Survivor Stories: The Holocaust and World War II

After listening and reading survivor accounts from the Holocaust and World War II it is difficult to imagine that such atrocities have occurred and are even occurring today. I find myself reluctant to call Helen K. and Agate Nesaule human because the courage and strength these two women displayed lend them super-human qualities. Although their stories both reflect a dark time in world history and the events described took place in relative proximity to each other, nationality defined Agate’s experiences whereas religion defined Helen K’s.

Helen K. had five years of her life stolen. She spent three years combined in the Warsaw Ghetto, Majdanek, and Auschwitz; after liberation she spent two years in a sanatorium recovering her health. None of Helen’s family survived but she was determined to defy Hitler by surviving and defy him she did; her survivor interview was recorded in 1985 for use in the Yale University library.

Agate Nesaule and her family were living in Latvia when war broke out in 1941 between the once allied Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia; the family lived in a parsonage of which Agate’s father was the pastor until 1944. Together with several members of her extended family, Agate voluntarily sailed to German (although it may be argued whether or not they did so because they were forced to by circumstances beyond their control) when the Soviets re-occupied Latvia. The Nesaule family would spend the next six years in work camps and displacement camps before “immigrating” (or being exiled as many Latvian-Americans considered it) to the United States in 1950. Agate was able to learn English and received a university level education which enabled her to have a successful career as a college professor. However Agate admittedly suffered from bouts of depression, which I believe were triggered by a sense of survivor’s guilt she had.

Helen’s story is one of the Holocaust, whereas I would categorize Nesaule’s as one more about World War II. The Holocaust was perpetrated by Hitler and the Nazi’s whereas Agate and her family suffered primarily at the hands of the Soviets. This statement is not meant to diminish the suffering that Agate experienced and neither is it meant to imply that the Nazis did not bring any tragedy to her life, but rather it meant to demonstrate that there is a definitive difference between what Agate experienced and what Helen experienced. As a Jew, Helen was a member of a group specifically targeted by the Nazis, targeted not just for internment in a work camp, but targeted for extermination in a death camp. Agate and her family found themselves in a German work camp after they left Latvia in advance of Soviet troops. Tragedy followed both girls however it was not to the same degree: all of Helen’s family perished during the Holocaust while Agate was able to travel to the United States with all of her immediate family as well as several members of her extended family. The girls were also different ages during the war: Helen was a teenager, old enough to marry while still living in the Warsaw Ghetto; Agate was twelve when her family came to the United States. Being older Helen made decisions and choices which went beyond the acquisition of basic needs; Helen was determined to survive so that she might strike down Hitler’s beliefs regarding Jews and so she might “stick it to the man”. As a child during the war, Agate did not often look beyond her hunger; her desire to live did not develop from a deep set of convictions but rather her actions were a reflection of a basic feeling of self-preservation.