Auschwitz Syndrome: Geroge Sodini Claimed Suffering on Website
Before he entered a LA Fitness Gym in Bridgeville Pensyvania, and shot 5 women dead and wounded 15 others, George Sodini wrote on his blog that he suffered from Auschwitz Syndrome, and that is sustained state of pain and suffering had become so normal for him that he needed to do something about it.
In an entry dated January 5, he laments, “Every evening I am alone, and then go to bed alone. … Why should I continue another 20+ years alone? I will just work, come home, eat, maybe do something, then go to bed (alone) for the next day of the same thing. This is the Auschwitz Syndrome, to be in serious pain for so long one thinks it is normal. I cannot wait for tomorrow!”
cnn.com
But what is Auschwitz Syndrome?
Also called Survivor Syndrome, Concentration Camp Syndrome, and K-Z Syndrome, Auschwitz Syndrome describes the actions and behavoirs of someone after they have suffered through a very traumatic experience, such as surviving the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and being imprisoned at the deadly Auschwitz concentration camp.
When someone undergoes a trama of this nature, they can develop certain behaviors such as anxiety and depression, social withdrawal, nightmares and a loss of drive to participate in life anymore. Survivors often feel immense guilt that they have survived when thousands of others have died.
It is a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
But why would George Sodini claim to be suffering from Auschwitz Syndrome? What massive traumatic experience did he survive?
From his blog post it appears that the pain of being alone for over 20 years had worn Sodini down to the point that he lived in this world of suffering that by the end, no one could save him from. It became so normal for him to be alone that the pain almost numbs completely and that was his normal world, however it doesn’t always mean that the person suffering just accepts that, which clearly Sodini did not.
It might appear to some that Sodini’s loneliness cannot compare to something like surviving the Holocaust in a concentration camp – what do you think?
