack on the Jewish community in the United States.

The poll uncovered complicated, contrasting and sometimes disturbing attitudes about Jews, and some startling ignorance.

About one European in 20 in the countries CNN surveyed has never heard of the Holocaust, even though it's less than 75 years since the end of World War II, and there are still tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors alive today.

Lack of Holocaust knowledge is particularly striking among young people in France: One out of five people there between the ages of 18 and 34 said they'd never heard of it.

A third of Europeans said that Jews use the Holocaust to advance their own positions or goals.

In Austria -- the country where Hitler was born -- 12% of young people said they had never heard of the Holocaust. Austria also had the highest number of people in the survey saying they knew "just a little" about the Holocaust. Four out of 10 Austrian adults said that.

Across Europe, half of respondents said they know "a fair amount" about the Holocaust, while only one out of five people said they know "a great deal."

(Americans do not fare any better: A survey carried out on behalf of the Claims Conference earlier this year found that 10% of American adults were not sure they'd ever heard of the Holocaust, rising to one in five millennials. Half of all millennials could not name a single concentration camp, and 45% of all American adults failed to do so.)

But Europeans do believe it is important to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

Two-thirds of Europeans said that commemorating the Holocaust helps ensure that such atrocities will never happen again. That figure rises to 80% in Poland, where the Nazis established Auschwitz, the deadliest concentration camp of all.

Half of Europeans said commemorating the Holocaust helps fight anti-Semitism today.

But at the same time, a third of Europeans said that Jews use the Holocaust to advance their own positions or goals. The same number disagreed and nearly a third of respondents expressed no opinion.

Attitudes sharpened when it comes to the relationship between the Holocaust, Israel, Jews and anti-Semitism.

A slight but solid majority of Europeans -- 54% -- said Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, with the figure rising to two-thirds in Poland.

A third of survey respondents believe that criticism of Israel tends to be motivated by anti-Semitism, while only one in five said it does not.

Nearly one in five said anti-Semitism in their countries was a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people.

However, a third of people CNN surveyed said that Israel uses the Holocaust to justify its actions, with half the respondents in Poland agreeing. Only one in five disagreed.

A third of Europeans said supporters of Israel use accusations of anti-Semitism to shut down criticism of Israel, while only one in 10 said that was not true.

A third of Europeans said commemorating the Holocaust distracts from other atrocities today, with higher than average numbers of Germans, Austrians, Poles and Hungarians stating that.

And while many people said anti-Semitism is a growing problem in their countries -- to the extent that 40% said Jews were at risk of racist violence in their countries and half said their governments should do more to fight anti-Semitism -- substantial minorities blamed Israel or Jews themselves for anti-Semitism.

More than a quarter of respondents (28%) said most anti-Semitism in their countries was a response to the actions of the state of Israel.

And nearly one in five (18%) said anti-Semitism in their countries was a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people.

Few people said they personally have an unfavorable attitude toward Jews. Across the seven countries in the survey, one in 10 people said they did -- although the figure rises to 15% in Poland and 19% -- about one in five -- in Hungary.

In every country polled except Hungary, significantly more people said they had a favorable opinion of Jews than an unfavorable one. (In Hungary, favorable topped unfavorable 21% to 19%, with the rest saying they had neither a favorable nor unfavorable view.)

The poll also put a spotlight on European attitudes toward other minorities.

While 10% of Europeans admitted they had unfavorable views of Jews, 16% said they had negative views of LGBT+ people, 36% said they had unfavorable views of immigrants, 37% said that about Muslims, and 39% said it of Romani people.

But while the number of Europeans openly admitting negative attitudes towards Jews was relatively low, CNN questions about whether traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes still resonate across the continent found clear evidence that they do.

In Poland and Hungary, about four out of 10 people said Jews have too much influence in business and finance around the world.

Roughly one out of three people there said Jews were too influential in political affairs around the world, and more than a quarter of Poles and Hungarians said they had too much influence on the media.

A third of Austrians said Jews have too much influence in finance, while a quarter of French and German respondents said so.

About one in five people in all three countries said Jews had too much influence in media, and a quarter said they had too much influence on wars and conflicts.

The belief in Jewish power runs in parallel with enormous overestimates of the number of Jews in the world.

About two-thirds of the respondents in the survey guessed too high when asked what percentage of the world is Jewish, and similar numbers got the answer wrong for their own countries.

A quarter of Hungarians estimated that the world is more than 20% Jewish, and a fifth of British and Polish respondents said so.

