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Anxiety Disorder
Cognitive Theory and Generalized Anxiety Disorder
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Integrative approach
An integrative approach refers to the concept of utilizing two or more types or styles of counseling. This approach is vital since it assists in suiting the needs and expectations of every specific client at any given time. This model is better compared to other models since it has been discovered that in therapy, what works best for a particular person may not be the same style that will work for another individual. Thus the model is easily adaptable and flexible to cater to different individuals’ needs and expectations. Dr. Aaron T. Beck developed this model in the 1960s which started with the cognitive behavioral therapy that is used to treat depression, anxiety, phobias among others. This method is still being used today by therapists to get rid of stress and other cases that are related to psychiatric disorders. Dr. Kory Floyd later developed the second component of the model called experiential therapies which are mainly used in treating addiction issues, family issues among other psychological problems (Corey, 2016). Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps an individual to eliminate or reduce pathological emotions while experiential therapy helps an individual to work on healthy emotions and live a normal life again.
The integrative approach has proved to be very beneficial for both the counselor and client. Through this, one is able to explore different modalities of therapy that are utilized in combination for the purpose of meeting the needs of individuals who have complex problems. There are several benefits that can be attained by the use of an integrative approach which includes better client motivation, improved therapeutic alliance, better therapeutic gains, increase in professional satisfaction among others. Ultimately this will lead to greater potential for success through treatment since it enables a holistic approach through addressing all aspects of a person’s life situation.
Incorrect application of Integrative approach
The integrative approach has been applied incorrectly in various instances. One example of incorrect application is in the treatment of borderline personality disorder and how it has been misapplied. The use of “empathic listening” and active surrender can be seen as early signs of abusiveness. In order to deal with a person with BPD, it is vital to understand the concept of boundaries (Corey, 2016). Boundaries are not an outcome but a goal towards which behaviors should be striving toward. Additionally, there must be a differentiation between people’s needs and desires from their actual needs and desires that might not seem that important or desirable on paper but are crucial for them to attain the outcome they desire.
Correct application of the integrative approach
The correct application of the integrative approach involves a process in which practitioners utilize a number of different therapies. In this way, the therapist/client creates a personalized treatment plan that addresses the specific needs of their client. In general, integrated approach therapy is much more effective than anyone therapy in isolation because it looks at the whole person rather than just their presenting problem or illness. It is for this reason that clients who seek out an integrative outlook often find relief from mental anguish and physical pain that cannot be found elsewhere
The approach involves applying the whole-person approach to a person’s life-cycle. This is defined by an individual giving attention and consideration to all of the physical, psychological, and spiritual needs and interests of an individual. This approach has been broadly studied in recent years and it has been found this method produces more successful outcomes than other methods. The central activity for this type of care is the promotion of health while also promoting happiness. These concepts are addressed through practices such as exercise, behavioral therapy, education on various topics such as nutrition or spirituality, proper sleep habits, positive psychology practice models such as gratitude journals, or cognitive therapy models like client homework assignments (Crumb & Haskins, 2017).
Cognitive Theory
The cognitive theory refers to a model that proposes that a person’s behavior and emotions are a result of their perceptions and thought processes. A client can be helped to change their thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors by investigating the ways in which they perceive themselves, other people, and the world around them. The counselor helps them explore through questioning. A cognitive theory approach in counseling assumes that all thoughts are meaningful and should be explored (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020). Thoughts are one’s mind’s processing system for information so it is said to be natural for thinking to take place without any interference. Thoughts are not necessarily true but they can lead to feelings of negative emotions like depression or anxiety which would then lead to maladaptive behaviors like self-harm or substance abuse.
The main concept of cognitive therapy is that thoughts are not the cause of stress or anxiety, but rather they are the result. It can be helpful to view anxiety or stress as a symptom, which is an indicator of what your mind is doing in response to some sort of stressor. From this perspective, it becomes easier to identify challenges and find ways to avoid them. Cognitive therapy has evolved into an increasingly popular treatment method for many different mental health disorders including depression, anxiety disorders, trauma-related conditions, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder.
