The ties that bind: Holocaust narrative, Jewish identity, and resilience

As mental health clinicians, we are faced with an overwhelming presentation of trauma in our clients. If this trauma is left untreated, it may be transmitted to the survivor's offspring, and even to their grandchildren years later. This phenomenon was not completely understood until the years following World War II, when familial and communal trauma on a vast scale were seen in Jewish families of survivors. Now that the grandchildren of these survivors have reached adulthood, renewed interest in this population has come up as psychologists seek to understand the nature of secondary and tertiary traumatization amongst those whose ancestors lived through unspeakable horrors.;As we learn more about this intergenerational transmission of trauma, what becomes important is an understanding of how the effects can be counteracted. Resilience serves as a buffer to trauma, and this dissertation examined factors that might build resilience in the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, effectively helping them to overcome the burden of their family's past. The strength and frequency of Holocaust narrative and the subjects' Jewish identity were variables of interest in this dissertation; they were examined together and independently to determine if either had a significant impact on resilience. This study hypothesized that increased family communication around the Holocaust paired with a strong, positive Jewish identity would contribute to increased resilience in grandchildren of survivors. Results indicated that while family narrative and communication appeared to play a negligible role in the development of resilience, participants with a stronger Jewish identity were more likely to exhibit signs of resilience than their more weakly identified peers.