Alexie Martinez Wertz-Orbaugh English 1103-012 21 November 2013 Inquiry: Cancer and Children of the Holocaust My inquiry began

slowly but surely when I decided to take a different approach for the topic of my paper. I decided to base my research on the job I am in school to study for which is Pediatric Oncology. While I knew finding things specifically on Pediatric Oncology during the holocaust would be near impossible, I decided to set my focus on cancer and children. I began at the heart of any good student's research, the library. When I arrived at the library, I searched and found a book that immediately caught my interest. The book was titled The Nazi War on Cancer by Robert Proctor. As I read, I stumbled on a set of words that made my heart sink. We know that physicians joined the Nazi party in very large numbers, that about 60 percent of all biologists joined the party, and that roughly 80 percent of all professors of anthropology-most of whom were physicians- were members (Proctor, 15) When I read this line, part of me completely snapped. I felt so outraged that those who would take a sacred oath to do no harm would be a cause of it. Even in prior readings about the holocaust, I knew that there had to be medical involvement, but I couldn't believe the extent of it and knowledge. Though I learned that Nazi medicine did made a multitude of break throughs, the fact that doctors who are meant to help others would sacrifice innocent lives to propel themselves forward sickens me. Part of me wants to believe that their motives were partially

selfless. I want to believe the choices they made were to help more people, but taking into account the large quantities of murders, it's impossible to immerse myself in this fantasy. There is so much I want to ask the author, I wish Proctor had gone more in depth about the roles the doctors of those fields played in their research. Were they aware of why these people were being killed or the injustice behind it? While finding out may have infuriated me, I feel it could have given me some peace of mind. Even though I was horrified by the amount of doctors who converted to Nazism, I was drawn into a bigger mystery. I wanted to know how the holocaust had an effect on cancer itself. It was shocking to discover that those who had been through the holocaust were more likely to contract cancer. A study was shown that men were about 3.5 times more likely and women were about 2.3 times more likely to be afflicted by cancer than those who lead normal lives (Park). I was heartbroken because I felt it was unfair to have to suffer so much only to be forced into another death sentence you had no voice in. Of course I am aware that people do not choose to contract cancer, but I felt this was something greater due to their experiences being what put them at a greater risk. Just another unforgiving consequence the holocaust has dealt to these poor people. In this article, a woman by the name of Betty Gold was interviewed after having developed and defeating lung cancer. Gold is quoted saying, "Cancer was much less of a threat than living through the Holocaust," she said. "It was a daily cancer. Maybe not physically, but brain cancer. It was horrible. Each day was an eternity. It's like suffering every single day, every moment in your life" (Park). Included at the end of this paragraph is a link to a video of Gold sharing her experience of her battle with cancer. I share this quote because of a contradictory thought previous research had brought to my attention. Is it possible that the stress from having

gone through the holocaust is the reason she was able to get through her battle with cancer? Could it have been the fact that she had already endured a trauma so much worse than death that nothing else, not even cancer, could truly compare? http://us.cnn.com/video/?/video/health/2009/11/06/natpkg.cancer.holocaust.cnn

As I mentioned before, there was previous research I had done that brought me to my next article. It was a study that is better summarized in the following quote: We interviewed cancer patients who had survived the Holocaust and compared them to a matched group of nontraumatized cancer patients and a group of healthy Holocaust survivors. The psychological distress of the cancer patients who had survived the Holocaust was substantially and very significantly higher than that of the nontraumatized cancer patients (Baider et al.). It took me a while to fully understand the true message that this passage was trying to convey when it finally hit me. These people had just spent years struggling for survival just to be faced with another death sentence. I can only imagine how it must feel to go through one struggle only to be pushed into the next. While it is understandable that normal people would face a similar kind of stress from battling cancer, I can see why it is heightened for those who survived the Holocaust. We all expect to die at one point or another, but how must it feel to have to go through those feelings not just once in your life? What interested me the most about the article was that it didn't just analyze the stress levels of holocaust survivors; it also discusses the impact it had on their children, those who did not go through the holocaust, and even those whose experiences were a positive one. The authors did not just look at one side of the spectrum; they analyzed all of the sides to support their