Strengths and weaknesses of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
The main strength of the cognitive theory approach in counseling and treatment is that it helps people to understand their thoughts. In particular, the theory focuses on how patterns of thoughts can lead to dysfunctional behaviors. It also guides people towards ways of changing thinking styles that may be interfering with accomplishing goals or solving problems (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020).
The main weakness of the cognitive theory approach in counseling and treatment is that there are many other factors involved in a person’s mental health, such as biological causes, interpersonal causes, and environmental causes. While this approach does focus on addressing problematic thinking patterns, it doesn’t offer a holistic view of what may be going on for an individual experiencing mental health issues.
The cognitive theory approach views human nature as an information processing system. It examines the way people gather, store, retrieve, uses, and share information. This theory is based on the idea that the mind is a computer-like system that processes information. It has some similarities to the behavioral approach, though it is more concerned with mental activity than with observable behavior. The human-computer metaphor is one of the best-known examples of the cognitive approach. First proposed by anthropologist Edward Tylor in 1871, the idea that humans are essentially biological computers may sound quaint today, but at first, it had a huge impact on the study of the mind. The notion of the human as the computer has always served as an analogy to investigate inner thoughts and feelings through empirical data collection procedures on mental activities through introspection, sentence completion tasks, verbal protocols, etc. Although originally intended as a metaphor for understanding how people think, this view has become rooted in our current views about psychology and philosophy.
The cognitive theory approach is also vital in describing how human change occurs. The cognitive theory approach views human nature as changeable. This is the opposite of the psychodynamic theory that sees people as being fixed in their ways of thinking and therefore difficult to change. Cognitive theorists believe that by making changes in one’s behavior, thoughts, or feelings through the use of therapy, a person can be significantly changed. The cognitive theory is also more optimistic than psychodynamic theorists about how therapy will work with patients who have had significant developmental delays over their life span due to physical or psychological trauma or abuse. Psychodynamic approaches are less likely to be effective with these kinds of patients because they are typically seen as being fixed in their ways and resistant to change.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
This model refers to a psychotherapeutic treatment designed to assist individuals to learn how to identify disturbing and destructive thoughts that tends to impact an individual’s emotions and behaviors negatively. Generally, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is summarized in two parts (Robertson, 2018). The first part is to identify errors encoded in thoughts, the second is to learn how to change these errors through techniques known as cognitive restructuring. These thoughts may be problems with emotions, behavior, or both. Therefore, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a brief, directive, and directive form of psychotherapy. Applying CBT to a unique problem, a therapist will first make use of a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnosis to ensure the individual suffers from some type of disturbance or comorbid disorder that must be treated. The therapist then uses the diagnostic information to help generate some type of combination of cognitive-behavioral theory as well as an emotional/behavioral method that will best work on the specific person (Stefan, Cristea, Szentagotai Tatar, & David, 2019).
Therefore, the critical role of the cognitive theory is evident in the CBT model of treatment. For example, cognitive theory dictates that depression is a result of a negative interpretation of a situation. In this case, the cognitive event would be that the individual believes that he/she is to blame for not being able to find work or get money, which leads to feelings of guilt and worthlessness. In contrast, CBT techniques would aim at disputing this negative belief which could potentially change one’s emotional state. The evidence for cognitive behavior theory is present in many different areas of psychology like neuropsychology and social psychology. However, it can also be found in family therapy as well as psychotherapy programs with children and adolescents using DBT techniques with adolescents suffering from depression.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Generalized Anxiety Disorder refers to a mental health disorder that makes it hard to control worry, even when there’s no pressing reason for it. Many people with GAD worry about everyday life and routine issues like work, school, health, and relationships. The disorder can make you feel afraid or uncomfortable in social situations such as meeting new people or participating in a project at work because you’re worried about what others think of you. GAD is different from the more commonly known phobias because those disorders typically involve specific fears that can be avoided through avoidance or safety precautions such as staying away from a threat. A mental health professional might diagnose generalized anxiety disorder after they conducted an interview and other tests to decide whether the symptoms are excessive and persistent enough to invade your life over a long period of time.
