“What to Do Now? After All, Life Must Go On” –
Loneliness and the Search for New Meaning
During 1944-1945, toward the end of World War II, Soviet, British and U.S. soldiers rescued what remained of
European Jewry from the various labor, concentration and extermination camps. The liberation entailed mixed
feelings for the survivors, ranging from happiness to sadness, from a sense of a new beginning to grief over
their immense personal loss.
During the first weeks of liberation, survivors suffered from severe malnutrition, disease, and a difficult
emotional state. For thousands, the liberation had arrived too late, and they died of illness, exhaustion and
sometimes from overeating. Many of the survivors had lost most of their families. In effect, it was only after
receiving the initial assistance, which slightly improved their physical condition, that survivors began the
difficult emotional task of internalizing the scope of the tragedy that had befallen themselves and their
people.
This chapter focuses on the mixed reactions among survivors – joy alongside the feeling of loss, and the
physical rehabilitation of the camp survivors.
“What to Do Now? After All, Life Must Go On”
Helen Borko and Joseph Perlstein, Bederech Lo Derech [Hebrew], pp. 23-24.
