Children Surviving Persecution: An International Study of Trauma and Healing

by Judith S. Kestenberg, Charlotte Kahn

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275962616
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/23/1998
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

JUDITH S. KESTENBERG was cofounder and director of the International Study of Organized Persecution of Children. Dr. Kestenberg published extensively on the topic including Children During the Nazi Reign, with Eva Fogelman (Praeger, 1994).

CHARLOTTE KAHN is a psychoanalyst in private practice. Dr. Kahn has taught at several psychoanalytic training institutes and was an Associate Professor and Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Syracuse University and Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, City College, City University of New York. She has published numerous articles on stress, shame, guilt and other topics.

Table of Contents

Preface by Charlotte Kahn
Introduction by Charlotte Kahn
Psychohistorical Perspectives
The Background of Persecution and Its Aftermath by Milton Jucovy
Historical Trauma: Psychohistorical Reflections on the Holocaust by Robert Prince
Adult Survivors, Child Survivors, and Children of Survivors by Judith S. Kestenberg
Man Behind Walls by Kazimierz Godorowski
Interviewing for Indemnification by Milton Kestenberg
Impact on the Second and Third Generations by Eva Fogelman
Antisemitism and Jewish Identity in Hungary Between 1989 and 1994 by Judit Meszaros
Children's Responses to Persecution
Child Survivors: A Review by Paul Valent
Nazi Fathers by Judith S. Kestenberg
The Persecution of Polish Children by Judith S. Kestenberg
Yugoslavian Child Survivors by Nikola Volf
German-Jewish Identity by Charlotte Kahn
Kindertransport: A Case Study by Judith S. Kestenberg
Sweden and the Holocaust by Hedi Fried
History of the Australian Child Survivor Groups: Melbourbane and Sydney by Paul Valent and Litzi Hart
Trauma: A View from the German Side by Charlotte Kahn
My Contra-Program: A Response to My Father by Gonda Scheffel-Baars
Afterword by Charlotte Kahn
Bibliographical Essay by Charlotte Kahn
Index