The life stories of child survivors who rebuilt their post-war lives in Israel have been largely left untold. This work is the first exploration into the experience of child survivors in Israel, focusing on the child survivors’ experience in telling his/her past to a wider audience and in publicly identifying themselves as Holocaust survivors. … Whilst psychological research focuses on the survivor’s personal inhibitions and motivations in retelling his/her pasts, The Life Stories of Child Survivors in Israel attempts to understand the impact that the post-war environment has had on the individual’s relationship to it. Using a qualitative narrative approach, this study examines the dynamics of “silence” and “retelling” in the post-war experience of child survivors. This work demonstrates the ways in which social dynamics, as well as internal motivations, had an impact on the extent to which these people were likely to speak publicly about their war-time experience or whether they were more inclined to remain silent. … The interviews with survivors are presented “using their own voice”, and can thereby be understood in their own unique context. The result is a unique work that synthesizes social science fields as disparate as history and psychology. “An extremely honest and penetrating view of Holocaust child survivors, who live in Israel. In presenting their life narratives in their own voices, the author distinguishes four types of life-course development of these men and women, as to their attitudes towards telling their stories at present and in the past. She uses moving examples of complete life stories to demonstrate the different profiles and reactions. A fascinating and original study of the survivors and of society as it undergoes historical and cultural changes.” —Amia Lieblich, Professor of Psychology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and author of Tin Soldiers on Jerusalem Beach, and books about psychological aspects of Israeli society |
