Chances of surviving a German concentration camp: report

Gerhard Durlacher (1928-1996), himself a Holocaust survivor became a sociologist at the University of Amsterdam and later wrote about his own experiences in factual books and fiction, managing to trace some of his former fellow inmates at Auschwitz-Birkenau. <p>This copy report on Jewish resistance and survival in concentration camps poses a counter argument to Bruno Bettleheim's contention that camp experience created an infantile passive response, suggesting instead that inmates developed a variety of ways of resistance. This report was written in his capacity as an employee of the Dutch Sociologisch Instituut and is essentially a programme for research replete with rationale and methodology, also including a pro forma letter to authors of eyewitness testimonies seeking permission to use their accounts. <br /><br />Several parts of this text subsequently appeared in one or both of two published works by GL Durlacher: "Het levensgebod (The Command to Live), a 12 page chapter in De zoektocht [The Search], Amsterdam, Meulenhoff, April 1991; and 'Herdenken is vooruitzien. Het kille welkom voor de thuiskomers uit de kampen' [Commemoration is foresight. The chilly welcome for those returning home from the camps.], in De Groene Amsterdammer, 1 May 1985; republished in Met haat valt niet te leven; krantenstukken door G.L. Durlacher &amp; gespreken met G.L. Durlacher [One cannot live with hatred; newspaper articles by G.L. Durlacher and interviews with G.L. Durclacher], edited by Anneke Durlacher-Sasburg [GLD's widow] and Tilly Hermans [GLD's editor at Meulenhoff], Amsterdam, Meulenhoff, 1998, pp. 9-17.</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>Readers need to reserve a reading room terminal to access a digital version in English</strong></span></p> Open