Revenge and Despair

In reading the different testimonies of the survivors as well as watching the videos, there is an obvious and common theme of fear, despair, and desperation. In the testimonies, it seems that this is the dominant view of a number of the Holocaust survivors. However, I did come across one particular testimony that portrayed anger towards the situation at hand. This situation involved a Jewish man by the name of Isaac Wolf. This man became a soldier, fighting for the Russian army, and was looking for 'revenge'. He noted that he had 'nothing to lose' being that the whole of his family had been killed. Isaac states that "...if they did this to my parents, I have nothing to lose". He then goes on to mention how he earned medals because of his fighting abilities. I chose this man because his situation was very interesting to me in that it showed the Jewish people in a different light. Rather than just despair and anguish, this man showed he was indignant and enraged at what had happened to his family and the situation that the Jewish people were in at the time.
The holocaust survivor that I chose from the Shoah Foundation site is named Erna Anolik. In Erna's case, she was taken to the camps and she recounts some of the horrors she'd seen and her experience in trying to see her parents. Erna's disposition throughout the interview seems to be that she is very soft spoken and she seems to be distressed as she relives the pain that she went through, and still to this day, seems to be going through.
The reason I chose to compare these two individuals is because they showed an interesting juxtaposition. On the one hand, in reading the words of Isaac Wolf, you see a man with anger and ideas of revenge for the loss of his family's life. On the other hand, with Erna Anolik, you see a soft spoken individual with despair, figuratively speaking of course, written all across her face. Erna also mentions in her quiet manner what she went through to try and find her parents, though no ideas of revenge were mentioned. She seemingly knew that her parents were killed and seemed just to accept it, though with sadness.
Its almost a little traumatizing to see how, after all these years, Erna still suffers from the accounts that took place during the Holocaust. It really makes you consider the trauma that these survivors went through and what kind of toll this must take on the human brain. I think its safe to say that most of us have a natural sympathy for those that are hurt and suffering. Also, with most of us, there has to be some sort of thing, whether it be human or not human, animate or inanimate, that we care for in some way, shape, or form, in whatever way we choose to. I think that, even today, soldiers are trained to be in a way 'hard' because of the fact that a person with a weak disposition could not harm and possibly kill other individuals by choice or force. With this thought in mind it still brings to mind thoughts of the mental state of the soldiers exacting terror tactics and the like on the Holocaust survivors.