The fate of three siblings in the concentration camp: A clinical study

Introduction

Neither the fate of children and teenagers in concentration camps nor the after‑effects of their traumatic experience in the camps have been dealt with in monographs. Despite all efforts, it has proven impossible to make even a rough estimate of the number of children incarcerated in concentration camps and other centres of repression, as it would also be impossible to say how many of them managed to live through such experiences. Research into the consequences and after-effects of the traumatic stress experienced in concentration camps by children is also much more limited than the research on adults.

Concentration camp and prison experiences led to permanent changes in the physical and psychological states of the majority of the children. Generally, all such children showed a lack of confidence and hostility towards their surroundings, emotional apathy, and a lack of the feeling of safety (Tokarz, 1980). Similar changes in children were described by Półtawska (1965). She emphasised intense states of anxiety, especially in the first period after liberation. “Children were afraid of raised voices, uniforms, sudden movements, darkness, night, men, and one very strange thing: they were afraid to eat normally. They did not touch food, waited until they were alone and then greedily swallowed the meal or ignored it and carefully collected the crumbs from the floor. In some children fear was transformed into aggression and for the first days after liberation they would hit at any hand that touched them.”

An axial symptom of disturbances observed in children who had been concentration camp prisoners was changes in the emotional sphere. Among results of the research carried out by Sarnecki (1966), inherent feelings such as fear, fright, and anger were predominant. Obsessions and importunities as well as avoiding contact with others, impetuosity and anti‑social behaviour were also among the most important and frequent symptoms. According to the author, the most characteristic conflicts recorded in that group were “a conflict called fighting for one’s place in the world,” a generation gap, and the so‑called psychasthenic restraint.

Unexpectedly, a few years ago the doctors in our department found themselves in an exceptional situation: two sisters and a brother who were incarcerated in the children’s camps in Racibórz, Mysłowice, Pogrzebin, and Potulice called at the Department of Adult Psychiatry at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and asked to be examined. Their examinations were to be connected with their applications for disability pensions and thus it comprised the estimation of the causal nexus between the observed disorders and the traumatic camp experiences. The contact with these patients was transformed into a long‑lasting therapeutic process conducted by the outpatient department of our clinic, and still continues today.

Family situation

The subjects came from a working-class family. The mother was incarcerated with her children in Mysłowice in June 1943. She was tortured there and, when she was in a desperate state, transported to the camp in Auschwitz where she soon died, at the age of 25.

In the opinion of the younger sister, the mother was an immature and childish person. She was artistically minded, she painted, embroidered, was very sensitive to the beauty of nature, and loved animals. During the Occupation, she did not approve of the fact that her husband participated in resistance activities. Both sisters held a grudge against their father, as responsible for the death of their mother and the incarceration of the three of them.

The father was a simple, rough, and emotionally reserved person. He was a butcher. He had always indulged too freely in alcohol, started rows when he was drunk, and beaten the children. Two years after the war he remarried and had children in his second marriage.

The elder sister

At the time of the examination, she was 42, married with two children. At three years of age, she suffered complicated pleurisy with suppuration and secondary deformation of the spine and ribs.

She was imprisoned with her mother, brother, and sister. She was incarcerated for two years between the seventh and ninth years of her life. On the day of the arrest, the Germans ransacked the house and beat all the family. The grandmother tried to hide her 17‑month‑old brother under the bed sheets but the Germans noticed and beat her until she lost consciousness. At the police station, the mother was beaten in front of her children because she did not want to betray her husband. In Mysłowice, unconscious and bleeding, she was brought in a blanket to the room in which the children were kept. They remembered how they washed their mother with the remains of coffee and tea. Several days later, all the children were separated from their parents. Parents prepared labels with their dates of birth and names, the so-called “camp-numbers,” and hung them around their children’s necks. Soldiers with guns tore the grieving parents away from their children. The mother fainted several times. The children were loaded onto some 30 lorries, and transported to a camp that the subject was not able to identify. The mother was transported to the Auschwitz camp where she died soon after.

