It’s easy enough to think that the Holocaust is simply a relic of the past; that it belongs only in history textbooks or in museum displays. Yet, the devastation and destruction it caused lives on today, which is why remembering it is so important. Meanwhile, beginning in the fall of 1939, Nazi officials selected around 70,000 Germans institutionalized for mental illness or physical disabilities to be gassed to death in the so-called Euthanasia Program. Gordon Allport, who wrote a preface to the book, described it as a "gem of dramatic narrative" which "provides a compelling introduction to the most significant psychological movement of our day". [9] Sarah Bakewell describes it as "an incredibly powerful and moving example of what existentialist thought can actually be for in real life" [10] while Mary Fulbrook praises "the way [Frankl] explores the importance of meaning in life as the key to survival." [11] A massive extermination system, Auschwitz-Birkenau, or “Auschwitz II,” was installed by the SS as part of the systematic, continent-wide genocide of European Jews which began in late 1941-early 1942. With its apparatus of gas chambers (made to look like showering facilities) and four crematoria, Auschwitz II could literally murder 15,000 people per day. Lawrence Langer, Versions of Survival: The Holocaust and the Human Spirit (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982), p. 24.

In his last will and political testament, dictated in a German bunker that April 29, Hitler blamed the war on “International Jewry and its helpers” and urged the German leaders and people to follow “the strict observance of the racial laws and with merciless resistance against the universal poisoners of all peoples”—the Jews. There have been many histories of many atrocities, but somehow the impact and horror of a survivor's account of the Shoah never diminishes. Jacek Eisner - I think he deserves his given name, and cannot ask him - was a tough bastard. He survived the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto and fought in the uprising. This alone would establish him as one of the last Century's heroes. But that is only one fragment. He ran smuggling operations from outside the ghetto to feed his family. He defended the Polish and David's flags during its final stand. He went through Teblinka, escaped, was captured again and stood up face-to-face with one of the SS's most notorious beasts. He fought with the Polish resistance, and was driven from them by their vile hatred for a race that had done nothing to offend. He survived beatings, shootings and starvation, narrowly avoiding the gas chambers at several points and dragging many others along by sheer force of will. He was separated from his lover and found her twice over before the end. He survived to find his mother and some of his friends from along the way, and this alone is a miracle. Fein, Esther B. (20 November 1991). "New York Times, 11-20-1991". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 April 2020 . Retrieved 21 April 2020.

Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers

Man's Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose to each person's life through one of three ways: the completion of tasks, caring for another person, or finding meaning by facing suffering with dignity. A truly harrowing account, humanely told in fast-paced, affecting prose. You won’t be able to put it down — even in those moments where the truth feels too hard to read." — Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia -

Josef did survive when troops came to free the survivors at the Ebensee camp, and he made it his life’s goal to bring Goeth to justice. He did just that, pointing him out, confronting him, and telling exactly what Goeth had done to innocent people. He wanted to do it for himself and the victims, including his extended family of 150, of which he was the sole survivor. Pytell, Timothy (June 3, 2003). "Redeeming the Unredeemable: Auschwitz and Man's Search for Meaning". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 17 (1): 89–113. doi: 10.1093/hgs/17.1.89– via Project MUSE. One of the last great untold stories of the Holocaust, The Survivor is an astonishing account of one man's unbreakable spirit, unshakeable faith, and extraordinary courage in the face of evil. With his freedom, Josef returned home to find that he was the only one left alive in an extended family of 150. Compelled by the need to do something to avenge that loss, he joined the Jewish police while still in a displaced persons' camp, and was recruited as an intelligence officer for the US Army who gave him a team to search for Nazis in hiding.This begins the second stage, in which there is a danger of deformation. As the intense pressure on the mind is released, mental health can be endangered. Frankl uses the analogy of a diver suddenly released from his pressure chamber. He recounts the story of a friend who became immediately obsessed with dispensing the same violence in judgment of his abusers that they had inflicted on him. Josef’s entire family had been murdered so there was no family with which to reunite. Therefore he chose to move on to his next calling to locate the many dislocated Jewish/Polish children and reunite them with their rightful families.

If we restrict our focus to the Auschwitz complex, what is the most ethical and rigorous way to guarantee the stories of non-Jewish victims (Poles, Soviet POWs, Roma) are not lost? Do US educators rely too much on a small selection of texts by survivors of Auschwitz, principally Elie Wiesel’s Night and Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, as powerful as these writings are? In 1933, Jews in Germany numbered around 525,000—just one percent of the total German population. During the next six years, Nazis undertook an “Aryanization” of Germany, dismissing non-Aryans from civil service, liquidating Jewish-owned businesses and stripping Jewish lawyers and doctors of their clients. Nuremberg Laws After all he had endured having been liberated from Ebensee by the US Army Josef made it his business to assist the US to locate a number of the SS murderers and in particular the monster Amon Goeth. Josef gave testimony at Goeth’s trial. Life Is Beautiful (1997), film on how a positive attitude can be maintained in the worst of circumstances, including a concentration campreactions of depersonalization, moral deformity, bitterness, and disillusionment if he survives and is liberated. [6] Lobstergirl wrote: "Jarmila wrote: "Hi,can anyone recommend me the books that are dealing with the problem of post traumatic stress of holocaust survivor? tx" Later German editions prefixed the title with Trotzdem Ja zum Leben Sagen ("Nevertheless Say Yes to Life"), taken from a line in Das Buchenwaldlied, a song written by Friedrich Löhner-Beda while an inmate at Buchenwald. [4] According to a survey conducted by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Library of Congress, Man's Search for Meaning belongs to a list of "the ten most influential books in the United States." [1] At the time of the author's death in 1997, the book had sold over 10 million copies and had been translated into 24 languages. [2] [3] Editions [ edit ] This is not historical fiction, this is a firsthand account of one man who, by the grace of God, survived the horrors of not one but six Nazi camps. Josef attributes his survival to ‘miracles’ and I suspect he must be right.