Introduction

In the last fifty years, many authors have emphasized that war's psychological wounds can last longer than its physical challenges. As Ryszard Kapuscinski writes in "When There is Talk of 1945," quoting the Polish philosopher Boleslaw Micinski, "War … deforms not only the soul of the invader, but also poisons with hatred, and hence deforms, the souls of those who try to oppose the invader."

When armed struggle ends, other struggles take precedence. How people contend with economic havoc, displacement, cultural shifts, challenges to traditional morals and ethics; how they struggle to reintegrate into a world changed forever; and how they deal with traumatic memories and loss of loved ones is part of the saga of the human race. So, too, are the examples of how survivors move past mere survival to recover and truly live once more.

Survival During War

Robert Graves's autobiography, Goodbye...