The effects of the Holocaust can still be felt today, not only by those who learn and read about it, but by those who were children or teenagers during the massacre who were forced to watch their family and friends being tortured and killed. Their stories are the ones from which we can learn. The Holocaust shows something amazing: the strength of the human spirit. Those who were prisoners survived because of their sheer will to live, unwilling to be broken by the oppression of the Nazis. It is incomprehensible how life truly was for those in the camps. The fact that there were survivors shows that there is something in us that cannot be taken away no matter what, human spirit. While the Holocaust did strengthen the spirits of many, it also weakened some cognitive reactions, leaving many with psychological distresses and posttraumatic stress. Accounts given by actual survivors, psychological studies, and information found in course texts will provide information on how man!

y children survivors have been affected.

In speaking to some survivors, it was apparent that they were forced to endure awful misfortunes during t

Stem, Benjamin. Personal Interview. 12 Apr. 2001.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus II, A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began. New York: Random House, 1991.

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Spiegelman, Art. Maus I, A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History. New York: Random House, 1986.

This personal interview allowed for a personal view, rather than statistics or generalized information found in articles and studies.

Amir, Marianne & Rachel Lev-Wiesel. "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms, Psychological Distress, Personal Resources and Quality of Life Focus Groups of Holocaust Child Survivors." Family Process 39 (2000): 445-459.

Maus I and Maus II recount the story of the author's father. Accounts are given of children as young as 2 or 3 years old, being taken away "screaming and screaming" (Spiegelman 108). When this happened, Vladek Spiegelman recalls, "So the Germans swinged them by the legs against the wall...and they never anymore screamed" (Spiegelman 108). The acts that Vladek gave accounts of were not being performed on people guilty of some horrific crime; they were being performed on innocent children who could not defend themselves.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)