Brief Historical Background of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
The third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders first introduced Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) as a diagnostic category in 1980. This new category provided a significant advantage over the other anxiety disorders in that GAD could be diagnosed using only interviews with the person who is experiencing anxiety. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) was first discovered by William G. Mowrer in 1908. It was initially thought to be an entirely new entity, but it is now known that the symptoms overlap with other anxiety disorders like panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). GAD is diagnosed by observing symptoms like persistent worry about everyday life events, extreme anxiety in social situations, and excessive care over safety and security detail (Leonard & Abramovitch, 2019). It was not until 1996 that we began to see a shift in the diagnosis of GAD as we recognized it as a biological disorder rather than a psychological one due to its correlation with adrenaline and noradrenaline levels during moments of stress.
Generalized anxiety disorder reflects excessive, unrealistic, prolonged, and often uncooling anticipations of danger that are typically not grounded in reality. It is characterized by feelings of fearfulness or dread lasting for more than six months. Sufferers may also experience irritability, restlessness, muscle tension, sleep problems, and fatigue. This disorder can create social or work-related difficulties because sufferers are constantly anticipating all types of negative events which cause them to worry excessively.
Current thinking on the pathogenesis and mechanisms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
The current thinking on the pathogenesis and mechanisms of Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) comprises the current research, literature, arguments, and arguments. Current thinking on the pathogenesis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is still in its infancy. There are many different theories that have been suggested to explain this condition. The most widely accepted theory is that anxiety disorders are caused by an imbalance of cortical arousal levels and anxiety response thresholds. This theory suggests that people who have GAD experience excessive arousal which leads to over-arousal resulting in a hyperactive cortical response leading to the development of the disorder (Sutherland-Stolting, Liao, Kraus, Campbell, & Goddard, 2020).
The course of development of Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) incorporates the start and persistence of the disorder in an individual. This disorder begins in childhood or adolescence with some degree of social withdrawal which subsides with age. A later onset GAD may be associated with school performance, family discord, and sexual difficulties, developmental regression, and personality changes. People suffering from GAD see themselves as chronically ill in ways that are not based on the objective reality of their condition.
What are the long-term effects of Generalized anxiety disorder?
– Insomnia or sleep loss
– Bouts of depression
– Family discord
– Substance abuse problems
– Social maladaptation
“Co-morbidity was consistently present in both treatment-seeking and non-treatment seeking groups”.
CBT Role in diagnosing Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Compared to other psychological treatments, CBT is the best for treating individuals with Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). It assists in the diagnosis and analysis of the symptoms of the mental illness. CBT provides a proactive approach to tackling the mental illness and leaving behind any detrimental effects that it may have on the individuals life leading to success in life. To begin with, CBT helps handle the symptoms that are associated with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) (Borza, 2017). The best step is to understand GAD and how it affects an individual’s life. A difference between GAD and other forms of anxiety disorders is that GAD is characterized by fears and worry regarding situations, situations, or situations that are frequent & difficult to control or bear (Green & Palmer, 2019). These situations can be anything from experiencing feelings of anxiety, specific thoughts of panic attacks, physical symptoms such as shaking, fainting, etc., emotional responses such as anger, depression, etc.
Cognitive theory has proved to be vital in the management of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), according to research conducted by the Mood Disorders Psychotherapy Research Group (2009). Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) emphasizes exposure and response prevention, cognitive restructuring, and exposure with ritual prevention. It asserts that GAD is not due to an organic brain disorder, but rather results from negative thinking styles. Anxiety is further increased by the misinterpretation of physical reactions (e.g., feeling shaky or having difficulty breathing) as meaning something serious must be happening in the body – leading to a higher frequency of checking for medical problems or calling various health care providers. In other words, GAD sufferers exist in a vicious cycle of anxiety-causing behavior followed by more anxiety-causing behavior (Borza, 2017).
References
Borza, L. (2017). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 19(2), 203.
Corey, G. (2016). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy, Enhanced. Cengage Learning.
Crumb, L., & Haskins, N. (2017). An integrative approach: Relational cultural theory and cognitive behavior therapy in college counseling. Journal of College Counseling, 20(3), 263-277.
