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Below is just one
example!.. hell alongside his mother, his father, and his brother. As they entered the hometown they had been forced to abandon during the bloody regime of Adolph Hitler, they knew not what to expect from their former neighbors. Taught by the Holocaust to trust only in themselves, they expected no welcome banners, no smiles of greeting. What they did expect was a certain degree of hostility and a tangible sense of disdain as they made their way from the darkness of war to the light of liberation. As they entered their former hometown, what they did not expect was the twenty four bullets that came out to greet them. Nine of the bullets cut down Yaffa's mother while fifteen ended the life of his father. For young Yaffa and countless others like him, the gates of Hell had opened only to spill the ravaged survivors of the Holocaust into a hostile and silent wilderness (Chamberlin & Feldman 168). During the spring of 1945, celebrations were held worldwide marking the liberation of the Jewish people from the harsh and brutal treatment of a maniacal leader who had managed in the time of his reign to "exterminate" a full one-third of the Jewish race (Chamberlin & Feldman 168-69). These celebrations were held everywhere, that is, but the one place where liberation had the most impact - within the ranks of the survivors of what has come to be known as the Holocaust. Underfed, underweight, and in weak overall physical condition, the survivors of the most horrid treatment of man against man stumbled from the concentration camps and various dark hiding places into a world in which they had no place to go. In the 1980s, a conference of survivors and liberators was held in the United States. During this conference, emotional reunions took place between liberators and survivors, and the victims of this terrible time in the history of the world related reactions that were experienced at the time of liberation. Gratitude to the liberators was acknowledged, but also aired at the conference were lingering emotions that attested to the fact that for most survivors, the Holocaust was not over upon liberation, nor is it currently over for most of its victims. Myriads of emotions were expressed during this conference, emotions that touched on faith, endurance, bravery, and strength of soul. The most predominant emotion, however, was anger (Chamberlin & Feldman 173). The time of liberation was a time of bewilderment and confusion for most of the survivors of the Holocaust. It was also a time of great sadness as they reflected upon their losses and mourned relatives and friends who did not survive the brutalities of Hitler's reign. During the conference between liberators and survivors, many of these painful memories were recalled (Chamberlin & Feldman 174).
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