The subject, as the eldest of the children, looked after her sister and brother and took over the function of the mother. She had the most problems with her brother. There was no food, water, or clothing. She had to keep her brother in her arms all the time and protect him from danger. He was constantly ill, had ulcers and scabs all over his body, suffered from hunger distension and flatulence, and his head looked disproportionately big. The subject was constantly anxious for her younger siblings and tried to be with them all the time, even in the toilet. She also tried to obtain food and clothes. Children in the camp had lice, suffered from itching and infectious diseases, and therefore their heads were shaved. The three siblings were transported to two different camps in turn. The subject remembered the name Pogrzebień. They were also taken to Łódź but the transport was rejected there. According to her own estimation, the journey lasted several weeks and was made by a goods train, in primitive conditions, on straw without water and food rations. Finally, they were taken to Potulice near Nakło. The area was muddy and malarial, full of mosquitoes. They stayed there for about a year. The most unpleasant memories of the camp were the crowds of prisoners, both children and adults, hunger, primitive barracks, multi‑person beds made of boards, and sick, exhausted, and dying people all around. They slept on the third level of a wooden bed, the eldest sister in the middle, embracing her younger sister and brother even at night. Later there were four of them sleeping in one bed. Insects were everywhere. The older children had to work, but the subject would stay in the barrack with her sister and brother. The subject remembered waiting for “examinations,” queuing for hours to give their blood to wounded soldiers. They lived in constant fear of danger and death. Finally, a big oven with a chimney was built in the camp for the children to be burnt in. It was most difficult to overcome hunger. The subject got weaker and weaker, she could not walk, but she was never ill because, as she said, she could not afford to be ill. She was constantly stimulated by the awareness that she was responsible for her sister and brother, for whom she was both mother and father. She kept up their spirits by talking about home, parents, family gatherings, etc. She was a light sleeper, could be woken up by the slightest movement or sound, and was always more worried about her brother and sister than about herself. Usually she tried not to eat and divided her portions between the younger sister and brother. She used to steal potatoes, search for food on refuse dumps, and “organise” wooden shoes and clothes. It was only due to her energy and determination that the three of them managed to survive until the liberation of the camp.

Liberation was connected with one of the most terrifying memories. Germans who did not manage to leave the camp were gathered in the camp square, still in their pyjamas, with their hands up. They were shot dead in full view of the children. A fat director was dying, being shot time after time in different parts of his body: he was kicking, rooting at the earth with his fingers, and finally was seized with convulsions. “It was the cruellest public revenge. I was sorry for him. I cried, protested...” Everywhere she could see people dying and dead, adults and children. She saw dying children and helped to bury dead bodies almost every day.

After liberation, the children were transported on carts pulled by oxen for many weeks. They were brought to an orphanage where, after some time, they met their father. When she saw her father, she recognised him, and rushed to him on all fours.

They were all completely exhausted by starvation, but they could not eat. The smell of food seemed repulsive, they did not like the taste of food, and sometimes they vomited at the mere sight or smell of a meal. The subject was so weak that she could not walk on her own for a long time. Then she crawled on all fours, with her legs and arms shaking. Several months passed before she was able to walk. All of them suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and bones and they spent a long time in hospitals and sanatoria. Her brother suffered the most: since one of his legs was much shorter, it was operated on and he had to lie with his leg in plaster for many months, immobile and crying.

Physically, the subject was still thin at the time of the examination, weighed too little, and did not look well. She suffered from rheumatism, and joint-ache. She was weak and long‑sighted.

