Depression

• Many concentration camp survivors are depressed and apathetic.Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Getty Images
  
  Concentration camp survivors often display gloomy and pessimistic moods and are frequently depressed. Some people become apathetic and withdrawn while others have angry outbursts and short tempers. Coupled with the depression are bouts of insecurity and a sense of helplessness and sometimes acute lethargy. Survivors often feel persecuted and stressed and occasionally develop disorders related to stress and tension.
  
  

Death Guilt

• Death guilt was common among concentration camp survivors.Thinkstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  Following World War II, concentration camp survivors suffered from "death guilt," which today we call "survivor's remorse," the burden of having survived when so many others did not. Part of this was found to be based on the survivor having been unable to save others or to even help them and resist their captors. Survivors have a sense of responsibility to those who died and are often haunted by vivid, disturbing dreams and sometimes mental images that crop up when they are awake.
  
  

Psychosomatic disorders

• Many concentration camp survivors display psychomatic disorders.Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  Going hand in hand with death guilt are psychosomatic disorders, often displayed as an insensitivity or inability to feel. While this is often a psychological defense against the horrific reality that the survivor has experienced, if it continues too long, it can manifest an ongoing sense of despair, depression, lethargy and other symptoms. Initially, in the camps, these people become detached from the reality around them and after being freed, they maintained that detachment well beyond its psychological usefulness.
  
  

Counterfeit Care

• Some concentration camp survivors become isolated, shunning friends.Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images
  
  Anxiety has been found among many concentration camp survivors displayed as hostility toward individuals offering help and friendship. These survivors view any offer of aid or assistance with suspicion and resentment, having developed a view of the world around them as counterfeit, or fraudulent. Their anxiety and suspicion was heightened when people around them acted as if their Holocaust experience left them infected with some disease. Some became social outcasts, and others simply withdrew from social interactions.
  
  

Collectors of Justice

• Survivors occasionally display a need to make things right again.Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
  
  Some survivors became "collectors of justice," individuals determined to punish the guilty for the death camp horrors and to reinstate some sense of moral order. There were no graves to visit and mourn, no remains to bury, only a sense of enormous loss that left them feeling guilty and confused.
  
  

Physical Ramifications

• Concentration camp experiences left many with physical ailments that would eventually take their lives.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  While the psychological effects of concentration camps took a toll, so too did the physical effects. Survivors suffered bouts of fatigue, memory loss, sleep disturbance, headaches and other physical ailments. Additionally, many suffered digestive tract disorders and heart disease. Some survivors were literally living skeletons when they were saved, and their bones suffered decalcification due to a lack of calcium in their diet. This often lead to kidney stones and joint problems.