Green, S., & Palmer, S. (Eds.). (2019). Positive psychology coaching in practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Leonard, K., & Abramovitch, A. (2019). Cognitive functions in young adults with generalized anxiety disorder. European Psychiatry, 56(1), 1-7.
Robertson, D. (2018). The philosophy of cognitive—behavioural therapy (CBT): Stoic philosophy as rational and cognitive psychotherapy. Routledge.
Schunk, D. H., & DiBenedetto, M. K. (2020). Motivation and social cognitive theory. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 60, 101832.
Stefan, S., Cristea, I. A., Szentagotai Tatar, A., & David, D. (2019). Cognitive‐behavioral therapy (CBT) for generalized anxiety disorder: Contrasting various CBT approaches in a randomized clinical trial. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 75(7), 1188-1202.
Sutherland-Stolting, A., Liao, B., Kraus, K., Campbell, C., & Goddard, A. W. (2020). Pathogenesis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The American Psychiatric Association Publishing Textbook of Anxiety, Trauma, and OCD-Related Disorders, 181.
Numerous aspects of your life, including work, education, and social interactions, can cause stress
Stress
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Numerous aspects of your life, including work, education, and social interactions, can cause stress. Your life’s stresses might be more harmful than any physical ailments you might be capable of having. Stress and anxiety can both lead to physical health problems in people, despite the fact that they both share a lot of similar thoughts and the brain processes them similarly. Nowadays, humor regarding
stress, anxiety, and burnout can be found on numerous social media platforms. Many people might view this as a fun joke, however for some people, these issues are very significant health issues that they must manage on a daily basis. The two biggest difficulties, stress and anxiety, need to be examined more by medical specialists as well as parents and close friends.
Although they are known to lead to burnout, stress and anxiety are less likely to be connected to physical illnesses among the general public. Hypochondriasis, often known as stress anxiety, is one specific type of anxiety. Because of their anxiousness, patients are known to believe that a little health problem is a much more dangerous disease. The patient’s Bolk 2 brain has the capacity to make the physical problem true in your mind but not literally if they keep thinking these thoughts. As a result, the patient is untreatable and is likely to lose faith in the ability of medical professionals to help them. This means that the only thing that can control how you feel is your brain; doctors are unable to treat you since the pain is in your head. Potentially, this might result in self-diagnosis and self-treatment.
The most frequent source of these ideas is hypochondria. “Hypochondriasis and general anxiety disorder (GAD) share disease fears as a common characteristic… Panic Disorder (PD) and Hypochondriasis are both characterized by a tendency to missinterpret benign physiological sensations as physically hazardous.” (J. Bailer) This frequently occurs because the patient is so frightened about being sick or having an illness that they are so focused on what would happen if they had said illness. As a result, the brain begins to worry about the symptoms the patient is observing and believes are actually occurring.
The majority of the time, one terrible or unfavorable visit—which may have occurred months ago or even when the child was still a toddler—is what has triggered this concern. If a bad experience did happen, the brain will attempt to erase the memory by inducing stressors nearby so the individual will flee the circumstance. When these patients should be treated differently, many clinicians dismiss them as difficult patients.
To help students cope with the stress of school, many universities have established stress relief activities or zones on their campuses. This is the most beneficial thing that has been observed in the general public to assist individuals with stress disorders and anxiety conditions without singling them out or taking them apart for therapy. Stress and mental health are still near to the top of the list of reasons why students leave college, despite the existence of additional factors. We also observe a surge in alcohol use when we examine college dropout rates. ” However, the impact of alcohol usage is questionable given that it may have a number of detrimental effects, including decreased academic performance.
Stress and dropout rates frequently go hand in hand. However, we link the kids who are more prone to drink to the extremely stressed students who seek a quick method to let go of all of their concerns, even if it is only for a brief period of time. This is true even though the degree of freedom away from parents could also be related to alcohol use.
Medical practitioners are aware that stress can induce mental, social, and even unanticipated physical problems, but many lack the necessary skills to deal with patients who are suffering from these diseases. We observe virtually little effort being made by schools or occupations to minimize stress, despite the fact that numerous studies have been conducted. Since everyone of our brains is unique, stress is something we almost exclusively have to manage on our own, which makes it difficult to tolerate.