Her psychological problems were much more unfortunate: she was excitable, irritable, and explosive. She became nervous very easily, frequently cried, could feel strong heartbeats and palpitation, and often had headaches. Occasionally she was overwhelmed by groundless desires to harm or be unjust to people, sometimes even to herself, or to kill herself. She very often had moods of depression, nervous breakdowns, did not want to live any longer, and looked forward to death, and sometimes she had suicidal thoughts. She had no problems with falling asleep but frequently woke at night. When her children were very small, she often used to have nightmares about the camp experiences. Such dreams were repeated for several years. When she suddenly woke on such occasions, she felt anxious about her children. Her memory was very poor and she was absent-minded.

She liked being alone and felt that nobody around her could understand her. She very easily gave up, was sensitive, and could be easily offended. She was very pedantic.

Recently, she said, it had been more and more difficult for her to deal with her everyday duties. She felt anxious but could not specify the reasons; sometimes her anxiety was directed towards her family and she tried to foresee all the possible dangerous situations, misfortunes, and difficulties that might occuer. She felt exhausted. She often worried whether she, by any chance, had harmed or been unfair towards others and was full of remorse. She was convinced that many people were unfriendly and hostile towards her. When she was among strangers, she always had the impression that she was being criticised and ridiculed. All the time she felt as if she was being watched and sometimes the feeling of uneasiness was so intense that she could not stand it and, for instance, would suddenly leave the cinema in the middle of a film. She worried about her health, felt insecure, agitated, and in constant danger. At work, she easily clashed with her co‑workers. Her attitude towards her children was constantly anxious and overprotective.

During the last few years, memories of war did not come very often. She believed that the camp trauma had made her more resistant to difficult situations and that it had made her more responsible.

She was still protective towards her younger sister though they often found themselves in conflict. She treated her brother as if he were her eldest son, was very protective towards him, and helped him with his everyday problems.

Psychological examination: the results of the WISKAD test pointed to a deeply critical and pessimistic self-conception, social seclusion, a rarely encountered emotional code, and an inclination to withdraw into her own world. Her bad moods were connected with a lack of confidence and anxiety about her surroundings. Emotionally she was labile, intolerant of frustration, and full of unspecified remorse. Difficulties in expressing herself through actions or contact with other people made her misery even deeper.

Electroencephalographic examination: pointed waves in the temporal areas against the background of generalised immature static recordings.

Diagnosis: KZ-Syndrome in the form of anxiety-depressive symptoms caused by the initial phase of organic damage to the nervous system. Progressive psychosomatic asthenia.

The younger sister

At the time of examination, the subject was 39, married for 17 years with a 16-year-old child. She was a qualified teacher and worked professionally.

She was in the concentration camp between the ages of five and seven. She remembers the period quite clearly.

She could very clearly recollect the camp barracks, long and dark corridors, and queuing for medical examinations. Children were examined individually: they took off all their clothes and walked in front of the doctors who measured their heads, divided them into groups, and made injections, probably in the area above the breast. Children were then qualified as different “races.” Although differently classified, the three siblings found themselves in the same group. Further examination was carried out in a room with high stools and the subject remembered that her small brother had to be helped to sit on such a stool. The subject did not understand the aim of that examination. Now she believed that it had been some kind of a pseudo‑medical experiment. She remembered how worried she was when she was separated from her sister and brother. She was afraid of nurses.

The recollections of the toilet were most traumatic: wooden partitions, a board with a hole and a rod to hold on to in order not to fall into the cesspool, cold, and crowded with children. She remembered a small boy whose rectum was outside. She tried to help him and pressed it up with her fingers. One of the most horrible sights was a man without genitals.

She could also recollect Christmas time. After two weeks of travelling by train, some of the prisoners died, and the rest waited at stations for whole days. They remembered them all standing and waiting in a crowd to get some soup, the cook spilling hot soup over a boy who was immediately covered with blisters and afterwards fell seriously ill. Someone said that he finally died.

Their grandmother came to visit them in the camp. She was standing on the other side of the wire but they were watched by a guard and she was afraid to approach them. She only managed to tell them that she had brought some food. They were never given that food.

