By Sarah Sunarko
Introduction
The Holocaust was the brutally violent genocide of Jewish people by the Nazi regime that greatly impacted every aspect of life and thus shaped the course of the lives of its survivors, including their attitudes to life and the professions they decided to pursue, as evident in the life and career of Peter Suedfeld. Suedfeld is a child Holocaust survivor who greatly contributed to his field, Cognitive Psychology, and to the University of British Columbia (UBC). Despite the trauma, the survivors of the Holocaust were given a newfound outlook on life – the Holocaust showed that people who face adversity can overcome it and succeed in their lives. This is the common thread between Suedfeld’s research and his own life. As a Jewish boy in Nazi occupied Hungary, Suedfeld himself had overcome adversity to eventually becoming top of his field of research which sought to challenge the status-quo that people who experience adversity are damaged and cannot succeed. He did this by conducting pioneering research on the positive effects of Restricted Environment Stimulation Therapy (REST). REST focused on people working in isolated parts of the world and on Holocaust survivors, emphasising the fact that people who face adversity can in fact overcome it and succeed, if they use these experiences for their benefit. This was an important topic to look at as most research had only focused on the negative effects of adversity. It is clear that Suedfeld’s childhood experiences as a child Holocaust survivor had influenced his research focus to a great degree. As such, in spite of the Holocaust’s devastating impact on the lives of millions of Jewish people, the consequences of the Holocaust for its survivors included having a renewed outlook on life, leading to successful and fulfilling lives, and the forging of careers they would otherwise have been unable to pursue.
General Historical Context of the Nazi Regime
The Holocaust was the systemic mass murder of millions of people, majority of whom were Jews but included other people such as those who were disabled or Black, by the Nazi regime, between the years 1933 and 1945. Under the rule of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi regime harnessed the power of terror to torture, kill, and ostracise people, in particular, Jews. Throughout history, Jews have continuously been othered and used as scapegoats for political, social, and economic instability. In this context, the other is typically an individual or group of people who are made to not belong within a society, simply put, outcasts (Collett 1). The Weimar Republic, which preceded the Nazi Party, was perceived by the German people to be incompetent, and ultimately, Hitler’s anti-Marxist and antisemitic ideology won the favour of the German people (McDonough 103). Hitler then seized this opportunity to mark Jews as the other, people who could not be trusted, who hoarded money, and as people who had brought Germany to its knees, whilst in reality, the instability that Germany was feeling in the late 1930s was as a direct result of the laissez-faire politics of the Weimar Republic. When times are difficult, people look for an easy way out, and it was easy for Hitler, who was an orator, to convince the Germans that they, the Jews were the root of all of Germany’s problems in the late 1930s.
Historical Context of the Nazi Regime in Hungary
Antisemitism and the Nazi regime spanned throughout Europe, including Hungary, where Suedfeld was born on August 30, 1935. Before World War I, Suedfeld simply describes his life in Hungary with one word, “happy…” (Suedfeld, A Life Full of Surprises 4). However, this sense of peace and tranquillity in Hungary would prove to not last for very long. Although the Nazi regime did not invade Hungary until March 19, 1944, changes, however small, in how people of Jewish religion were treated in Hungary were already existent, as Hungary was a member of the Axis powers primarily for economic reasons (Braham and Miller 36). Suedfeld recalls changes for Jews happening in Hungary, at first small and then more severe (A Life Full of Surprises 10). For example, the first Jewish law to be passed through Hungary’s Parliament was in May 1938. This law outlined that the number of people of Jewish religion in professions which were heavily dominated by them would be limited to 20 percent (Cornelius 74). Such professions included the press, theatre, and the film industry (Cornelius 74). The introduction of this law was a great change, but not to the extent that it would disrupt Jewish capitalists who formed the backbone of Hungary’s economy (Cornelius 74). This emphasises how at the beginning of the Nazi regime, even before their occupation of Hungary began, antisemitic laws, were already existent in Hungary. Further, approximately 60, 000 Jews had already been killed, some as labour conscripts for the Hungarian army, others murdered for being “alien” Jews (Braham and Miller 34). With the eventual occupation of Hungary by the Nazi regime in 1944, hundreds of thousands of Jewish Hungarians would then be murdered by the regime (Pok in Braham and Miller 45). By the end of the Nazi reign of terror, approximately 565, 000 Hungarian Jews had been murdered (Yad Vashem 1). Moreover, for those who survived the Nazi regime in Hungary, their path was not easy, as many Jews were forced to take on new identities, as will be exemplified by Suedfeld’s own survivor testimony.