You may combat stress in a variety of different ways. Exercise can help some people reduce stress, but relaxing techniques may work better for other people. Some individuals might discover that combining the two is the most effective method for managing stress. To reduce stress, exercise is a fantastic option. Endorphins, which offer mood-enhancing benefits, are released as a result. Another strategy to help you forget about whatever is stressing you up is to exercise. The effectiveness of your workout will increase if you can find a form that you enjoy. A great way to combat stress is to practice relaxation techniques. Deep breathing techniques have been known to help some persons de-stress. Others may discover that relaxing music or reading a book might help them feel less stressed. Find what best suits you by experimenting.
References
Milot, P. (2012). Power up your life & make stress work 4 you: A do-it-yourself handbook on managing stress efficiently. Xlibris Corporation.
Stein, S. J., & Bartone, P. T. (2020). Hardiness: Making stress work for you to achieve your life goals. John Wiley & Sons.
Vagni, M., Maiorano, T., Giostra, V., & Pajardi, D. (2021). Protective factors against emergency stress and burnout in healthcare and emergency workers. Social Sciences, 10(5), 178.
Historically, the Holocaust was the period between January 1933 and May 1945.
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Holocaust
Historically, the Holocaust was the period between January 1933 and May 1945. Adolf Hitler was the chancellor of Germany at the time till the war in Europe finally ended. Significantly, the holocaust is the most famous act of genocide in modern history. The Nazi Germany committed many atrocities during the World War II destroying the lives of millions of Jews in the process. It completely changed the face of Europe forever. The Jews in Europe were persecuted thus ultimately leading to the murder of six million Jews destroying the lives of over five thousand Jewish communities. About a quarter of the Jews who lost their lives were children. The only crime they committed was being Jews. They were victimized by the Germany’s deliberate and systematic attempt to flash out the entire Jewish population of Europe. Hitler called the plan the Final Solution.’ The holocaust did not only target the Jewish population but also other groups which were considered to be inferior. Other groups included the disabled and people who were of the Slavic origin.
Origin of the Holocaust
There was no singular cause of the holocaust in the history. Several reasons prompted the German people and their helpers during the World War II to gang up and round up the murder of over six million people and their neighbors. However, the leading cause of the holocaust revolved around the issue of anti-Semitism which was the ancient hatred of Jews in addition to the spread of Judaism. Anti-Semitism dates back to 1870 where the hostility towards Jews was evident, However, it can date v=back to the ancient world when the Jewish temple was destroyed thus forcing the Jews to leave Palestine. In the 17th and 18th century during the enlightenment period, religious toleration was emphasized by Napoleon and other European rulers by enacting legislation that ended the restrictions on Jews. The nature of the limitations took a racial rather than a religious outlook.
Hitler exaggerated the anti-Semitic ideologies by blaming the Jews for the defeat of Germany during the First World War. Hitler joined the National German Workers Party which was locally known as the Nazis. When he was imprisoned, he wrote a memoir where he predicted an all-out war would erupt throughout Europe that would eventually lead to the death of many Jews. He had an obsession that exemplified the idea that the German race was superior to the rest. After being released from prison, he took advantage of the weakness of his rivals to rise from obscurity to power. Hitler had two primary goals in his life. Racial purity and spatial expansion were the two main driving forces behind his policies.
Initially, the Nazis persecuted their political rivals such as the Communists and the Social Democrats. As a result, the first official concentration camp was opened at Dachau in March 1933 to counter the influence of their political rivals. They metamorphosed into killing grounds for the holocaust. By the end of that year, over twenty-seven thousand people were in protective custody where the individuals were forced into torture. Additionally, the books of the Jews were burned thus driving the message of party strength home. The Jewish population as at 1933 was over half a million which was about one percent of the entire population. Over the next six years, various activities were geared towards reducing the strengths of the Jews population. Their businesses were liquidated in addition to stripping the Jewish lawyers of their certificates and sacking all the doctors.
