One troubling impact of the Holocaust was the immense feeling of guilt suffered by many who survived. Unable to put their loss into proper perspective, survivors typically blamed themselves for their losses in a variety of ways. Many blamed themselves for taking the luck or opportunities to survive which their families and friends had not been able to have. In addition, they compared their own diminished sense of personal worth to the value they attached to those who had not survived. Perhaps worst of all, many feelings of inferiority and shame were a direct result of the Nazi propaganda and techniques of humiliation which had been so effectively and relentlessly directed against the Jewish people.
Self-confidence and a sense of personal value began to return when survivors were convinced that they were not to blame. This was never an easy process, and many survivors continue to struggle with chronic anxiety and depression. In the 1970s, when the Holocaust entered into the public domain as an extensive topic of discourse, these complex psychological phenomena were publicly revealed and guilt was solidly fastened to the Nazi oppressors. Thus, for some, recovery became possible on a further, more public level.