Facing Adversity
It was in the autumn of 1944 that the situation for Jewish people in Hungary turned for the worse. This was because on October 15, 1944 the fascist, pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party overtook power in Hungary (Cornelius 334). Only nine years of age at the time, Suedfeld recalls that it was during this time that the large number of Arrow Cross uniforms on the streets became more noticeable and that these patrols would harass, vilify, and subsequently send Jewish people to the Budapest ghetto, whilst others were murdered at the Danube River (A Life Full of Surprises 12). This exemplifies how the circumstances for Jewish people in Hungary would only decline under the power of the Arrow Cross Party. This is evident as Suedfeld continues writing that in the same year, “The most distressing day came when my mother was arrested…”, by German soldiers (A Life Full of Surprises 14). It was on this morning Suedfeld saw his mother for the very last time. One might imagine that having witnessed one’s parent being forcibly taken away might be a harrowing and traumatic experience, and yet this was not the end of the adversity that Suedfeld endured.
It was after his mother’s arrest that Suedfeld’s extended family decided to take action, because they believed that the situation in Hungary was only to get worse. Following these growing anxieties, a plan was made by Suedfeld’s maternal grandparents to be smuggled to Buda to an orphanage run by the International Red Cross, by their previous maid, a Christian woman named Àgi (Suedfeld 15). Here, Suedfeld not only took on a new name, Péter Sugà, but a whole new identity as a Christian boy. Life at the orphanage was not easy for Suedfeld. This was because from Christmas 1944 until February 12, 1945, the entire city of Budapest had been destroyed by the fighting between the German and Soviet armies, also known as the Siege of Budapest (Cornelis 175). Suedfeld writes that during this time, “…the orphanage building we [himself and others at the orphanage] lived in was destroyed right over our heads…” (A Life Full of Surprises 17) and that they, “…survived by scavenging…looking for food that had been left behind…” (18). Further, there was never enough of anything and so everyone at the orphanage, “…wore the same clothes every day and never bathed…” (19). On top of these harsh day-to-day living conditions, as a Jew, Suedfeld was forced to remember his new name and backstory just in case he would have to recite it at any given point if a German solider asked any questions. Although Suedfeld’s experience of adversity did not end here, this paints a vivid picture of the trauma he had experienced as a young Jewish boy in Nazi occupied Hungary.
On Overcoming Adversity and Success through Research on REST
In spite of all odds and in spite of Suedfeld’s childhood spent living in fear of being killed by Nazis, if not by bombs, Suedfeld went on to lead an ever-impressive career, conducting research that has taken him to both the Arctic and Antarctica, and back to people he is familiar with, Holocaust survivors. In his career, Suedfeld was also head of the Department of Psychology and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at UBC. With his research, Suedfeld consistently aimed to challenge the status-quo (Suedfeld, 15 April 2021), and this is evident especially in his pioneering research on the positive effects of REST. Originally called sensory deprivation, REST is a type of therapy where an individual lies on a bed in a dark room, or a flotation tank for hours at a time. Suedfeld’s research on REST showed that people who face adversity or difficult circumstances are able to adapt and even benefit from their experiences, when approached with a positive mindset. He proved this by conducting an experiment, which allowed participants to view and walk around a room before darkening it, which other researchers had not done, and which resulted in a large decrease in participants quitting. In fact, his research found that REST had positive benefits for its participants, including: “…profound relaxation, relief from pain, and a shift in consciousness to a state that is more introspective, less defensive, and more receptive…” (Borrie 1) This was ground- breaking, as before Suedfeld conducted this research, the general consensus from the psychological community was that REST was very stressful as many participants would quit before the experiment ended (Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes 153).
Suedfeld’s interest in REST would eventually bring him to field research in the Arctic and Antarctic where he studied the effects of these dangerous environments on people who lived and worked there. Again, he found that these people, in the face of deprivation and isolation, were able to thrive (Interview with Suedfeld, 15 April 2021). Palinkas and Suedfeld noted that this could be due to two reasons: “…(a) the inherently enjoyable characteristics of the situation, and (b) the positive reactions to…having encountered and successfully surmounted these challenges…” (Psychological Effects of Polar Expeditions 158). This is evident as although early polar explorations were both physically and psychologically demanding, expeditioners frequently referred to the magnificence of the land and the excitement of overcoming the challenging environments within which they were (Mocellin and Suedfeld 1). The results of this field research emphasised Suedfeld’s theory of how restrictive environments can have positive effects or be beneficial for people, when people change their perception of difficult situations, paralleling his own journey from facing adversity to success.
