Elli Essay

Elli, Mother and their fellow prisoners are subjected to horrendous physical suffering, but their suffering takes other forms too, how do they suffer and how do they cope with their suffering?

The holocaust memoir 'Elli" tells us of the journey encountered by the author Livia Bitton-Jackson in her youth growing up in the brutal era of World War II. The tale of Elli, an adolescent Jewish girl and her religious family is told through the surreal and horrid memories that haunt Elli every single day of her life. For a few years of Elli's early teenage life the horrendous pain and suffering brought upon by the Nazi's has damaged her in every way imaginable. It was not only physically damageable but emotionally. This essay will explicate how the Jewish race were able to deal with all the suffering they encountered on a physical, and emotional level.

The war to all means pain, suffering and agony but yet it is unimaginable to believe that anyone of any age whom has not experienced the horrendous and brutal attacks the war brings upon the human population could truly comprehend the discomfort. Death was normal, permanent injury was expected, anyone to survive the war was scarred one way to another. In the story 'Elli', Elli's strength to stay strong and stand up for what she believed was powerful. The physical abuse Elli's mother had to endure while at staying at the labour camps is a good example of the careless and horrific conditions they were forced to live under while at the labour camps. At the stage of malnourishment and complete weakness her mother whom was in a state of near death was flattened by the falling of the bunk beds she was lying on that present moment in time. With the lack of care by the two inmates on the second tier of the beds when the structure finally gave way nearly killing her mother, it showed of the interest level in the prisoners wellbeing. This shock to her mothers system injured her in a way that "she will never fully recover" according to the nurses in the hospital at the camp however Elli was sure "my mother is strong" so nothing could make her give up hope. Starvation was also largely the problem of mistreatment. Each day the lowest possible rations of food would be given to the inmates and this insignificant amount of food was supposed to provide energy for there entire working day. The treatment of Jews physically only made each individual more mentally traumatized.

The agonizing realization that life was never going to be the same, disturbed many and fear glistened in the eyes of all the inmates still surviving on the grounds of the labour camps. The permanent scarring that haunts each survivor every day is part of the emotional distress they have had to put up with since the war started. In the account of Elli's life she is faced with many hard and horrible situations where she is presented with the

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