Children Surviving Persecution

This international study of children's experiences of organized persecution, explores the Holocaust and its aftermath as prototypical social trauma. Traumatized persons' feelings of shame and guilt as well as a sense of being different may prevail, and they may attribute great power to others, seek safety in isolation, or search for a rescuer. Nevertheless, as a group, the child survivors of the Holocaust have achieved remarkable success as adults.

Drawing on the wealth of personal and interview information, the contributors create a synthesis of personal history and psychological analysis. Adult memories of traumatic childhood experiences are accompanied by discussions of their effects and by analysis of the various coping mechanisms used to establish a viable post-war existence. These accounts are distinguished by the fact that they are by and about individuals who grew up in undistinguished Christian and Jewish families; not those of prominent figures or resistance fighters or rescuers. All experienced unrest and many suffered trauma during the Nazi regime, as a result of the war, and during the post-war turbulence. An important collection for students and scholars of the Holocaust and for those professionals in a position to help surviving victims of other organized persecution, civil violence, strife, and abuse.

JUDITH S. KESTENBERG was cofounder and director of the International Study of Organized Persecution of Children. Dr. Kestenberg published extensively on the topic including Children During the Nazi Reign, with Eva Fogelman (Praeger, 1994).

CHARLOTTE KAHN is a psychoanalyst in private practice. Dr. Kahn has taught at several psychoanalytic training institutes and was an Associate Professor and Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Syracuse University and Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, City College, City University of New York. She has published numerous articles on stress, shame, guilt and other topics.