Why?
CMAJ 1997;157:1516
Re: "Confronting despair: the Holocaust survivor's struggle with ordinary life and ordinary death" (CMAJ 1997;157[6]:741-4), by Dr. Robert Krell
Dr. Krell has written an important article. My perspective is coloured because my family practice is in north Toronto's Bathurst Manor, in an area that became home to many Holocaust survivors when it was developed in the 1950s. Its quiet streets and modest homes still give no clues to the torments hidden under many of those roofs, yet most of these people married and raised healthy families.
These tinkers and tailors and cigar-store owners and entrepreneurs are heroes to me because they manage to lead "normal" lives. They seldom if ever express hatred for their persecutors or any desire for revenge, but they still feel deeply the loss of murdered siblings and family members. One old woman captured these feelings by telling me she is "lonely, like a stone." Even the happy sounds of her many grandchildren cannot replace the young voices silenced forever.
My patients seldom speak of their Holocaust experiences -- many have yet to tell me a word about them -- and they certainly do not speak until I have known them for years. Still, I come to the office each day knowing full well that some of my patients may strap me into a time machine and send me back to that horrible time. Much worse, if I raise the subject and open old wounds, how can I expect my patient and myself to deal with those wounds in the confines of a brief office visit that leaves us both shattered?
Like Krell, I too despair about the horrors done to Jewish families by the world's strongest army, aided by ordinary citizens and, sadly, many physicians. Like him, many days bring me knowledge of fresh, unbelievable atrocities. Like him, long years in medical practice have brought me no answer to an essential question of our age.
Why?
David Rapoport, MD
Wycliffe House Medical Centre
Downsview, Ont.
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