Kristallnacht: Experiencing Nazi Germany

Lore Zeller, long-time friend and proofreader of Psychological Perspectives, is a first-time contributor to our journal—or any journal. Lore is also something of an icon at the bookstore of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, where she has worked, dispensing books and wisdom, for over twenty years. She is eighty-seven years old. Over the past few years she has translated all of the correspondence from her German-Jewish parents and in-laws after she, her husband, and their two-year-old son fled their hometown of Berlin to seek safety in the United States via England. Within a few years of their escape, both sets of parents had perished in death camps. As survivors in Los Angeles, her husband and she helped found the Jung Institute here.

When she mentioned that she had been working on this paper, it was suggested she send it to us for review. After giving the idea some consideration, she eventually overcame her innate shyness — the results of which can be seen in the riveting story that follows.

Lore Haber Zeller is honoring the memory of her parents by using her maiden name with her married name for this publication. —Gilda Frantz     

Suicides in the Nazi concentration camps

On the basis of psychiatric interviews with 69 former prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, this paper describes the circumstances, motives, and ways of committing suicide in the camp. The interview made it clear that thousands of prisoners perished by suicide. The number of committed suicides was larger than that of attempted suicides. The most frequent types of suicide victims were prisoners of Jewish descent, foreigners, white-collar workers, and old people. The most common motives of suicides were depressive reactions; anxiety; somatic illnesses; the threat of death; emotional motives; loss of emotional support; beatings and tortures; and patriotic and altruistic motives. The most common methods of committing suicide were flinging oneself onto the electrified wires surrounding the camp, hanging, poisoning, cutting one's veins, and drowning. There were also cases of mass suicides, chiefly in the women's camp. Suicides committed from patriotic or altruistic motives testified to the fact that human beings were able to preserve their dignity even in the face of death.     

The Nazi Heritage and Gender Identity

This paper explores the impact of Nazi ideas and values from education in Napola schools of the National Socialist regime on the development of gender identity during late childhood and adolescence. Difficulties in this realm are illustrated by means of biographical material from a study performed at the Sigmund-Freud Institut in Frankfurt. In this study, interviews were conducted with former Napola students, their children, and grandchildren. A clinical example focuses on the theme of haircutting typical of Napola trainees and the impact this had on the development of a man's gender identity. The examination of two further generations showed that the haircut played an important role in their lives and caused difficulties in the development of masculinity, as well as femininity.     

Children of Nazi Germany 60 years on

Abstract

Defence against shock, feelings of guilt, and shame about German atrocities during National Socialism (NS) have dominated the public discourse in Germany for decades. Mitscherlich and Mitscherlich have talked about the inability to mourn due to the involvement of most German families in Nazi terror. The research projects “Childhood in War” at the University of Munich and “War Children and their Flight” at the Hamburg DPG Institute are studying the long-term implications of a childhood during World War II and the Nazi period. In most cases, the personal development of the “war children” was affected – in the case of psychoanalysts, their psychoanalytic socialisation and current professional practice as well. The transgenerational transmission forms an NS introject in the personality. Due to their parents’ lack of empathy, war children are unconsciously looking for a containment of their unbearable feelings in their childhood. Psychoanalysis (including training analysis) becomes a stage where the analysee's childhood loneliness, the taboo-forming, the inhibition to ask and the protection of the parents, as well as feelings of guilt and embarrassment in the family, not talking about matters, and silence, occur once more in transference.     

纳粹德国知识难民在英国的流亡

在纳粹统治欧洲的1933至1945年间,英国接收了55000多名来自纳粹德国的犹太难民,超过流亡到美国的130000名犹太难民的1/3以上.为如此之多的流亡者提供避难所,对于当时的英国来说是相当不容易的,因为这是在德国的扩张主义不断增强,英国不得不重整军备,甚至不得不承受战争高压的情况下发生的.尽管英国的官僚机构在战时采取过诸如拘押、遣送、流放之类的错误政策,以至于最后定居于英国的犹太难民中只有250名流亡科学家和1200名文化流亡者,但这些来自纳粹德国的知识难民与英国人民一起分享了战争时期的危险和贫困.他们与英国人民同甘共苦的经历,以及他们对英国的科学、文化发展所做出的贡献,最终使他们赢得了英国人民的尊重.     

Some Psychological Hypotheses on Nazi Germany: III

Summary

The relation between room size and interpersonal distance as manifested in a seated conversation, as well as the effects of the sex and relative status of the speakers upon this distance, are examined. Subjects (n = 80) were asked to interact singly with one of 12 confederates in varying combinations of room size, status, and sex conditions. As predicted, the size of this interpersonal distance was inversely related to room size. A perceptual-behavioral threshold for room size was suggested, as it was also noted that the distance scores in the small room were distributed bimodally as opposed to the unimodal scores in the large room. Neither status nor sex was found to affect interpersonal distance consistently.