Later, Suedfeld went on to research the positive consequences of the Holocaust for its survivors, as highlighted in his book, Light from Ashes: Social Science Careers of Young Holocaust Refugees and Survivors. This book contains the stories of several Holocaust survivors who, even after facing adversity as Jewish people under the Nazi regime, became successful in their chosen area of research which, in many cases, was influenced by their experiences of the Holocaust. Such an example can be seen through the life and work of clinical psychologist, Mary Engel, also a child survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary, whose work centred around the mental health problems of children and adolescents (Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes 59). Engel was given a false identity and placed in a Swiss House, a place that provided Jewish people with refuge, in Hungary in 1944 (Engel in Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes, 66). There she experienced terrible hunger and was deprived of the comforts of a home, with as many people crammed into the Swiss House as possible (Engel in Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes, 66). Despite this adversity, Engel would go on to lead a largely successful career. She served as director of the school psychology training program at Harvard University and co-authored a report concerning the health and mental health of children in the US to Congress, just to name a couple of her achievements (Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes 59). Engel used her experiences as a child in Nazi occupied Hungary to direct her research, which eventually led to her successful career. She wrote that, “…My first experiment was the investigation of the effect of early food deprivation on hoarding behaviour in rats…” (Engel in Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes, 76). Engel’s research clearly reflected her own experience of hunger in her childhood, and subsequently, her tendency to hoard items that had not been readily available during the war. Her early publications would also go on to reflect her experiences as a child who faced adversity, focusing on the “…profound concern with developmental discontinuities and normal and pathological development in adolescents…” (Engel in Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes, 76). This work contributed to Engel’s success as a psychologist. It is obvious then from writing on the life and successful career of Engel that Suedfeld’s research sought to emphasise people who had overcome adversity and gone on to become successful, as this was a scenario that his own life reflected.
Another person’s life and career whom Suedfeld chose to research on was Roberta S. Sigel, who was a professor of political science at Rutgers and a German Holocaust survivor who had been fortunate to escape to the US before the Nazi regime’s full wrath. However, as a Jewish high school student in Berlin in the 1930s, she too experienced adversity. For example, a class on race was made mandatory in all schools, which emphasised the beauty and strength of the Aryan race, which heightened tensions in an already unstable Germany and made Sigel feel inferior. Sigel’s research focused on the interaction between social structure, societal events, and political structure, and how these affect the formation and change of individual and group attitudes (Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes, 322), an idea that was extremely relevant to the workings of the Nazi regime. Before Suedfeld had asked Sigel why she had chosen to research this, she had said, “I simply assumed that the Holocaust was unrelated to my choice of…the topics I chose to investigate…” (Sigel in Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes, 323). However, upon reflection, she realised that her experience of adversity had most definitely influenced the research interests that she had become known for. She wrote that, “I realise that the theme that runs through much of my work, namely, humans’ response to conditions of political suffering…is not unrelated to having previously been witness to an event of unspeakable horror” (Sigel in Suedfeld, Light from the Ashes, 330). Sigel’s life and subsequent successful career is another example supporting the notion that people who face adversity can use it to their benefit, as she turned it into research, and ultimately, succeed. Thus, as is apparent by his pioneering research on REST in both lab and field settings that Suedfeld overcame his own childhood adversity and went on to lead a highly successful life and career, which inadvertently was focused on scenarios that his own life resembled – people who succeed in the face of adversity.
