Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Jewish (1939-1945) Psychological aspects'

This thesis compares the different trauma received at the three major hiding places for Jewish children in Belgium during the Holocaust: Christian establishments, private families, and Jewish orphanages. Jewish children hidden at Christian establishments received mainly religious trauma and nutritional, sanitary, and medical neglect. Hiding with private families caused separation trauma and extreme hiding situations. Children staying at Jewish orphanages lived with a continuous fear of being deported, because these institutions were under constant supervision of the German occupiers. No Jewish child survived their hiding experience without receiving some major trauma that would affect them for the rest of their life. This thesis is based on video interviews at Shoah Visual History Foundation and Blum Archives, as well as autobiographies published by hidden children.

I analyze the behavior of Jews imprisoned in the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau extermination camps in order to illustrate a systematic process of deception and psychological conditioning, which the Nazis employed during World War II to preclude Jewish resistance to the Final Solution. In Chapter I, I present resistance historiography as it has developed since the end of the war. In Chapter II, I delineate my own argument on Jewish behavior during the Final Solution, limiting my definition of resistance and the applicability of my thesis to behavior in the extermination camp, or closed, environment. In Chapters III, IV, and V, I present a detailed narrative of the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau revolts using secondary sources and selected survivor testimony. Finally, in Chapter VI, I isolate select parts of the previous narratives and apply my argument to demonstrate its validity as an explanation for Jewish behavior.

This work is a critical assessment of the role of neuropsychiatry in the management of aerial warfare. Focussing almost exclusively on the Second World War (1939-45), the thesis demonstrates how the Royal Air Force (RAF) mobilised specialist medical knowledge to improve wastage and combat efficiency in flying personnel. Neurological and psychiatric expertise was enlisted to improve service performance and reduce the burden of neuropsychiatric disorders. To meet these key objectives, the RAF neuropsychiatric division undertook important administrative and therapeutic duties in the areas of personnel selection, service discipline, neuropsychiatric research, and the treatment of mental disorders. The work therefore assesses how the division responded to these challenges and contributed to the management of aerial warfare. The thesis assesses the factors that shaped the practice of neuropsychiatry in the service. Historically, the training and personal interests of specialists and the context of therapeutic practice guided the development of mental health specialties. To gain a fuller appreciation of the administrative and therapeutic duties of the division, this work explores the medical, social, military, and professional factors that shaped neuropsychiatric thought and practice. Secondly, the work engages with the 'human element' of aerial combat. The physical and mental health of aircrew was fundamental to the conduct of the air war and underpinned the administrative decisions of the air force. It was the primary objective of the neuropsychiatric division to preserve and develop these vital human resources. Neuropsychiatric disorders represented a challenge to efficiency, for they could affect the performance and motivation of a flyer. The thesis will examine how the neuropsychiatric division attempted to sustain aircrew by preventing and treating the disorders that compromised their efficiency.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis takes Zygmunt Bauman’s book Modernity and the Holocaust as a point of departure in an attempt to show that genocides of the twentieth century are by-products of modernity, and not aberrations, as previously thought. Bauman’s work focuses on the distinctly modern nature of the Holocaust. Using the theory he develops in Modernity and the Holocaust, this thesis attempts to show, first and foremost, that the Holocaust is not the only example of modern genocide. By comparing and contrasting the Holocaust to another, more recent, genocide, namely the Rwandan genocide of 1994, it becomes clear that despite superficial differences between the two genocides, the Rwandan genocide is also a by-product of modernity. This conclusion has important implications, not only for the way in which we remember the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, but also for our understanding of evil and perpetrators of evil. Drawing on the work of Bauman and Hannah Arendt, especially with regard to the Eichmann case, chapter three investigates our traditional assumptions and expectations with regard to evil and perpetrators of evil and notes the unsettling differences between our assumptions and the modern reality. In order to truly understand the nature of perpetrators of modern genocide, it is important to look at the influence of morality on such perpetrators and the reasons why morality seems incompatible with modernity. In this regard, Haas’ book Morality after Auschwitz is of critical importance. Given the various failures and unexpected by-products of modernity, one has to wonder whether postmodernity would offer a better moral alternative to modernity. Chapter five investigates this supposition, and finds it wanting. Drawing yet again on Bauman, the notion of an ethics of responsibility is put forth as the only safeguard against modern evil.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis neem Zygmunt Bauman se boek Modernity and the Holocaust as ‘n beginpunt en probeer om te wys dat die volksmoorde van die twintigste eeu byprodukte, en nie afwykings, van moderniteit is nie. Bauman se werk fokus op die moderne eienskappe van die Holocaust. Deur gebruik te maak van die teorie wat hy in Modernity and the Holocaust ontwikkel, probeer hierdie tesis om, eerstens, te wys dat die Holocaust nie die enigste voorbeeld van ‘n moderne volksmoord is nie. Deur die Holocaust met ‘n ander, meer onlangse volksmoord, die Rwandese volksmoord van 1994, te vergelyk en te kontrasteer word dit duidelik dat ten spyte van die oppervlakkige verskille tussen die twee volksmoorde, die Rwandese volksmoord ook ‘n byproduk van moderniteit is. Hierdie gevolgtrekking het belangrike implikasies nie net vir die manier waarop ons die Holocaust en die Rwandese volksmoord onthou nie, maar ook vir die wyse waarop ons die kwaad (evil) en perpetrators of evil1 verstaan. Deur verder gebruik te maak van Bauman se werk sowel as die werk van Hannah Arendt, veral met betrekking tot die Eichmann saak, ondersoek hoofstuk drie ons tradisionele aannames en verwagtinge met betrekking tot die kwaad (evil) en perpetrators of evil en wys die onaangename verskille tussen ons aannames en die moderne realiteit uit. Ten einde werklik die aard van perpetrators van moderne volksmoord te verstaan, is dit belangirk om na die invloed van moraliteit op hierdie perpetrators of evil te kyk, asook die redes waarom moraliteit blykbaar teenstrydig is met moderniteit. Haas se belangrike boek, Morality after Auschwitz, word hier geraadpleeg. Gegewe die verskeie tekortkominge van moderniteit, moet ons wonder of postmoderniteit nie dalk ‘n beter morele alternatief bied nie. Hoofstuk vyf ondersoek hierdie stelling en vind dat postmoderniteit ook nie voldoende is nie. Laastens word Bauman weereens geraadpleeg en sy seining van ‘n etiek van verantwoordelikheid word voorgestel as die enigste beskerming teen moderne kwaad.
Harry Crossley Foundation

