"Hitler Killed My Father"

A tragedy is an event that greatly affects someone’s life in a negative way. Tragedy can be a death, or any kind of loss of a loved one. The Holocaust, for it’s survivors, was a tragedy in itself due to all the losses and deaths witnessed. Tragedy is remembered in a variety of ways. For most people, there is a process of grief that must be gone through, with the five stages of Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. In each stage, tragedy is remembered differently. In the beginning, people may look at a tragedy in an extremely painful way, often blocking out memories. By the end, people are generally “healed” from a tragedy, and while it is still painful and sad, they are able to remember good times or even look at the tragedy in a positive way, for example, as something that made them stronger. A lot of the time a tragedy will always hurt, and people try not to think about it because it still hurts so bad. For example, in the article, the author’s father “…lived and breathed being a Holocaust survivor…” throughout his life. But however, his parents were able to live normal lives, as in the quote, “I marveled at my parents’ ability to live normal lives”.
I believe there can be a happy medium with tragedy. I believe once people get the closure they need, it’s easier to move on but still remember it. I think people try and force themselves to remember more then they should, because if it is something worth being remembered, they will absolutely never forget it. If someone blocks out a memory, that may be the only way for them to cope. In all, people deal with tragedies in different ways and there is no right or wrong way to deal with it.