Kinder der Opfer—Kinder der Täter: Psychoanalyse und Holocaust (review)

Book Reviews 207 Kinder der Opfer-Kinder der Tater: Psychoanalyse und Holocaust, edited by Martin S. Bergmann, Milton E. Jucovy, and Judith S. Kestenberg, with Gennan translation by Elisabeth Vorspohl. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 1995. 425 pp. The problematic psychological dynamics of personal survival after horrifying assaults on the self and on the accustomed supportive social constructs are subsumed under the rubric ofpost-traumatic stress disorder, particularly if the reactive symptoms lead to persistent psychopathology. That such trauma can transcend the generational boundary between survivors and their children has been addressed in a number of case studies ofHolocaust survivors and their families. Kinder der Opfer-Kinder der Tater is an updated Gennan translation of Generations of the Holocaust by Bergmann and Jucovy, first published by Basic Books in 1982 and in a revised edition by Columbia University Press in 1990, which reviews both anecdotal psychoanalytic case findings and their theoretical bases to explain the emotional struggles and symptom fonnation in Holocaust survivors and the transmission of their pain to offspring. The contributors to this work are affiliated with the "Group for the Psychoanalytic Study of the Effect of the Holocaust on the Second Generation." All substantive content except Chapter 13 by lise Grubrich-Simitis is adapted from the original English version, although a modified version of her contribution appeared in the 1984 volume of the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. A Foreword byJudith Kestenberg to this Gennan edition and a lengthy introduction by Bergmann and Jucovy justify the republication on the basis of perceiving the Holocaust a part of both Jewish and Gennan history. Although the comparison of the Nazis' impact on the children of the victims and ofthe victimizers awakens a sense of resentment, the differences and surprising similarities in psychological disturbances are deserving of scientific inquiry. The ways and means in which people give expression to the Holocaust experience and the manner in which it is utilized as metaphor for existential meaning remain a challenge to further investigation . Several of the clinician contributors describe the experience of survivors' helplessness and inability to protect themselves from the threats to their existence as an ongoing nightmare which they communicate symbiotically to their children. Presumably, the unconscious wish is to see the children master a trauma, if only metaphorically, that is unresolvable for the parents. Other interpretations point to the need for a symbolic rebirth of those who were lost during the Holocaust so that children born 208 SHOFAR Spring 1996 Vol. 14, No.3 after the war represent both a victory over the destroyer and a memorial reminder of the losses. That this burdens some children who are thereby hindered in forming a less encumbered sense ofselfand whose perception of a diminished parental ego ideal complicates the identification process with parents cannot be denied. In Chapter 3,Judith Kestenberg argues that the observed difference in outcome among survivor families does not allow for a universal prediction ofa survivor syndrome in the second generation. Indeed, some symptoms can be considered a sign of strength. Survivors also can pass on to their children the positive experience at the hands of the family oforigin as well as the subsequent devastating life events. Thus, the survivor complex has the power to influence children in both positive and negative ways. The post-traumatic adjustment depends on a number of critical factors, according to James Herzog, as outlined in Chapter 4. For example, the pre-traumatic personality, the stages of life in which disruptions occurred, the available sources of support during imprisonment, the nature of the trauma, the relationship to lost family members, the capacity to lead a double existence, the ability to retain one's values, and the utilization of fantasy to sustain the self tend to influence the rehabilitative phase with regard to achieving a more or less secure adaptation. As for the effect on children, two types of survivor parents' communication patterns may have different consequences in symptom expression. On the one hand, those parents who remain mute about their Holocaust experience do not allow the child to decode the sense of mystery which surrounds the past and which is likely to impede the development of a healthy identity. On the other...