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Eichelberger
Allison Eichelberger
Professor Werts-Orbaugh
UWRT 1103-003
2 November 2015

Research Review: Mental Health of Survivors

Through the semester, my inquiry work has been focused on Holocaust survivors
mental health and how an individual recovers from such a traumatizing period of events.
My main focus is the affect on the second generation of the survivors dealing with
posttraumatic stress disorder and survivors guilt. I chose this this topic to research
because I find it interesting to see how survivors are doing mentally after a life changing
happening and how much it affected their everyday lives as well as their families lives.
While researching, it became clear to me that there is a huge community of Holocaust
survivors and many different kinds of therapy groups out there and they are not alone. I
read many different articles and chapters from books to gain knowledge on my inquiry
topic. When I first began my research I had a very broad topic in mind, but after reading a
few articles, it opened my mind and helped me narrow it down. There were two specific
articles that stood out to me and I felt related well with the topic I chose. Michael A.
Gordin Caring for Aging Holocaust Survivors and Subsequent Generations, was the
first article I read. The second article I read was written by Piccirillo, Ryan A.
Logotherapy and the Holocaust: Uniting Human Experience in Extremity and
Normality." These two sources have been great resources in my inquiry work. They both

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do a great job of giving in-depth detail about how survivors mental health and how the
second generation was affected as well.
The first article focuses the second generation and how it mentally affected them
living with parents and seeing double reality. This source was very useful to the start of
my research for my inquiry work. Michael A. Gordin does a good job talking about the
affects on the next generation. They refer to it as trauma transfer. In the article they have
statistics of how the second generation felt and what they were feeling. Some children
felt ashamed when they hear about mass murder, some have a feeling of guilt, others feel
paralyzed, and some are just afraid. It also goes in detail about the difference of children
survivors vs. adult survivors and how living through that horrific time affected them in
different ways. While, the second source was about a holocaust survivor Dr. Viktor E.
Frankl who experienced adult life as a psychiatrist before and after his concentration
camp experiences. He witnessed extreme of human suffering throughout his time in the
concentration camps. The main idea of the article is logotheraphy. Logotherapy is based
on Dr. Frankl theories. Unlike traditional therapy, this kind asks the patient to look
towards his future circumstances. Then the article proceeds to talk about the application
and consequences of logotherapy.

As I continued my inquiry research, I found that I was reading more into the
survivors guilt. I came across this article that had quotes that really captured the guilt the
survivors felt. Dr. Viktor E. Frankl reminds us how life always has a meaning, writing;
We must never forget that we may also find meaning in the life even when confronted
with a hopeless situation. When facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then

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matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to
transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn ones predicament into a human
achievement.(Frankl 135). This quote in particular stood out to me, I find it to be very
realistic. I have done a good bit of research on Holocaust survivors mental health and
therapies they can go through to try and get treated, but he states it very well that this
horrible event could help find the meaning of life. When the survivor is considered an
outsider, this can lend itself to an understanding of what it means to have survived the
Holocaust. This has opened my eyes to look at the topic in a different way. I was so
focused on finding facts and treatments and not the life lessons that come along with the
journey.
Holocaust researcher Piccirillo, Ryan A., writes about a Holocaust survivor who
explains how people who havent lives through this time may fell. He points out, Those
who have lived their entire lives in normality have a curious desire to relate to victims of
the Holocaust. This desire always leads one to a fundamental gap in human experience
which cant easily be bridged by psychoanalysis (Frankl 137). I personally could never
imagine living in this time period and having to go through what millions had to, being in
concentration camps, getting separated from their loved ones, or watching others get
murdered. This quote from the article I read made me realize that I have lived such a
normal life and that I am grateful for. Now, I am trying to put my self into their shoes and
just picture a day in the life of what they did on normal bases. This relates to my inquiry
work by adding a new way to view my topic.
Micheal A. Gordin also brings how up how the survivors children were raised. In
this article Gordin reminds us that not only are the survivors of the Holocaust are

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affected, but so is the second generation. He explains children born to survivor parents
after the Holocaust experienced a double reality: one from the present and one from their
parents' past. They often grew up in the shadow of their parents' bereavement, mourning,
guilt, and anxiety. This could result in overprotection and over-expectation. There might
be exaggerated family attachments and dependency (Garwood, 1996). This quote is
important to my inquiry work because it gives me specific facts that I did know before. I
also found it interesting to find out how the children of survivors were raised. This
opened my eyes to how the second generation can be affected by how those around them
act. So, their parents going through Posttraumatic stress disorder can pass it passed to the
children as well.
Throughout my process of my inquiry research, I feel like I have gained a lot of
knowledge about mental health in Holocaust survivors. I read many different articles
about my topic from, treatments, posttraumatic stress disorder, guilt, and second
generation. I found all of the articles very interesting, so it was difficult to narrow it down
to a specific topic. The quotes I have selected above really stuck out to me and I felt like
they supported and backed up what I was saying about my inquiry topic. I found it
helpful to dialogue with the sources I selected, because it helped me think outside the box
and broaden the meaning of the quotes I chose. This was such a tedious process, but I
honestly feel like I gained so much new knowledge about the Holocaust.

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Peer Editing

I found this to be very well written, just re-read it and make sure you add commas
where they are needed. For the research review we only need two quotations, so I would
narrow it down to the two you feel best support you inquiry topic. Also, your first
paragraph should be explaining/ introducing your inquiry topic. Then followed by your
two quotes and dialogue about the quotes. Overall, you dialogue is very clear and
explains your feelings and what you learned through the quotes. I would suggest that you
look at the class activity together where I wrote down your thoughts about the quotes and
see if you could incorporate that in here. You could also explain how this source was
helpful for your inquiry research. Make sure you a different title and use MLA
formatting.

Work Cited
Piccirillo, Ryan A. "Logotherapy and the Holocaust: Uniting Human Experience in
Extremity and Normality." Student Pulse 2.09 (2010).

Michael A. Grodin. "Caring for Aging Holocaust Survivors and Subsequent

Generations." American Imago 68.3 (2011): 543-559. Project MUSE. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.