Interviewers' Reactions to Holocaust Survivors' Testimony Aviva Mazor, Yolanda Gampel, Gilit Horwitz Method Subjects A group of 56 adults (aged 22-66 years), including 14 men and 42 women, met the following criteria for inclusion in the study: (a) professional occupation (psychology interns and students, therapists, non-therapists), (b) previous exposure to Holocaust survivors, (c) degree of relatedness to the Holocaust (personal experience, parents' experience, family/relative's experience, or none). The majority of subjects were sent a letter which described the study and requested their participation. This was followed by a phone call requesting their agreement to take part in the study and complete the questionnaire. The sample included three professional groups as follows: 20 therapists (36%), 26 psychology interns and graduate students (46%), and 10 people who formed the non-therapist group of historians, teachers, librarians and others (18%). Although the final N of 56 represents only 25% of each professional group, it ensures some degree of representation. Still it should be noted that the results cannot necessarily be taken as generalized to all interviewer groups. The sample was divided into two main groups: 28 interviewers (50%) who had prior experience of working with Holocaust survivors through psychotherapy, documentation, etc., and 28 interviewers who had no such prior experience. There were four groups based on the degree of interviewers' relatedness to the Holocaust: (1) 5 people (9% of the sample) were "first-generation" Holocaust survivors; (2) 18 individuals (32%) were the "second-generation" group whose parents, one or both, were survivors; (3) 19 individuals (34%) formed the third group with relationships to survivors through extended family or marriage to a spouse whose family included survivors; and (4) a group of 14 individuals (25%) who had no familial relationship with Holocaust survivors. All subjects volunteered to participate in this study without monetary or academic reward. The study was conducted in Hebrew in one of the main cities in Israel. All the groups participated in a national project of Holocaust interviews for the purpose of documentation. Measures The interviewers' response questionnaire. To assess the subjects' descriptions regarding their own responses to Holocaust survivors' testimony, an open-ended questionnaire was constructed that drew on two main sources: (a) a theoretical overview that concentrated on therapists' responses to treatment of Holocaust survivors who experienced massive trauma (Danieli, 1980, 1984, 1985; De Wind, 1971; Krystal, 1968); (b) data accumulated during the past ten years by graduate students who recorded impressions of their interviewing experiences (Gampel's and Kestenberg's project of documenting child survivors' testimonies). The questionnaire had three main parts: background characteristics (9 items), interviewers' responses (10 items), and the influence of the questionnaire on the interviewer (1 item). The following guideline was attached to the questionnaire: "Recently there has been growing awareness and activity concerning documentation of personal testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Since you are a participant in the process of interviewing survivors, we would like to understand thoroughly your opinions, responses and impressions regarding this experience." Part 1: The background characteristics included three main parts. The first referred to the personal relationship of the subject to the Holocaust (i.e. "Are you a child of a Holocaust survivor?" or, "Where were your parents during World War II?"). The second part referred to the subjects' previous professional experience with interviews of Holocaust survivors. The third part dealt with personal characteristics such as age, birth place, and subject's profession. Part 2: The interviewers' retrospective responses aimed at revealing their self-conceptions after interviewing survivors. This part consisted of domains arranged according to the time sequence of interviewers. Each domain included 2-3 items, as follows: (1) The preparation referred to subjects' recollections of the period prior to the interview. For example, "How much time passed between deciding to hold the interview and conducting it?" "What thoughts and feelings concerned you prior to the interview?" (2) The experience of the interviewer focused on exploring the feelings, thoughts and images regarding the interaction and relationship between interviewer and survivor. For instance, "What effect do you think your interview had on the survivor?" (3) The interviewer's conception was related to the influence of the interview on interviewers, and how this self-perception changed over a certain time after the interview. For example, "What questions and thoughts regarding yourself occupied you after the interview?" or "After the interview was finished, what kind of feelings did you experience (a) immediately after the meetings, (b) long after the meetings?" (4) This domain explored the perception of the interviewer's role. In this part, the subject was requested to provide an overview of the interview experience. For instance, "What guidelines and advice could you now offer interviewers?" The last part of the questionnaire had only one item. Subjects answered the questionnaire individually, in their free time without limitation, between August 1989 and March 1990. All responses were anonymous and were sent by mail. [Page 4 of 9]