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.     

Attitudes to Death during the Holocaust: writings from the ghettos

This study explores perspectives on death from ‘within’ the Holocaust, works written in the midst of suffering which were not tempered by or influenced by survival and its traumas. The focus on thinking during the Holocaust will look at two categories of literature written during the Holocaust, which were hidden or distributed by their authors who did not survive. The first involves secular diarist accounts of life in ghettos and the second is the ‘theological’ writing of religious leaders writing for their followers (Rabbi Shapiro'sEsh Kodesh (The Holy Fire) from the Warsaw Ghetto and Rabbi Tiechtall'sEm Habanim Smecha (The Happy Mother of Children) from Budapest). This literature is studied in relation to a number of key questions: how death was recorded; evidence of religious rituals concerning death; how the rituals helped people to cope with death; and the nature of theological debate at the time.     

Lack of long-lasting consequences of starvation on eating pathology in Jewish Holocaust survivors of Nazi concentration camps

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether Holocaust survivors will show the same eating pathologies that were found in other participants who had also undergone starvation. Fifty-five Holocaust survivors and 43 matched control participants answered a questionnaire designed to explore eating problems and pathologies described in the literature as lasting for decades after a period of severe food restriction. Confirmation of the survivors' reports was obtained from their children. No significant differences in current eating habits were found between the Holocaust survivors and their matched controls. Prolonged starvation in Holocaust survivors did not lead to disordered eating habits in the sample. These results conflict with the notion that severe starvation consistently leads to food preoccupation and disordered eating.     

The Holocaust after 70 years: Holocaust survivors in the United States

Over 70 years, there have been different narratives of the Holocaust survivors coming to the United States. Survivors’ stories begin with an event of major historical significance. Difficulties in conceptualizing historical trauma, along with common distortions and myths about Holocaust survivors and their children are examined. This article proposes that it is impossible to discuss the consequences of extreme suffering without consideration of historical meaning and social context with which they are entwined. The evolution of the social representation of the Holocaust and the contradictions in clinical attributions to survivors and their children with consideration of the future is described. Attributions to survivors and their children with consideration of the future is described.     

Forgiveness and the Holocaust

This paper considers whether we have any reason to forgive the perpetrators of the most terrible atrocities, such as the Holocaust. On the face of it, we do not have reason to forgive in such cases. But on examination, the principal arguments against forgiveness do not turn out to be persuasive. Two considerations in favour of forgiveness are canvassed: the presence of rational agency in the perpetrators, and the common human nature which they share with us. It is argued that the presence of rational agency does not generate a reason to forgive. However, our common human nature may be sufficient to provide such a reason, and evidence for its general reason-giving power can be seen in phenomena such as vicarious shame, and the moral significance which we attach to the notion of crimes against humanity. A reason for forgiveness based on common human nature will not be a strong one, but a weak reason still has some force.     

Resilience in Holocaust Survivors: A Study of Defense Mechanisms in Holocaust Narratives

There is extensive literature examining the psychological adaptation of survivors after the Holocaust, including studies of Holocaust narratives (HN). As a measure of psychological adaptation, defense mechanisms (DM) have been studied in various clinical samples, however, to date, not in Holocaust narratives. Using a standardized observer-rated measure, we assessed DM in Holocaust versus pre/post Holocaust narratives (other narratives [ON]) in 20 in-depth survivor interviews. Regarding individual DM, isolation of affect and self-assertion were statistically more frequent in the HN than the ON. High adaptive (mature) level defenses were more frequent in the HNs than the ON. Furthermore, the overall defensive functioning (ODF) was higher in the HN than the ON, contradicting previous findings showing lower defensive functioning in life-threatening situations. Possible explanations include differences in the nature of trauma, the time elapsed between the trauma and the interview, and the specificity of the sample. A qualitative overview with several examples from the narratives are also presented.     

Bruno Bettelheim and the concentration camps

The paper analyzes the circumstances under which Bruno Bettelheim's (1903–1990) well-known paper, “Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations” (1943) came to be written and discusses its central arguments. The authors compare Bettelheim's analysis of the Nazi concentration camps with the interpretations of other authors, particularly those who had experienced the camps themselves, and identify areas of divergence. They also note the later modifications Bettelheim introduced in his own theories on occasions when the original article was reprinted or revised. In conclusion, we investigate the ways in which Bettelheim's analysis of the camps has been received and cited by later scholars. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Up front and personal: confronting dynamics in the Family Group Conference

The Family Group Conference is a participatory model of decision making with families in child protection. It is a legal process that brings together the family, including the extended family, and the professionals in a family-led decision-making forum. Bringing together extended family and professionals to discuss child protection concerns can create a highly charged dynamic. Workers are challenged by family, family are challenged by workers, and family members challenge each other. Practice is also exposed to wider scrutiny as professionals also challenge the work. This article briefly describes the development and practice of family group conferencing as a family-centred legal process in Aotearoa, New Zealand. It then examines the findings of a study exploring the dynamics emerging from family group conference practice from the perspective of the coordinators who convene them. Family group conferencing as a family strengthening practice is discussed.     

Transgenerational Obligations: Twenty-first Century Germany and the Holocaust

Abstract Has history assigned special obligations to Germans that can transcend generation borders? Do the grandchildren of Holocaust perpetrators or the grandchildren of inactive bystanders carry any obligations that are only related to their ancestry? These questions will be at the centre of this investigation. It will be argued that five different models of justification are available for or against transgenerational obligations, namely liberalism, the unique evil argument, the psychological view, a form of consequentialist pragmatism and the community‐based approach. Only two of these models stand up to philosophical scrutiny. Applying the community‐based model leads to the conclusion that young Germans do indeed have indirect, indeterminate, but strict obligations that transcend generation borders. However, it will be argued that only the obligation of compensation can be restricted to Germans. The remaining two Holocaust‐related obligations of prevention and remembrance have to be seen as universal.     

Holocaust and Hollywood: An Annotated Filmography

This paper offers a list of Hollywood movies pertaining to the Holocaust. Its aim is to facilitate the access of individuals, libraries, foundations, film clubs, and Holocaust-related study groups to this powerful material. These movies enhance empathy and knowledge regarding the Holocaust and thus serve an important psychoeducational function for all, but especially for those not directly affected by this great human tragedy.     

Anna Freud and the Holocaust: Mourning and survival guilt

This article explores the period of Anna Freud's life after she was informed of the deaths of her aunts in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Understanding of this period may be enhanced by consideration of the role of the Holocaust in her complicated mourning process. A series of her dreams is re‐examined from the point of view of survivor guilt and the complicated mourning of her father in the context of the Holocaust. It is argued that unconscious reproaches against her father led to an identification with him that included his ‘decision’ to leave his sisters in Vienna. Survivor guilt in relation to her aunts’ murders is seen as one of the complicating factors in the mourning process. In addition the article discusses the possible role of this period, particularly her work with child concentration camp survivors, in her post‐war writing. The noted duality in her work between innovation and conservatism is explored in terms of an outcome of the mourning process of this period. It is argued that her views on mourning, trauma, attachment, and the widening scope of indications for psychoanalysis were influenced by the outcome of her mourning process. Finally, an irony is noted in the fact that her attitude about altruism never changed despite the role of the altruism of others in her rescue from the Nazis.