Suzanne
Kaplan: Children in the Holocaust. Dealing with affects and memory images
in trauma and generational linking
The purpose of the thesis that form the basis for this presentation is
to find indicators for and to analyze psychological phenomena that appear
in life histories recounted by Jewish survivors who were themselves children
during the Holocaust. For this purpose I have maintained a close proximity
to the data and used the method emerging 'grounded theory'. I have followed
in detail the content of the life histories recounted by those interviewed
as well as the way in which they have recounted their memories. The research
questions have concerned children's experiences of persecution such as
they are described in the adults' memories as well as the adults' ways
of coming to terms with recurring memory images from massive trauma.
Forty survivors have told about their experiences as children in videorecorded
interviews conducted by the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation,
whose goal is to record the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other
witnesses and through the educational use of these overcome prejudice
and intolerance. Follow-up interviews have been carried out with 28 of
the child survivors within the framework of this research project. A total
of 68 interviews have been analyzed.
The core process, to which most of the clues in the life histories seem
to be linked, is built up of two core concepts and the dynamics between
them. I have designated these as generational tearing apart and generational
linking. The research work has proceeded in stages and is presented chronologically
in three parts in the thesis. Part I is entitled 'Generational tearing
apart' and consists of the pilot study, 'Child survivors and childbearing
- memories from the Holocaust that invade the present'. Part II is entitled
'Generational tearing apart and generational linking'. It is an extended
study of what is said in the interviews about experiences of persecution
under Nazism. A preliminary conceptual model has functioned as the analytical
tool.
Part III is entitled 'From conceptual model to theory'. Here the focus
is on the interview situation and I discuss how memories are recalled,
partly through the presentation of an intensive study, 'Two boys and one
event', and partly through the presentation of the emerging theory that
is based on how the interviewees deal with affects. An expanding conceptual
model functions here as the analytical tool. Finally, I make a comparison
between the concepts emerging in this study and the theoretical concepts
in contemporary theory-formation.
The analysis can serve as an important basis for understanding other children
affected by extreme traumatization. The conclusions presented can assist
health care professionals who deal with similar traumatizing processes
today and in the future.
Key words: Children, massive trauma, life history, memory images, affects, psychic space, self-image
Suzanne Kaplan, Norrbackagatan 22, 113 41 Stockholm
