The Psychosocial Effects of the Holocaust on Jewish Survivors Living in Poland Prof. Maria Orwid, M.D., Ewa Domagalska-Kurdziel, M.A., Kazimierz Pietruszewski, M.D. Cooperation: Ewa Czaplak, M.A., Ryszard Izdebski, M.A., Maria Kaminska, M. Med. Sc. Characteristics of the Group of Survivors The analyzed group of the 21 survivors consisted of 16 women and 5 men. The oldest person was 98 years old, while the youngest was 49. The average age of men was 63 years, of women - 66 years. 14 persons had university education, 5 persons were high school graduates and 2 persons - elementary education. 4 persons graduated from universities and 2 persons - from high schools before the war. Most of them have already retired; their jobs were or are in accord with their education. Financial status of the examined group is close to the average in Poland. 5 persons got married before the war. One of these marriages was mixed. One of the persons obtained a divorce before the war and never remarried. In 2 cases the married couples survived the war, in two others the spouses were killed. One man remarried after the war. One woman never remarried. The remaining 15 younger persons got married after the war. They all married non-Jews. They have 1 or 2 children each. No cases of disturbances in psycho-physical development in the childhood of the examined persons were detected. What strikes in the analysis of the childhood is the significant dominance of stronger connections with fathers than with mothers, and, what astonished the researchers, a relatively large number of deprivations in this group,(11) including 1 deprivation of a father, 4 deprivations on the mothers' side and 6 by both parents. The elder persons emphasize relations with further relatives. The younger persons, depending on their age, sometimes remember more distant relations most of whom were killed during the war. 4 persons born during the war and brought up by foster parents do not know anything about their natural families. In various ways they try to search for and reconstruct the images of their parents and relatives. 7 of the examined persons suffered a serious loss (mother's or father's death) before the war. 2 others suffered the loss of other important persons. The examined persons were asked about their childhood fears, in order to discern whether these were of separation or archaic-childhood character. This proved difficult to recognize, because elder persons usually did not remember it while younger ones had the differences between the early, childhood years and the later, war period, obscured. All examined groups, except 4 persons born during the war, were aware of their Jewish origin, but few of them declared any anxiety connected with this before the war. Feeling of alienation connected with the ethnic origin was declared by 7 persons, 2 persons were ashamed of it, 1 was proud of it. 10 persons stated its, usually negative, influence on the relations in peer groups, negative effects of the ethnic origin for occupational or school career were declared by 7 persons. They all currently spoke Polish which, in terms of those days, should be described as assimilation of their families into the Polish environment. Many persons, however, preserved Jewish religious practice,(12) 4 persons converted to Christianity for their love to a person of Roman-Catholic faith or because they wanted to find a better job that was often unattainable for the Jews. 3 persons stated that they did not feel assimilated to their Polish surroundings, only one declared Zionist orientation and 3 considered themselves cosmopolitan. More than half of the examined persons encountered actual anti-semitism, but only one of them received xenophobic upbringing. Five persons declared deep, fixed reactions of fear connected with the experienced anti-semitism. Yet, more than a half (11) described their reactions to anti-semitism so that they could be estimated as adequate and not influencing further development. Traumatic events connected with Nazism started as early as September 1939. Many persons, particularly those who were children in those days, experienced air raids, escape from homes, and loss of important persons at the very beginning of the war. They all stated that since the beginning of the war they experienced a strong feeling that their closest relatives were threatened by the invaders. Persons who survived the war having "aryan" documents or in hiding constituted a majority of the group. 4 of the examined persons survived a concentration camp, 9 were hiding without their parents in homes of complete strangers, 13 were given shelter for money, 6 - for free. The persons giving help included: friends, people giving shelter for money, Catholic priests, political organizations. 10 persons from the examined group lost their fathers in the Holocaust, 8 persons lost their mothers and all of them lost close relatives. Elder people lost their friends and acquaintances, and 2 persons - their spouses. 8 persons experienced deep and enduring depressive reaction, in 7 persons this reaction was of lesser intensity. Most of the examined persons believed that they had no influence on their or other people's survival. The most important factors that helped them survive were: their will to live and survive,(14) the received help and support,(13) and the desire to save someone close.(14) No one expressed the opinion that it was vengeance that helped them survive; neither did they mention religious values as important for survival. The experiences that were most difficult emotionally were: fear,(14) humiliation,(8) boredom,(8) no chance to move freely,(6) and awareness of "bad" appearance.(5) Besides, as emotionally difficult factors 3 persons mentioned the change of formal identity and 3 persons - sense of alienation. Majority of the group did not identify themselves with the image of a Jew as imposed by the invaders. The moment of regaining freedom is well-preserved in the memory of the examined persons. 12 persons state that they experienced joy, 5 persons reacted with the sensation of absurdity, one person felt vengeance, and in another one the feeling of guilt was dominating. On the day of liberation most persons were uncared for,(15) later 9 persons found some relatives and only 2 persons were included in the international care programme. After the war 15 persons started or continued school education. The decision of remaining in Poland was independently made by most of the examined persons.(13) 4 persons made this decision influenced by their families. All started to search for the lost members of their families. Most of them sought the places with which they were emotionally linked in the pre-war period. [Page 3 of 4] References 5. Gampel, Y.: Some Reflections on Counter-Transference in Psychoanalytical Work with Shoah Survivors, University of Tel Aviv, manuscript. 8. Kepinski, A.: Oswiecimskie refleksje psychiatry (A Psychiatrist's Auschwitz Reflections), Przeglad Lekarski, 1964, 1, 7-9. 11. Lesniak, R.: Poobozowe zmiany osobowosci bylych wiezniow obozu koncentracyjnego Oswiecim-Brzezinka (Post-camp Changes in Personalities of Former Prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp), Przeglad Lekarski, 1965, 1, 13-20. 12. Nathan, T.S.: Inter-generational Impact of Parental Life Stress, paper presented at the Third International Conference on Psychological Stress and Adjustment in Time of War and Peace, Tel Aviv, 1983. 13. Orwid, M.: Socjo-psychiatryczne nastepstwa pobytu w obozie koncentracyjnym Oswiecim-Brzezinka (Socio-psychiatric Effects of Imprisonment in the Auschwtz-Birkenau Concentration Camp), Przeglad Lekarski, 1964, 1, 17-23. 14. Rudnicki, A.: Zywe i martwe morze (Living and Dead Sea), Ksiazka i Wiedza, Warszawa, 1992. 15. Stoffels, H. (ed.): Schicksale der Verfolgten, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Budapest, 1991.