findings. Another thing that struck me was the effects of being children of these survivors. It seems reasonable to suggest that the offspring of Holocaust survivors might be as vulnerable as their parents and function adequately in their daily activities, but be unable to cope with the emotion of extreme stress or severe life-threatening situations (Baider et al.). In a sense we all know that being the child of a holocaust survivor cant be simple, especially after reading MAUS in class, but it wasn't until I read this article that I realized the severity of the situation. I also didnt see how hard the impact of the holocaust was on them either. It's hard to speculate what their lives, and the lives of their children, could have had if they had not gone through the trials they did. Would these rates still be true? Or would everyone just go through the normal day to day stresses of life and be able to truly cope with them? When I found out the increased risk of cancer and effect it had on children of survivors, I went on to find the story of someone who had cancer or whose parents had been afflicted by cancer. What I found was the story of a young girl named Jeannine Burk who was hidden away when she was three years old. She lived in constant fear for two years, although she did not know what she was afraid of. What touched me the most about this story was not only had she suffered so much, but by the age of ten she had become an orphan. After the war my mother struggled to take care of us. We had nothing. We were poor. My mother contracted breast cancer. They removed a breast, but it was too late. The cancer had spread all over her. She knew she was going to die because the night before she had all of us come to the hospital room. She said to me, "You gotta be a good girl." [...] My mother was only forty-five when she died. God gave her too little time. I still cry for her (Burk). Based on her own words, it's clear to see how much her mother's death affected her. Due to the article I had read before about the stress levels of survivors and their children when

afflicted by cancer, I was curious as to how the stress affected them both while her mother was sick. I suppose by then it can be argued that she was too young to understand what was happening, but could even that be true? With the way children were forced to grow up in this period, it's hard to say how much they truly understood and how much they did not. Multiple times throughout Burk's story, she mentions that as a child she was never loved while in hiding. Although these unknown people saved her life, she knew they didn't love her. She understood what that kind of love was because she recalled never being kissed or held (Burk). Does this mean she could understand the gravity of her mother having cancer? I wish she had gone more in depth about the affect her mother's death had on her and the true impact it had on her stress levels if she did. I was touched; however; by the amount of grief she suffered by not being able to properly thank the woman who saved her. Burk lost so much throughout her life, yet this curiosity seems to define her. Could this be causing her more stress than having lost her mother? Father? Brother and sister after being adopted and sent to America? There is so much more I wish I could learn from her, one day I wish to ask her. One thing that is clear from her last statements.People ask me, can I forgive? I can't. I cannot forgive. I blame the German people a great deal because I feel they were passive. They turned away. They may have the audacity to say they did not know. That is unacceptable. Until they can own up to it, I can't forgive (Burk). Although losing her family was a defining moment to her, she could never forgive the people who forced this life on her and who could blame her? After my experience with writing this paper and researching all of these various topics, its easy to see how a person may be lost in inquiry. When you feel youre in the right direction, you find yourself being pulled in a completely different direction. As a researcher, I found

myself wanting to know everything and wanting to include everything I had found. My paper even reached 9 pages at once before I realized that I had over 6 resources, 3 of which I could not find a way to smoothly relate to the other key points of my research. Inquiry is something that takes a lot of time and effort and although it may not have a set start or end point, it can stretch out endlessly as long as your curiosity can continue to feed it.

Works Cited Page Baider, Lea, Ph.D., Tamar Peretz, M.D., Pnina E. Hadani, M.P.H, Shlomit Perry, M.S.W, Rita Avramov, M.P.H., and Atara K. De-Nour, M.D. "Transmission of Response to Trauma? Second-Generation Holocaust Survivors Reaction to Cancer."PsychiatryOnline. American Psychiatric Association, 1 June 2000. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=174159>. Burk, Jeannine. "Survivor Stories." Web log post. Holocaust Survivors. John Menszer, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/data.show.phpdi=record&da=survivors&ke=5>. Park, Madison. "Holocaust Survivors at Greater Risk for Cancer, Study Finds." CNN. Cable News Network, 06 Nov. 2009. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/06/holocaust.survivor.cancer/>.

Proctor, Robert. The Nazi War on Cancer. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press,1999. Print.