Designations began taking root when the Jews were grouped by their origin. Those with more than three Jewish grandparents were considered full Jews while those with two Jewish grandparents considered being half-breeds. The laws which were instituted in Nuremberg in 1935 ensured continued stigmatization and persecution took root in the lives of people. By the end of 1934, Hitler had consolidated his power by taking his campaign against the Jews into full swing. One of their ideologies was that the Jews were responsible for the culture of influence on the people. By portraying the Jews as evil and cowardly which was quite in contrast to the Germans who were considered hardworking and courageous in addition to being honest in their dealings. This contrast was key in driving social change in people and shifting their perspectives. Economically, the Nazis claimed that the Jews were responsible for weakening the finance, press and literature aspects of the German society (Freyhofer).
November 1938 formed very significant year in the history of the holocaust. As the stigmatization was growing unprecedentedly, to the ‘night of broken glass.’ The German synagogues were burned, and windows smashed. In addition to the destruction of property, many more than one hundred Jews lost their lives. Thousands more were arrested. Due to the hard state of affairs, some Jews succeeded in escaping the country before the atrocities worsened. They ran away to countries such as Belgium, England, France Czechoslovakia and Holland. However, it was very difficult to get out of Europe due to the sanctions placed on them. Immigration quotas placed on Jews ensured they remained in Germany despite obtaining the necessary documents. Those who remained lived in a constant state of uncertainty coupled with fear.
Confinement of Jews to Ghettos
In September 1939, German invaded Poland and occupied the western half of the country. Tens of thousands of Polish Jews were forced out of their homes and into the ghettos. They reaped them off their property by confiscating their properties and handing it over to ethnic Germans. These were Germans who resided out of Germany but were not Jews. The Jewish were in dilapidated conditions. For instance, they were surrounded by high walls and barbed wires. Poverty and hunger was the order of the day. The Germans were quite selective in their persecution. They did not spare Germans with mental conditions and disabilities. They were selected to be killed using the toxic gas using a program referred to as the Euthanasia program. Halting the program was necessary since many German prominent religious leaders protested to the idea.
The summer and spring of 1940 formed a monumental year for the Nazi invasion. Hitler expanded his empire throughout Europe by conquering some countries in the process. Netherland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France were some of the countries that faced the ruthless hands of Hitler. The Polish Ghettos were the final destination for the Jews from all over Europe as well as thousands of European Gypsies. To add insult to injury, they invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The situation was worsened when over half a million soviet Jews were killed mainly by shooting. A memorandum sent by Herman Goering inferred to the need for a solution to the killing of Jews. The ‘Jewish Solution’ concluded that all Jews were to be marked by a star on their skins. This would make them open targets making the killing easier than before. The Polish Ghettoes and the German-occupied territories in the USSR were the final destinations for the identified Jews. The ghettoes were initially open during the daytime, but with time, they were closed. They were not allowed to leave the ghetto under any circumstance. As a result, they were like prisoners with the only difference being that they were not in the normal prisons. The biggest ghetto was located in the city of Warsaw. Overpopulation was a big problem for the people since the number of people per square kilometer was large enough to breed harmful diseases and infections (Garwood).
Concentration and Extermination Camps
Deportations from the ghettoes were conducted by the Nazis on a daily basis. People were sent by rail to concentration camps after being lied that they would provide labor to other plantations. Many other camps were associated with the Nazis. They include transit camps, prisoner-of-war camps and labor camps. Political prisoners were held in concentration camps from 1933 to 1938. Prisoners sent to these camps were referred to as asocial since they were disabled, homeless or mentally handicapped. Life in the concentration camps was horrible. Everything about the concentration camps was a form of continued destruction of the quality of life that people dream about.
Extermination camps were built at Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec in Poland. By the final solution, the extermination camps were the instruments and tools of succeeding their plans. The victims traveled by rail or cattle cars to areas where they would be killed quickly. These camps were slaughterhouses where anybody who entered had no chance of getting out alive. Minimal physical harm was done on the prisoners as the killing process was done smoothly. Mobile gas vans were the first to kill the tens of thousands of Germans at Chelmno. In other areas, permanent gas chambers were built to ensure the killing process was conducted slowly and over a period in an uninterrupted manner. Carbon monoxide gas was the gas of choice for the killings.
