ABSTRACT
Survivors who returned to countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Romania, Yugoslavia and Hungary often found strangers living in their homes. Liberation brought the establishment of Displaced Persons camps to house survivors. Survivors tended to settle in neighborhoods populated by other survivors. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society helped survivors in the United States with finding work and housing. The Jewish Immigrant Aid Society fulfilled these functions in Canada. While these organizations tried to stay in contact with the refugees, many survivors simply opted to go it alone. In order to seek reparations from Germany, survivors had to be examined by German doctors for physical and mental problems. Resistance to disease for some was weaker than for non-survivors. Some survivors became hypochondriacs; others stoic in the face of illness. Depression, survivor guilt, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder could be seen in survivors and led some to commit suicide, in certain cases years after being liberated.