They were off by a factor of 100. About 0.2% of the world's population is Jewish, according to the Pew Research Center's Global Religious Landscape study.

They were off by a factor of 100. About 0.2% of the world's population is Jewish, according to the Pew Research Center's Global Religious Landscape study.

Four out of ten respondents in the survey thought their own countries were between 3% and 10% Jewish. In fact, Israel is the only country in the world where more than 2% of the population is Jewish.

The overestimates came even as majorities or near-majorities in every country CNN polled said they were not aware of ever having met a Jewish person. Two-thirds of Germans, Austrians and Poles said they didn't think they had ever socialized with a Jew, while about half of people in Britain, France, Hungary and Sweden said the same.

ComRes interviewed 7,092 adults online in seven countries between September 7 and September 20 2018 (Great Britain, 1010; France, 1006; Germany, 1012; Poland, 1020; Hungary, 1019; Sweden 1018; Austria, 1007). Data was weighted to be representative of each country based on age, gender and region.

Correction: An earlier version of this story omitted Sweden from the list of countries where about half the population said they were not aware of ever having met a Jewish person.

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EXCLUSIVE: CNN poll reveals depth of anti-Semitism in Europe

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CNN poll: Anti-Semitism in Europe Anti-Semitic stereotypes are alive and well in Europe, while the memory of the Holocaust is starting to fade, a sweeping new survey by CNN reveals. More than a quarter of Europeans polled believe Jews have too much influence in business and finance.

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1940, advertising poster for The Eternal Jew

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The Eternal Jew (Der ewige Jude) is a antisemitism film directed by Fritz Hippler. The film portrayed Jew as wandering barbarian who has insninuated himself cleverly into EUropean society, and now exploits it parasitically. There were scnes where Jews are portrayed as an unvilvilized, parascitic perople with low socail standing. They shoot the film in Jewish ghettos. The film's narration continue to solidify the idea that Jew is hiding under a mask of a cilvilized European. Also blamed Jews for terrorizing world politics, for the decline of Western culture, and emphasized their manipulative nature.

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1942, Caption read "Behind the enemy powers; the Jews. 

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Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels. Their goal is to communicate Nazi's message through art, music, films, press, educational materials...etc Propaganda campaigns aimed at people's fear of uncertainty and instability. This made the tolerant of violence against Jew higher. The messages present the Nazi government as steeping in and "restoring order". This poster shows the conspiracy of Jews to control the Allied powers. A Jewish man standing behind the British, American, and Soviet flags peeping through, with a sneaky expression.

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Ghetto are areas/districts/ desolate sections of Nazi-occupied cities where Jews were held before being shipped to death camps

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Ghetto are areas/districts/ desolate sections of Nazi-occupied cities where Jews were held before being shipped to death camps

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The Third Reich is used to describe the Nazi regime in Germany from January 30, 1933, to May 8, 1945.

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The Third Reich is used to describe the Nazi regime in Germany from January 30, 1933, to May 8, 1945.

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Antisemitism is prejudice against or hatred of Jews.

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Antisemitism is prejudice against or hatred of Jews.

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In the Protocol, Jews are portrayed as conspirators against the state. It describes the Jew's "Secret Plan" to rule the world by manipulating the economy, media, and fostering religious conflict. These are forged documents are presented as the minutes of a supposed meeting of world Jewish leaders in which they finalized plans to dominate the world. The book is complete fiction, and written to spread the hate of Jew, the alleged leader "Elders of Zion" doesn't exist. Beginning in 1920, The Dearborn Independent published articles based on the protocol's parts. Adolf Hitler praised.

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This picture above is an artwork The Katz-Ehrenthal Collection. This is named Martydom of Simon of Trent, made in Nuremburg, Germany, 1493. One of the woodcut that depicts a scene that supposely take place in Trent, Italy 18 years earlier. There were a lot of accusations of Jewish killing Christian children in a religious ritual. Western art, games, and crafts promote stereotypes of Jews. Such as story books like "der pudelmopsdackelpinscher"(The Poodle-Pug-Dachshund-Pinscher) and "Der Giftpilz" (The poisonous mushroom), written by Ernst Hiemer. Written in 1938 and 1940.

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Karl Lueger, antisemitic mayor of Vienna

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Karl Lueger, antisemitic mayor of Vienna

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Politicians like Karl Luegar started using the idea "racial superiority" in their campaigns to get votes. He was a part of Christian Social Party and was elected the mayor of Vienna in 1897. He made antisemitism speeches stating that Jews have a monopoly on capitalism and that they compete unfairly economically. He supported Schoenerer's bill against Jewish immigration from Russia and Romania. Adolf Hitler was greatly influenced. "I decide who is a Jew" was what he said when many of his friends and lovers were Jews.