In Auschwitz for instance, doctors were chosen to select the people who were to be killed first. Pregnant women, children, the elderly and the handicapped were chosen first to be killed by their tormentors. In addition to that, forced labor was in constant supply despite them being deprived of an essential basic amenities like food, shelter, clothing and medical care. All this was aimed at working the prisoners to death without actually killing them. Those who failed to work were forced into gas chambers. The concentration camps had different roles. In some, the role of the inmates was to provide labor to the plantations. In others, the concentration camps served as death camps where killing was the main agenda. For Instance, more than 250000 were killed at Sobibor alone. The used the language of ‘resettlement in the East’ to ensure their motive was hidden behind the rhetoric. The camps were closed once their mission was completed (Feig).
The impact of the holocaust was experienced differently in all the countries. For instance, in Hungary, the holocaust was more intense and inhumane. Despite the duration of the holocaust being short, its impact left with many people dead than the number of people who died in Germany over a whole year. Denmark was one of the countries where the Jews had an easy time. They rescued the Jews by sending them by sea to Sweden. One of the factors that contributed to this was the small number of Germans who were in the country in addition to the fact that the Jews had been integrated into the culture of the Denmark. Police forces in France collaborated by providing essential support to the Germans in the form of manpower. Italy, on the other hand, did not participate in the Holocaust until the overthrowing of Benito Mussolini.
Some people extended an olive branch to the suffering Jews by providing a haven for their escape from the hands of the bloodthirsty Germans. For Instance, Raoul Wallenberg decided to save the Jewish community in 1944. He instituted efforts to save the remaining Jewish community in Hungary. He collaborated with neutral diplomats in a bid to save the people from the persecution that was to follow. He prevented the deportation of the last remaining crop of the Jewish population. There were places in Poland where they aided in providing secure places. Additionally, they provided financial support and forged documents for identity with food. Although the Nazis tried to keep the operations a secret, the scale and magnitude of the killings made it very difficult. In other instances, the Jews revolted in the death camps of Sobibor, Treblinka, and Sobibor. However, they were largely unsuccessful at the hands of Germans who were so determined to flash out the population. Ghetto uprisings also took place in Holland (Wyman).
The End of the Holocaust
Spring of 1945 marked an important year for many Europeans. Camps were liberated as the allies advanced on the army. The soviets, for instance, liberated Auschwitz while those in Dachau were liberated by the Americans. German leadership was facing internal wrangles which were the foundation for internal dissent. Goering and Himmler were aiming for power. Hitler blamed the war on international people who were not supportive. In his last piece of writing, he urged people to ensure they were not poisoned by other races which were considered not pure at large. Hitler committed suicide on the day that followed. Essentially, Germany surrendered in World War II just a week after (Stone).
The Holocaust left a permanent mark on the victims. Those who survived the atrocities feared going back home due to the fear of the unknown in addition to the fact that they had been disowned by their neighbors. Having lost their families, they were in a state of trauma and confusion. Germans, on the other hand, faced the wrath of many countries since the Holocaust left a bitter legacy. Families that had lost their wealth during the process were compensated. The government paid the Jews for the destruction that had befallen them. They acknowledged the responsibility of committing the crimes. To this day, the Holocaust is viewed as the manifestation of evil towards fellow human beings. There are survivors to this day who continue to witness the impact of the Holocaust (Bergmann and Milton). The final plea of those who were dying was, “Remember! Do not let the world forget.”
Works Cited
Bergmann, Martin S., and Milton E. Jucovy. Generations of the Holocaust. Columbia University Press, 1982.Feig, Konnilyn G. Hitler’s Death Camps: The Sanity of Madness. Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981.Freyhofer, Horst H. The Nuremberg medical trial: The Holocaust and the origin of the Nuremberg medical code. Vol. 53. Peter Lang, 2004.
Garwood, Alfred. “The Holocaust and the power of powerlessness: Survivor guilt an unhealed wound.” British Journal of Psychotherapy 13.2 (1996): 243-258.
Stone, Dan. The liberation of the camps: The End of the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Yale University Press, 2015.Wyman, David S., and Charles H. Rosenzveig. The world reacts to the Holocaust. JHU Press, 1996.