Survival In The Book: Surviving The Holocaust

Surviving the Holocaust

Have you ever been in a situation where living was be harder than dying? Well, that is how the prisoners of the Holocaust felt everyday of their lives. Having no food, water or supplies was difficult enough, but the prisoners also had to work in horrible conditions every day. Worse yet, they had to watch their family members and friends die. Prisoners had to possess many different attributes to make it through the camps alive. In the books Night and Hostage to War, along with the article, "Volume 7 Nazi Germany," prisoners survived through mental fortitude, physical strength and determination.

The first piece that I read was a novel called Night by Elie Wiesel. Night was a true story written by Elie Wiesel who experienced

Mental toughness was a key way both authors used to stay alive during the concentration camps. In Night when Elie stayed calm while his dad got beat, this was really smart on Elie's part and was a key way he survived rest of the way (Wiesel, p56). If Elie would have retaliated then he would have been killed. The Nazis did not like when the Jews disobeyed them and when the Jews did they faced harsh punishments. Then this same scenario happens in the book Hostage to War. When Wassiljewa witnessed her friend Tamara getting beat, instead of saying something she stayed back and helped Tamara after the beating (Wassiljewa, p115). She knew fighting with the Nazis would not have helped her or her friend. These examples of mental toughness were key ways these two Jews were able to stay alive through these difficult

Wassiljewa's goal of survival was taking place before she was even sent to the concentration camps. She described all of the things she had to do to help her family survive, walking miles and miles to get food was one example. Another one is after she was liberated by the Americans she got a job to be able to support her sickly mother and sister. In "Nazi Germany" two escapees, Vrba and Wetzel debated escaping many times, but the people who were caught attempting to do so were hanged so they decided not to. Finally, when they were one the verge of dying in the camps, they gave it one shot and ended up escaping successfully (Wetzler, Alfred and Vrba, Rudolf, p25). This proved how badly they wanted to survive. One would think every prisoner wanted to escape, but they had no hope for survival so they just gave up. The trauma of what most prisoners experienced were so horrifying most just wanted to die in