On the rubbish heap, the subject remembered, she saw the dead body of a baby, different parts of human bodies, a child’s leg, an arm, etc. Corpses were lying everywhere, everything was dirty, and lice could be seen crawling on the windowpanes.

She still clearly remembered how they were separated from their mother, which was the most drastic experience. The mother fainted twice and then the youngest child was taken away. Another woman approached the mother and washed her face with the remains of coffee-grounds.

Another recollection from the camp was the common bath: they stood naked in rows and a German poured water over them with a hose, laughed at them and ridiculed them, tortured them with water. Then they had to wait for hours, seemingly without an end. They cut her long fair curly hair and shaved her head. She cried, did not want to leave the barracks, and was full of shame and humiliation. She remembered heaps of hair on the ground.

After liberation, they spent some time with strangers in the country, and then lived in an orphanage. They were not hungry anymore and they were no longer frightened. After some time they met their father who came with their aunt to take them home. The subject did not recognise him at first and did not even want to approach him. Everything they saw at their new home made them wonder as it was clear, beautiful, and orderly. Seeing glasses and plates, trying some flour or sugar were all new, strange experiences.

Since she was ill all the time, she began her education very late. She suffered from high temperatures throughout her childhood and spent a lot of time in sanatoria. Only after she got married, during her pregnancy, did she feel better, truly healthy, no longer had a temperature, and looked her prettiest then. After the delivery, however, the high temperature came back accompanied by rheumatism and moods of depression. At the time of the examination her weight was still too low, around only 40 kg.

She often had difficult moments both in her marriage and at work. Others did not understand her and she had a strong feeling of being wronged. She believed she was not able to keep her family together.

She felt alienated at work and was regarded as a very strict and despotic teacher. Psychological state: she was over-excitable and easily irritable without self-control. She experienced inner shivers, frequently cried, especially out of anger, was shy and timid and suffered from periodic insomnia, or woke up very early with a feeling of apprehension. Easily moved, she often cried without any apparent reason.

She could quote two instances of dreams connected with the camp experience. Though she had these dreams in her youth, she could still recollect them very clearly. In one of the dreams, she was standing with her back to a person who was about to shoot her, tensely awaiting the bullet and death. The other dream was about an air raid: she remembered her fear, waking up suddenly, and crying.

Physically the subject was frail, weak, and tired easily. She adapted very poorly to all the hardships of life. She was always ashamed of undressing, which is why she never sunbathed. In her own opinion, she was not sexually active enough.

The next examination revealed considerable attention and memory disorders as well as internal conflicts resulting from anxiety about the future and health. As the WISKAD test suggested, the subject had an inclination to self‑accusation, self‑criticism, and a fear of failure. Among other characteristics, moods of depression and emotional instability, difficulties in contact with other people as well as a tendency to isolate herself from her environment and live in a world of dreams and imagination should be mentioned.

An electroencephalographic examination pointed to bilateral free and acute waves in the occipito-fronto-temporal registers.

Diagnosis: KZ-Syndrome in the form of a chronic and progressive psychosomatic asthenia with fixed depressive-anxiety states and distinct features of organic brain damage.

The youngest

At the time of the examination he was 34, divorced, a graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts, without any permanent post. He had also spent two years in concentration camps, though in his case the period spent in the camp began when he was still a baby of 17 months. He vaguely remembered the camp as a vast yard with a puddle; the yard was later present in his dreams.

His own memories of the camp came back only in his nightmares: the camp yard, the puddle, the watchtower, and a motif of being in danger against the background of some “ghastly and menacing” landscape. In his dreams he saw himself as “crippled, unprotected, acting under constraint,” helpless against a menace caused by some anonymous horde of people.

