Immediately after WWII, the world was in disbelief: no one could believe that more than six million men, women, and children were mercilessly slaughtered as part of a racial “cleansing”. This is what makes the Holocaust museum’s Experiencing History project, a compilation of primary sources from Holocaust victims and survivors, important. The resource offers a lense into the suffering of Jews and other minorities at the hands of Nazi Germany’s fascist ideologies. Three primary sources from this database, Peter Feigl and Adolf Guttentag’s diaries and Ruth Elias’ video interview, exhibit themes like loss of hope and the psychological effect of separating families; the sources were also compared and contrasted to highlight the perspective of different age groups and shared emotional turmoil.
Peter Feigl and his family fled from Berlin to Vichy, France, which eventually came under the control of Germans. Foreign Jews, like Feigl’s parents, were rounded up and sent to internment camps, and eventually Auschwitz. Before being captured, Peter’s parents sent him to a Catholic summer camp in the town of Condom. Poor Peter, unable to bear isolation from his parents, began to write in a diary addressed to his parents to cope with his depression. It’s also important to note that like Peter, Ruth Elias was also separated from her parents (they were sent in transports to the East). His writing contains both light and dark themes, from him organizing a party for the other children in the camp to his directress faking his illness so the Schuftazel (Nazi police force) wouldn’t take him away (“Diary of Peter Feigl”).
Through his eyes, we see the Holocaust through a child’s perspective. We can see his naive hope of reunion with his parents deteriorate as the length of time between postcards gets larger and larger. It's clear Peter is emotionally burdened: quite a few of his entries are along the lines of “I am in bed. Nothing from you. I think of you often”. As we experience his mental anguish, it is apparent that his diary and that of other victims and survivors served as a pseudo-connection to their loved ones. In fact, Adolf Guttentag did the same thing but addressed his diary to his son, Otto. Like his frequent crying, Peter’s diary was an outlet for his emotions. Peter’s parents’ postcard came to him when they were in an internment camp, Camp Vernet. Internment camps served as temporary holding areas for Jews before they were deported to actual concentration camps. His parents were held here before being deported to Auschwitz. Depending on their age, they were either put to slave labor or killed immediately with Zyklon B.
Adolf Guttentag (a physician) and his wife lived in Berlin during the year of 1942. As his neighbors were being taken to Nazi camps like Theresienstadt (extermination camp, ghetto, and transit camp that was directed by Reinhard Heydrich (Berenbaum 2018)), he contemplates whether or not he should kill himself (like his friend). In his old age, Guttentag doesn’t want to suffer the physical discomfort of being transported between camps. Guttentag is, however, completely unaware of the Final Solution (the genocidal mission that was planned even prior to the Wannsee conference (The Wannsee Protocol)). He meditates on his dilemma in his journal, which is addressed to his son Otto in the US. He wanted to join Otto, but it is unclear as to why this never happened. The mounting stress and a single confrontation with Nazi officers (who tell him to clear his belongings for transport to the camps) cause the Guttentags to kill themselves with poison (Diary of Peter Guttentag).
The Guttentags lost hope: they weren’t able to get into contact with their son, and they were too old to stand a chance against the conditions of a concentration camp. This is in stark contrast to Elias, who lost hope, not in her own survival, but the survival of her first child. In this way, they were almost Muselmann (those who were resigned to their impending death in concentration camps). Additionally, through his writing we learn that many of the younger generations of Jews left their families to escape the wrath of the Nazis, leaving behind countless relatives and other family members. In this case, Otto left to San Francisco; Adolf Guttentag, wanted his diary to reach his son (who would provide them some chance of them escaping their plight). Hence, their larger family unity was almost sacrificed to ensure the survival of specific members.
Ruth Elias, a teenager during the Holocaust, communicates her experience in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz II – Birkenau as part of a video interview for Shoah. Initially, she marries her fiance while in the camp to avoid being sent eastern European camps. Because of her spur of the moment action, she is separated from her entire family. Dr. Mengele takes an interest in her when she becomes pregnant. When Elias delivers, Mengele decides to perform an experiment: how long can a baby survive without food? Elias’s breasts are tied up as she witnesses her newborn cry for food. She tries to feed it some bread and soup, but her efforts are futile as her baby becomes frail. Her screams of despair are heard by a woman physician who hands her a morphine injection for the baby. She initially hesitates but eventually succumbs: her baby dies peacefully (Shoah Outtake with Ruth Elias).
This interview offers a unique insight into the life of women in Nazi camps. We can understand how pregnant women gave birth in the dirt and grime of Birkenau without hot water or any other amenities to ease the pain. In contrast to Peter and Guttentag, Elias never wrote in a diary, but this was most likely because she was in a concentration camp. Like Peter and Guttentag, Elias loses hope as well; unlike them losing hope for a reunion with their parents and son, she loses hope for the survival of her newborn baby. This is why, after much hesitation, she relents and decides to give her baby the shot of morphine. Also, after marrying her fiance, Elias is separated from all of her relatives: she now has to survive without their moral support and guidance. In fact, Elias recounts how she didn’t know how deliveries or pregnancy worked. Had her female relatives been present, she would have their support during labor and would have suffered less. That is, the psychological effect of her female persecution increased in severity due to her separation from her family.
Most, if not all of the Holocaust museum’s primary sources allow us to imagine life as a Jew in Nazi Germany. Examination of these documents reveals a multitude of common themes that are present in the lives of these Holocaust survivors and victims, two of which are the loss of hope and the psychological effect of separating families. While differing in age group, sex, and other specifics, Peter Feigl and Adolf Guttentag’s diary, and Ruth Elias’ testimony depict these traits. Most importantly, the Experiencing History Project’s database prevents us from ever forgetting the Holocaust; if we as a society are ignorant, the attempted extermination of an entire race may occur again.