presidents day 2017

The Legacy of the Holocaust

The Holocaust exposed the evil possibilities which reside in man. "What do you want people to remember about the Holocaust?" I asked Saul Garber, who was liberated from Mauthausen. "The sufferings of human beings in a so-called civilized period, the twentieth century. We must understand how individuals can be insensitive to children's brains being splashed on their coat. How individuals cannot respond to a mother's plea not to shoot her child. If we understand how it could happen, it might help prevent future disasters."

The Holocaust exposed the ease with which we can inure ourselves to doubt or to guilt. The Holocaust exposed the ease with which man can kill and torture and justifiably believe it is the right, even necessary, thing to do. The Holocaust exposed the ease with which we can suppress our capacity for empathy.

To refer to the Holocaust as a  "monstrous, inhuman event" is to miss 
the point. The Holocaust was imposed by men and women on other human beings. "It was a time when there were people, not only the Germans, but the others too, what wanted to kill all the Jewish people. After they would kill the Jewish people, they would kill the black people, the brown people. the yellow people. Only people with blond hair and blue eyes would live." 

And so most Holocaust survivors believe it could happen again. For those of us who did not endure the calamity, the Holocaust is a historic incident. For survivors, the Holocaust is one more manifestation of an ongoing Jewish history, a history of the antipathy of others, with its lessons for the future. Indeed, survivors insist that the Holocaust must not be seen as an isolated episode. For there was a context, a context of a group that for almost two thousand years has denied the most fundamental beliefs of their majority hosts, a context of the human strategy of finding simplistic solutions to complex problems, a context of the tendency to point the finger at a convenient scapegoat and assuage one's anxiety by acting against that target, and the context of the all too human need to feel superior to others. 


from
THE AFTERMATH
Living With The Holocaust
by
AARON HASS
Cambridge University Press 1995

drawn by

ELLA LIEBERMANN

16 years old

Children were torn from the arms of their mothers.

Bedzin's Ghetto, Poland

Psychological Abuse of the Elderly

Excerpt by

Margie Eckroth-Bucher

 PhD,RN,PMHCNS-BC

Signs and Symptoms of Psychological Abuse

Discovering some types of elder abuse may be as simple as looking at an obviously nonaccidentally injured elder or reviewing his or her financial statements. But this is not the case with psychological abuse. Abuse may not be apparent, even to those who experience it. It is important to consider an individual’s cultural norms and traditions. Factors such as language barriers, cultural views that fail to uphold women’s basic rights, and beliefs that what happens at home is private tend to make identifying abuse difficult. It is important to not ignore abuse based on cultural differences but to be culturally sensitive about what the individual’s beliefs are.

The following list of indicators offers a useful guide in cases of suspected abuse. Although the presence of any one indicator doesn’t constitute proof, it should prompt further, more comprehensive exploration of an elder’s current living situation and care providers. This is especially true in light of the incidence of psychological abuse co-occurring with other types of abuse. The typical behaviors demonstrated by a victim of psychological abuse may include the following:

• passivity, withdrawal, or increasing depression;

• evasiveness or reluctance to talk openly;

• avoidance of eye contact or verbal contact with a caregiver;

• cowering in the presence of the abuser;

• hopelessness, helplessness, anxiety, or feelings of powerlessness (Anxiety and powerlessness are the most commonly expressed warning signs in grandfathers in the custodial role.);

• fear;

• confusion that is unrelated to any medical condition;

• change in sleeping or eating habits;

• contradictory statements;

• missing appointments; and

• isolation from friends or other family.

Fall 2008

Devious Damage: Elder Psychological Abuse
By Margie Eckroth-Bucher, PhD, RN, PMHCNS-BC
Aging Well
Vol. 1 No. 4 P. 24