At the time of liberation, he was in a state of total exhaustion and diagnosed with Pott disease that required many years of treatment. He had to spend half a year in a sanatorium lying in plaster all the time. He was in a very bad physical shape. That period was connected with his earliest memories: he was ashamed and felt humiliated by the illness. He stayed in hospital between the ages of three and six years. It was the most difficult period in his life. He underwent operations, and had to learn to walk once again. He always felt lonely and forlorn, and his relationship to his environment was that of aggression and hostility. Between 18 and 20 years of age, he underwent a further series of corrective operations. He remembered his father’s attitude towards him well; it was full of shame and contempt. The subject believed that was the origin of his complexes.

He felt bound to his sisters, though he believed that they both had serious psychological problems. These were manifested in one of the sisters as over‑scrupulosity, over‑cleanliness and tidiness, a tendency to ponder over everything, to hesitate, to have qualms of conscience, to be too careful with people, and to be always suspicious. The other sister, in his opinion, was quick‑tempered, impulsive, with a tendency to suffer from sudden crises and breakdowns. The subject understood the second sister better and liked her company more.

Since his childhood, the subject has had a gift for the fine arts. He attended a secondary school of fine arts and then was a prize-winning graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts. That was the happiest period in his life. His relationships with women were not successful because he expected sincerity, devotion, and exclusiveness on the part of his partners. His marriage lasted only a year.

In the first years after graduation he was reasonably well off though he did not have any permanent job. Later he lost energy and vigour, “something inside him died”. He rarely left home, lived in a strange state of suspense, and kept away from social life. He noticed that alcohol helped him to break free from various inhibitions and thus had a therapeutic function.

He could feel his otherness from his neighbours who frequently gave him careful glances, and watched him. He also believed that it was not by coincidence that the police often stopped him to check his identity papers. He had the feeling that he was exposed to unfriendly or even malicious looks.

He lived through periods of special over‑sensitivity that he referred to as “euphoria.” During those periods he was especially conscious of the reality surrounding him such as the whisper of tree leaves, raindrops, noise of the traffic, colours, shapes; everything was very clear and distinct. Thoughts about death and suicide were not infrequent.

A pessimistic attitude towards himself and outside world was the dominant characteristic of his personality. He could be said to live an unconventional life in society, had problems with establishing contacts with people, was suspicious and oversensitive towards them, and reacted and perceived the outside reality in an unconventional way. The chance to be alone for days always brought relief.

Diagnosis: personality disorders, homilopathic, and psychasthenic features.

Discussion

The above description of the three siblings who spent their childhood in concentration camps sheds some light on the fate of Polish children during the Occupation. It appears that only an individual analysis of life history permits the recognition of complex emotional reactions and psychological problems that resulted from traumatic experiences in the camp. In this very special case, we were able to study the lives of three siblings who suffered from a traumatic influence exerted by the same camps and, thus, we were able to study cases of children of different ages, not only related through family bonds but also united in the common aim of surviving the camp period. We could also make a thorough study of the ways in which they adapted and functioned in the camp reality. The bonds between the children also proved to be strong enough in the post‑camp period.

Each individual assumed specific functions and developed various forms of defensive behaviour depending on their age and possibilities, with the common purpose of saving the three of them from the atrocities of the camp. As we could see, the greatest responsibility belonged to the eldest sister who assumed the attitude of a protective mother and of a father who would provide security. The conviction that she was responsible for her sister and brother was the source of her great strength and resistance against all traumas. It is obvious, however, that such a great emotional strain in the camp left traces in her personality and physical condition. The clearer the consciousness of traumatic experiences and camp menace, the clearer and longer lasting the traces and memories of those events, also in the present psychopathological image which is so distant in time from the camp period.

As in the case of many adults who survived camp, mass suffering and death not only produced disorders in the emotional and social sphere of a child’s life but also caused drastic changes in attitudes towards life and death. Thus, in addition to the obvious therapeutic values, such examinations as those carried out on the three siblings allow for further observation of the ways in which man can function in extreme situations and of the ways in which such situations influence and determine the further lives of the victims.

Adapted from Przegląd Lekarski – Oświęcim, 1982.