Connecting Suedfeld’s Life and Research
In his book, Light from Ashes, Suedfeld explores the reasons as to why people, specifically Holocaust survivors, have chosen their professional careers or focus of research, and moreover, their consequent success. In the book, Suedfeld writes that this is a “…largely unexplored realm…” (3), that people, “…rarely trace the connections between their professional choices and the experiences of early life that may be the deep sources of preferences and aversions, of values and ambitions…” (3). This was true for Suedfeld himself. The Holocaust had redirected the paths of many of its survivors, allowing them to pursue careers unbound by familial or traditional societal influences, and even helped to direct their research focus, even if unwittingly. This is apparent through Suedfeld’s venture into cognitive psychology, when his family had, for the most part, been artists and musicians (Suedfeld, 11 July 1984). Yet, it was not until 1983, when another psychology professor from UBC, Robert Krell, asked Suedfeld why he had specifically chosen his area of focus that he began to start making the links. In fact, in his 1984 interview with Krell, he stated that his specific area of research was less influenced by his childhood experiences than was his personal life (Suedfeld, 11 July 1984). However, later, in his book, Light from the Ashes, published in 2011, Suedfeld acknowledges that all of his research had three common factors. One common factor was that all his research concerned people who had been or were facing adversity, unusual, or strange situations, and in particular, focused on people who had overcome their difficult circumstances and excelled or benefitted from their experiences of adversity (166). This was a scenario that Suedfeld himself was familiar with and so, even if unwittingly, was a reason as to why he chose his research area – something that took Suedfeld twenty or so years to realise. Like the people Suedfeld’s research had focused on, he too had chosen to channel his experiences of adversity as a Jew in Nazi Hungary into something positive, his research on REST, contributing to his success. This was confirmed by Suedfeld himself in an interview conducted on 16 April 2021, where he said that his research “…did have something to do with my childhood…yes I survived dangerous and challenging environments and experiences…it made sense that at some level I was aware of the parallels of that and what I spent my adult life doing research on…” (Suedfeld). It is clear from this statement and Suedfeld’s research then that his childhood experience of living in fear in Hungary as a Jewish person directed him into choosing his focus of research; people who have faced and then subsequently overcome adversity, and succeeded, like himself.
Conclusion
It is beyond doubt that the Holocaust was a brutally violent occurrence by the Nazi regime, that killed approximately 6 million Jewish people, but its survivors were largely able to benefit from their experiences, as exemplified by Suedfeld’s own life and the research that he produced. As a young boy who faced trauma under the Nazi regime and yet went on to lead a highly successful career, Suedfeld is a model example of his own research of how restricted or depriving environments can have positive effects for those who do survive. His research on REST with people who worked in isolated regions and Holocaust survivors proved how people have a remarkable ability to overcome and adapt to difficult situations. Moreover, it is also clear that Suedfeld’s research was greatly influenced by his own childhood experiences and own success as an adult.
Works Cited
Primary Sources
Suedfeld, Peter. A life full of surprises. Vancouver, Langara College; The Azrieli Foundation; Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, 2017.
Suedfeld, Peter. Interview by Robert Krell. Peter S. testimony, 11 July. 1984, https://collections.vhec.org/Detail/objects/298. Accessed 7 April 2021.
Suedfeld, Peter. Interview. Conducted by Sarah Sunarko, 15 April 2021. Suedfeld, Peter. Life after the ashes: the post-war pain, and resilience, of young Holocaust survivors. Washington DC, United States Memorial Museum; Centre for Advanced Holocaust Studies, 2002.
Suedfeld, Peter. Light from the Ashes: Social Science Careers of Young Holocaust Refugees and Survivors. University of Michigan Press, 2004.
Secondary Sources
Borrie, R A. “The use of restricted environmental stimulation therapy in treating addictive behaviors.” The International journal of the addictions vol. 25,7A-8A (1990): 995- 1015. https://doi:10.3109/10826089109071031.
Braham, Randolph L. The Nazis Last Victims: the Holocaust in Hungary. Wayne State University Press, 2002.
Collett, Guillaume. Other. In: Teo Teo. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, 2014., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_208.
Cornelius, Deborah S. Hungary in World War II: Caught in the Cauldron. Fordham University Press, 2011.
McDonough, Frank. Hitler and the Rise of the Nazi Party (2nd ed.). Routledge, 2012. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.4324/9781315833095
Mocellin, Jane S. P., and Peter Suedfeld. “Voices from the Ice: Diariescitation of Polar Explorers.” Environment and Behavior, vol. 23, no. 6, Nov. 1991, pp. 704–722, https://doi:10.1177/0013916591236004.
Palinkas, Lawrence A, and Peter Suedfeld. “Psychological Effects of Polar Expeditions.” The Lancet, vol. 371, no. 9607, 2008, pp. 153–163., https://doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)61056-3.
Yad Vashem. “Murder of Hungarian Jewry.” Yad Vashem, www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/fate-of-jews/hungary.html#narrative_info.
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