We all get attached to our homes, it becomes our safety net. When that is suddenly taken away we experience trauma. According to Caruth, Freud experienced this trauma when he was forced to abandoned Austria and the Jews experienced it when they left Egypt. Although not nearly as traumatic, I experienced trauma during the summer when my lease was up. For over a year my roomates and I had lived together peacefully then all the sudden we were forced to separate and go our own ways for school. I was forced to put the majority of my stuff in storage and live between my Mom's house and my Aunt's house to save up money before signing another lease in the failing economy. For a few months I felt displaced and not at home in either of my homes. Although material items are unimportant in the long run, having them suddenly yanked from you hurts. During the Holocaust they knew they would never see anything they owned again, not even the keepsakes, this must have added to the trauma they experienced. Even if someone was completely unaffected by material items, they did not even know how their loved ones were and if they were alright. I know I was just affected by not seeing the people I cared about everyday and I knew they were just fine.

Can loss of wealth be considered a trauma? People everywhere are losing their jobs and cannot find new ones, no longer able to provide for themselves or their family. Family owned shops are closing their doors and even corporations such as Circuit City or Kmart are closing the doors on many of their stores. There is an excessive amount of forecloses and people are being forced from their homes. Even if you do everything you can possibly do you still stand a chance to lose everything.