This international study of children's experiences of organized persecution, explores the Holocaust and its aftermath as prototypical social trauma. Traumatized persons' feelings of shame and guilt as well as a sense of being different may prevail, and they may attribute great power to others, seek safety in isolation, or search for a rescuer. Nevertheless, as a group, the child survivors of the Holocaust have achieved remarkable success as adults.Drawing on the wealth of personal and interview information, the contributors create a synthesis of personal history and psychological analysis. Adult memories of traumatic childhood experiences are accompanied by discussions of their effects and by analysis of the various coping mechanisms used to establish a viable post-war existence. These accounts are distinguished by the fact that they are by and about individuals who grew up in undistinguished Christian and Jewish families; not those of prominent figures or resistance fighters or rescuers. All experienced unrest and many suffered trauma during the Nazi regime, as a result of the war, and during the post-war turbulence. An important collection for students and scholars of the Holocaust and for those professionals in a position to help surviving victims of other organized persecution, civil violence, strife, and abuse.
Author(s): Judith S. Kestenberg, Charlotte Kahn
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 264
Preliminaries......Page 1
Contents......Page 3
Preface......Page 7
Introduction......Page 11
1 The Background of Persecution and Its Aftermath......Page 29
2 Historical Trauma Psychohistorical Reflections on the Holocaust......Page 53
3 Adult Survivors Child Survivors and Children of Survivors......Page 66
4 Man Behind Walls......Page 76
5 Interviewing for Indemnification......Page 84
6 Impact on the Second and Third Generations......Page 92
7 Antisemitism and Jewish Identity in Hungary Between 1989 and 1994......Page 100
8 Child Survivors A Review......Page 119
9 Nazi Fathers......Page 134
10 The Persecution of Polish Children......Page 149
11 Yugoslavian Child Survivors......Page 155
12 German Jewish Identity......Page 165
13 Kindertransport A Case Study......Page 179
14 Sweden and the Holocaust......Page 183
15 History of the Australian Child Survivor Groups Melbourne and Sydney......Page 198
16 Trauma A View from the German Side......Page 205
17 My Contra Program A Response to My Father......Page 224
Bibliographical Essay......Page 249
Index......Page 253
About the Editors and Contributors......Page 261
