Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
Immediately after the Holocaust a number of researchers wrote about and developed theories on how inmates' personalities changed because of time spent within Nazi concentration camps. The camps offered an unfortunate setting to understand socialization within total institutions. Some of the most important contributions to that literature have come from Victor Frankl and Bruno Bettelheim. They wrote about their experiences of imprisonment and presented markedly different accounts on what happened to prisoners' personalities. Although literature on the Holocaust is still prevalent, even as survivors have aged, less attention has been given to how the camps influenced inmates' personalities. Nevertheless, many questions remain about how extreme situations, such as those found in death camps, shape prisoners during detainment and after release. For example, to what extent can prisoners maintain their prior personalities and sense of humanity? To what extent do they feel that they can escape?
Comments
This is the author's accepted manuscript of an article originally published in Journal of Genocide Research, available at https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520500044966