The present study explores patterns of sharing past traumatic experiences. Holocaust related communication behaviours and their consequences in terms of attitudes and knowledge were studied in two groups of families who survived the Holocaust; fifteen families whose parents were imprisoned in a concentration camp, and fifteen families whose parents were involved in active resistance during World War II. Both parents and first-born child were interviewed by means of a structured interview. The results indicated that there was more sharing of the traumatic experiences in ~the families of ex-partisans: (a) communication on Holocaust related issues was more legitimate in these families, (b) children of ex-partisans had more knowledge about the Holocaust and about their parent's past and (c) they expressed more positive attitudes toward the survivors. The implications of these findings for the understanding of the psychological consequences of massive psychic traumas are discussed.In the long history of man to man brutality one phenomenon stands out in its atrocity and incredibility -the extermination of the. Jewish population in Europe during World War II. Yet the psychological consequences of this phenomenon have not been systematically investigated. Most of the existing reports have drawn on clinical case studies and autobiographies (e.g. Eitinger 1963, Krystal 1968, 1971, Epstein 1979). The long term effects of this massive psychic traumatization on both the survivors and their descendants remain unknown. -The scarcity of systematic, non-clinical studies on the effects of the Holocaust may be seen as one of the manifestations of the conspiracy of silence that has surrounded this subject. The first to break this conspiracy were the clinicians in their role as helping professionals. In the case of the scientists, the positive connotations inherent in helping are absent. Their apersonal, objective approach to an experience such as the Holocaust may be perceived as sacrilegious, and imply intrusion, probing and hurting without the absolution of helping.In spite of the emotional as well as methodological difficulties involved in systematic study of the effects of the Holocaust, such investigation in imperative particularly in light of the impressions recently reported by clinicians (e.g. Davidson 1977, Sigal et al 1973 that the ill effects of this massive psychic traumatization transgress generations as witnessed by the number of children of survivors who seek psychiatric help. Most of the psychological problems reported by them may be seen as reflecting the family dynamics characteristic of the families of the survivors. ' Manv of the survivors' families were formed shortly after the war as marriages of despair grown out of loss and loneliness, with an almost total disregard for the ordinary criteria for marriage such as life-style, economic or educational status. The recreation of the family was an act of compensation and the birth of a child symbolized the renewal of life and the victory over the Nazis. (Danieli ...
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