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A Comparison Between Elderly Holocaust Survivors and People Who Survived the Holocaust as Children S. Robinson, M.D., I. Adler, Ph.D. and S. Metzer, B.A.
Discussion
Their mode of surviving Nazi persecution, the degree of their suffering from survivor syndrome, after the war and today, their coping and adjustment, are different from those of elderly survivors.
After the war they suffered less from symptoms of survivor syndrome than older survivors, and that is still true today. However, the difference in suffering between the two groups is now less marked than after the war. Most child survivors adjusted well, and succeeded socially and professionally in Israel. They were not referred to as a special group for 30 to 40 years after the war because they coped successfully (1). Most Jewish children who survived Nazi persecution were in hiding. Usually they were hidden by Christian families, or in churches and monasteries. There they received a new identity, name and biography. They had to conceal their Jewish origin, and behave as Christians (2). A smaller group of children survived labor camps and even death camps. The group of Jewish orphans described by Robinson and Hemmendinger (4) were liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp. They arrived at Buchenwald after experiencing other concentration camps, and some of them had been in such death camps as Auschwitz. Most elderly survivors in our sample survived concentration and death camps. Child survivors adjusted better to Israel than elderly survivors. One reason is their youth at the time of their immigration, which helped them to adjust. They made an effort to resemble young Israelis, and to behave like them. The drive to success was stronger in child survivors than in the elderly. Some fought in the Israeli army in the War of Independence. They finished high school. Many of them studied at the University. They became assimilated in Israeli society. May of them married Israelis who had not suffered Nazi persecution. It is not surprising that the Holocaust did not loom as large as in families of elderly Holocaust survivors, who mostly married other Holocaust survivors.
Nevertheless, both groups have noticed the influence of their experiences during the Holocaust on their children.
Today there is a decrease in suffering from symptoms of survivor guilt in both groups. This is probably connected to the fact that Holocaust survivors understood better over the years what happened to the Jewish people during World War II. They now have more information about Nazi plans to annihilate the Jewish people. They have also a wider understanding of the vast scale of Nazi persecution over almost the whole of Europe. This lessened the guilt feelings the survivors had after the war, when they felt they could have done more to save their loved ones.
Recently, the attitude of Israelis towards the Holocaust survivors has become more understanding. The attitude of many Israelis to the survivors immediately after the war was a mixture of suspicion ("How did they survive?"), contempt ("They went like sheep to the slaughter"), and pity. That was the attitude of bystanders who had projected their own guilt for not helping their brothers in Europe. This bystander attitude could deepen the guilt of survivors.
The Jewish population in Palestine, under the Mandate, and later in the newly established State of Israel, was not emotionally ready to accept the terrible facts which the survivors wanted to circulate. (In many cases, the wish to bear witness to what had happened during the Holocaust was the main force which helped them survive.)
The new and better understanding of what happened during the Holocaust, the ability of Israelis to identify with the survivors, and their acceptance in Israeli society may explain the decrease in intensity of survival guilt.
Holocaust survivors are still vulnerable and can become re-traumatized (7). Elderly survivors are more vulnerable than child survivors.
References
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