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This article explores the psycho-social space between autobiographical and collective memory concerning massive social traumas. It is conceptualized that there is a third type of memory image, termed “my-their.” Individuals appear to “remember” autobiographical memories of elder family members, even though they could not, either because they were born after the trauma happened or because the autobiographers were extremely young at the time of the experience. These emotional “memories” furthermore connect to collective memories of social traumas of ethnic/national groups. Examples from memories of the Holocaust and al Naqba are examined. Furthermore, the roles that “my-their” memory images can play in peace building and reconciliation are discussed.

A largely neglected area of study in the field of trauma and its effects is the way a collective trauma of a majority group influences a minority group that lives in the same region. Such an investigation is especially relevant within the context of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict concerning the Holocaust—the defining trauma of Jewish Israelis. This pilot study focused on the thoughts, feelings, and interpretations concerning the Holocaust of 56 young adults, Palestinian citizens in Israel. The semi-structured questionnaires and interviews demonstrate that the young adults express an inherent conflict when dealing with the Holocaust—one that emanates from the tension that exists between universalistic and particularistic interpretations of the Holocaust within the Palestinian narrative. At the universalistic end of the continuum, the Holocaust is acknowledged as a crime against humanity; whereas, at the particularistic end of the continuum, the Holocaust is interpreted through political lenses of the Isr...

This study assessed how Jewish Israeli young adults perceive the impacts of the Holocaust on themselves, their family and Israel society. The written responses of 180 respondents, 90 of which were grandchildren of Holocaust survivors (GHSs) and 90 which are not grandchildren of survivors (NGHSs), connected the Holocaust with issues of security, education and culture, and the impact, or lack of it, on family and self. These responses also suggest that NGHS relate to the Holocaust only through sociocultural mechanisms and that GHSs are influenced by the same sociocultural mechanisms, yet are also divided by the perceived impact of intergenerational processes on their personal and family lives. The overall results of the study suggest that regardless of family connection to the Holocaust, in Israel there are sociocultural mechanisms at work that impact the perception of the Holocaust on the third generation of Holocaust survivors as a cultural trauma.

In spite of the fact that the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred nearly 60 years ago, there has been very little psychosocial research on the long-term effects of these unprecedented nuclear attacks on its victims. In this qualitative study, we use psychosocial literature from the Holocaust in order to help understand the effects of this man-made tragedy. We analyzed semi-structured interviews taken with 8 survivors of the bombs--5 from Nagasaki and 3 from Hiroshima. Our research questions were: When the survivors talk about their experiences, what do they focus on and with what are they preoccupied? What can we learn about the long-term effects of the experiences from both psychological and physical aspects? And, where does the A-bomb experience "fit" into the survivors' lives? Our analyses showed that there were 9 main themes that emerged from the interviews that could be grouped into two main categories--themes connected to the experience itself and themes connected to life afterward. We discuss the implications of these themes on the personal, social, and cultural levels and offer suggestions concerning ideas for dealing with the trauma.

Considering the immense efforts invested in Holocaust education in Israel and around the world, there is very little published research which looks at the impact of this education on teenagers' modes of understanding. This qualitative study addressed two questions: When adolescents learn about the Holocaust, what are the themes they see as central to an understanding of it? And, do these issues remain stable during the learning period? Forty‐seven Jewish‐Israeli teenagers (33 girls, 14 boys) were asked to write about their thoughts, feelings and attitudes about the Holocaust, both before and after participation in a Holocaust seminar that included a trip to Poland. The most salient themes that they wrote about at both time periods were: learning about the Holocaust, the evaluative theme, emotions, the link between the Holocaust and Israel and the Holocaust as the most horrific world event. We found little stability of thematic frequency and some stability in thematic meaning. Our results also show that th...

��� This article examines the attitudes of a group of Jewish Israeli adolescents who participated in a Holocaust seminar that included an optional trip to related sites in Poland. The authors sought to determine whether youth who participate in such a seminar still consider Jewish Israeli identity important, which lessons of the Holocaust they value, and whether belonging to a survivor’s family makes a difference when considering these lessons. The results show that, regardless of participation in the trip and affiliation with Holocaust survivors, the youth hold a strong sense of Jewish Israeli national identity and tend to support Jewish and Zionist lessons more than universalistic ones, although a complex interplay exists between identity and those lessons. Adolescents whose family members included survivors connected a more “power-oriented” interpretation of the Holocaust to a strong sense of national identity; participants not related to survivors developed a more complex frame of reference that combined both power-oriented and humanistic lessons of the Holocaust. Researchers working inside and outside Israel have studied empirically the issues of Israeli identity and the “lessons of the Holocaust.” The topics, though separate, are closely linked, scholars have pointed out. To date, however, few efforts have been made to assess how and if belonging to a family of Holocaust survivors affects the lessons learned and the sense of national identity. In this article, we look at this threeway connection by beginning with a review of literature on Holocaust education within Israel and on lessons of the Holocaust. We then turn to the topic of national identity within Jewish Israeli society and a short review of the literature to date on the “third generation”—the grandchildren of the survivors—before presenting our research results.

This exploratory study looks at how families of Holocaust survivors work through the traumatic past by considering the coping patterns adapted by family members. Life-story interviews (Rosenthal, 1993) with 57 individuals from 20 families, in which there were two to three generations, were used in order to learn about the significance they attach to the Holocaust past. The interviews were analyzed using Rosenthal's methods and Danieli's (1988) typology of post-war adaptation (victim families, fighter families, those who made it, and numb families). Results showed that in order to differentiate between the coping styles exhibited by the families, two new categories had to be added to Danieli's typology. These were entitled "life goes on" and "split families." It was concluded that survivor families exhibit heterogeneity in the ways in which they cope with the Holocaust past.

This article examines psychosocial aspects of family/parent-child relationships during the Holocaust by focusing on the emotional memories of such relationships. Global and thematic analyses were undertaken on 93 life story interviews and testimonies with Holocaust survivors. Results showed that survivors who lived through most of the war with parents/family and those who had lived approximately an equal time with loved ones and without them were able to recall and narrate more emotional memories, both positive and negative, than people who had experienced the traumatic period mostly on their own. However, going through the war with family did not guarantee the narration of emotional memories; close to half of these victims could not recall/narrate such memories. In general, when the survivor recalled relative emotional security, she or he felt safe, even when physical danger was imminent. However, this feeling did not always continue when the physical situation worsened or when the survivor was separated...

This study looks at how three generations in Israeli families of Holocaust survivors work through the past. Fifty-seven people (23 survivors, 22 from the second generation, and 12 from the third) from 20 families told their life stories. The interviews were analyzed for central themes and values. For all generations, family relationships and the emotional difficulty of dealing with the Holocaust were important. The survivors emphasized family cohesiveness and unity, but distrusted nonfamily members. Their children emphasized conflictual family relationships; for them, working through was connected to interpersonal family relationships. The grandchildren stressed both close family ties and conflict, but also emphasized the importance of teaching younger generations about the Holocaust. It was concluded that the working through process poses different problems for each generation.