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Antisemitism is still a reality for many European Jews, who increasingly experience insults, discrimination, harassment, attacks against properties and physical violence. Antisemitism must be combatted to ensure well-being, security and equality of outcome of Jews in Europe.

There has been a 60% increase in violence committed against Jews in the United Kingdom between 2008 & 2014

2 in 3 Jewish respondents consider Antisemitism to be a major problem in the eight countries in which the majority of the estimated EU Jewish population lives

Over 1 in 2 Jewish respondents heard or saw someone claiming that the Holocaust was a myth or has been exaggerated in the previous 12 months

Who are European Jews? + -

There is no easy answer to what defines someone's identity as Jewish, as there are cultural, ethnic, religious, political, family and personal implications. Jewish may refer to both a people and a religion. Considerations on who is a Jew depend on self-identification and other societal aspects. According to the Jewish law, a person born from a Jewish mother or any person who has gone through the process of conversion to Judaism is Jewish.

Jews have been present in Europe as early as 90 BC. There are no reliable and comparable data on the number of Jews in Europe but the current Jewish population of Europe is estimated at around 2 million (0.3% of the European population), while the pre-World War II Jewish population in Europe was estimated at 9 million (about 7.7% of the then European population). Jewish communities are very heterogeneous. There are variations in religious streams - among others Orthodox, Reformist, Conservative Masorti and Reconstructionist Jews - but also in culture and practice, which can be divided into two main backgrounds Ashkenazim, originally concentrated in Central and Eastern Europe, and Sephardim, originally from the Iberian Peninsula. Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) are Jewish communities originally from North and North-West Ethiopia. Many non-religious Jews may also self-identify as Jews and/or as part of the majority society.

What is Antisemitism? + -

First used by Wilhem Marr in 1870, Antisemitism refers to hatred towards Jewish people, people perceived as Jewish, Jewish institutions, Jewish communities, Jewish culture, Jewish properties and in some cases the State of Israel as a Jewish collectivity. The definition which is most used by institutions such as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, originating from the work of the former European Union Monitoring Center (EUMC), is: "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities".

Is it true that there is no Antisemitism in Europe anymore? + -

Sadly Antisemitism is not a phenomenon of the past in Europe, but rather on the rise again. Racist slogans invoking "death to the Jews" have been heard during protests against the 2014 war with Gaza in several European cities. Online antisemitic hate speech, especially on social media, is also sharply rising across Europe. These incidents, strongly condemned by a great diversity and majority of community leaders, reflect worrying spikes in antisemitic incidents and come as a stark reminder that Antisemitism is still very much a reality in Europe today.

In 2014 antisemitic violent attacks in France doubled compared to the year before and 51% of all racially motivated attacks targeted Jews. An EU survey shows that Jews in Europe feel that Antisemitism has increased in the country they live in over the past five years (76%) and that they are increasingly afraid of being verbally harassed (46%) or physically attacked (33%). In the past 12 months, over half of all survey respondents (57 %) heard or saw someone claiming that the Holocaust was a myth or has been exaggerated.

Far-right parties and neo-Nazi movements have a strong antisemitic basis of support, in Hungary, Greece, but also in western Europe, as the July neo-Nazi protest against "the Jewification" of London shows. Muslims, themselves a discriminated community, are not immune to Antisemitism. Some Muslims are influenced by theological discourses rooted in Antisemitism, far-right ideologues, negationists and those spreading confusion between Israel and Jews in general. Many recent attacks by violent extremists committed in the name of Islam in western Europe have targeted Jews. However, affirmations that Muslims are the only or overwhelming source of Antisemitism in Europe are based on an attempt to pit Jews and Muslims against each other, divide society and spread both Islamophobia and antisemitism. Antisemitism is complex in the sense that throughout history, "it has come from all parts of the political spectrum and from different religious groups living in close proximity to Jews".

Debunking myths on Jews in Europe + -

ENAR member organisations working on Antisemitism + -

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Antisemitism - European Network Against Racism

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Antisemitism is still a reality for many European Jews, who increasingly experience insults, discrimination, harassment, attacks against properties and physical violence. Antisemitism must be combatted to ensure well-being, security and equality of outcome of Jews in Europe.

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Many of the Jews of Eastern Europe lived in predominantly Jewish towns or villages, in Yiddish, called Shtetls. Families live a traditional and simple life.