This thesis will highlight a number of traumatic memories chronologically in the history of this city. The Versailles Conference will be the beginning of the tale of these two cities in the first chapter, Danzig before 1945. The history of the interwar years reveals a severe rift between Poland and Weimar Germany over the Free city of Danzig. German memory would remember the city 's nazification, the invasion by Germany and even the relative safety during the war as traumatic through a general feeling that Nazism had been forced upon German Danzigers, resulting in their own versions of victimhood.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006.
Title from title screen. Jared Poley, committee chair; Alexandra Garbarini , Hugh Hudson, committee members. Electronic text (169 p.). Description based on contents viewed Apr. 30, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-169).

Museums today provide learning-rich experiences and quality informational resources through both physical and virtual environments. This study examined a Holocaust Museum traveling exhibition, Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust that was on display at the Art Center of Battle Creek, Michigan in fall 2005. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to assess the informational value of a Holocaust Museum exhibition in its onsite vs. online format by converging quantitative and qualitative data. Participants in the study included six eighth grade language arts classes who viewed various combinations or scenarios of the onsite and online Life in Shadows. Using student responses to questions in an online exhibition survey, an analysis of variance was performed to determine which scenario visit promotes the greatest content learning. Using student responses to additional questions on the same survey, data were analyzed qualitatively to discover the impact on students of each scenario visit. By means of an emotional empathy test, data were analyzed to determine differences among student response according to scenario visit. A principal finding of the study (supporting Falk and Dierking's contextual model of learning) was that the use of the online exhibition provided a source of prior orientation and functioned as an advanced organizer for students who subsequently viewed the onsite exhibition. Students who viewed the online exhibition received higher topic assessment scores. Students in each scenario visit gave positive exhibition feedback and evidence of emotional empathy. Further longitudinal studies in museum informatics and Holocaust education involving a more diverse population are needed. Of particular importance would be research focusing on using museum exhibitions and Web-based technology in a compelling manner so that students can continue to hear the words of survivors who themselves bear witness and give voice to silenced victims. When perpetuity of access to informational resources is assured, future generations will continue to be connected to the primary documents of history and cultural heritage.

Is there meaning in suffering or ts suffering only a soul-destroying experience from which nothing positive can emerge? In seeking to answer this question, a heuristic study was made of the experiences and views of the famous Auschwitz survivor, Viktor Frankl, supplemented by an exploration of the life-worlds of other Nazi concentration camp survivors. The underlying premise was that if meaning can be found in the worst sufferings imaginable, then meaning can be found in every other situation of suffering. Seeking to illuminate the views of Frankl and to gain a deeper grasp of the phenomenon of suffering, the theoretical and personal views of mainstream psychologists regarding the nature of man and the meaning of hi.~ sufferings were studied. Since the focus of this research was on the suffering of the Holocaust survivor, the Holocaust as the context of the present study, was studied as a crisis of meaning and as psychological adversity. In trying to establish the best way to gain entry into the life-world of the Holocaust survivor, the research methods employed in Holocaust survivor studies were reviewed and, for the purposes of this study, found wanting. The choice and employment of a heuristic method yielded rich data which illuminated the fact that, through a series of heroic choices Frankl, and the survivors who became research participants, could attain spiritual triumph in the midst of suffering caused by an evil and inhumane regime. Hitherto unexplored areas of psychological maturity were revealed by these heroes of suffering from which the following conclusions could be drawn: Man attains the peaks of moral excellence through suffering. Suffering can have meaning. Suffering can call us out of the moral apathy and mindlesness of mere existence. The Holocaust, one of the most tragic events in human history, contains, paradoxically, a challenge to humankind. Resisting the pressure to sink to the level of a brute fight for mere survival, Frankl and the research participants continued to exercise those human values important to them and triumphantly maintained their human dignity and self-respect. Evidence was provided that man has the power to overcome evil with good.
Psychology
D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Towards the end of the 1960s in France we witness the awakening of the memory of the Holocaust and the Occupation which coincides with the publication of Patrick Modiano’s first novel, La place de l’étoile. It is from this time that Jewish memory of the Holocaust begins to surface and we see the emergence of a literature of the post-Holocaust generation. Modiano belongs to this generation that, being deprived of a personal memory of the Holocaust, turns to this period in a quest for roots and identity. Like his Jewish colleagues, Modiano struggles to come to terms with a past that he has not experienced and an absence of memory. This dissertation analyses Modiano’s use of the period of the Holocaust as signifier of Jewish identity in four of his novels in order to highlight the role of the issue of Jewish identity in the construction of a textual identity
Vers la fin des années 60 on voit en France le réveil de la mémoire de la Shoah et de l’Occupation qui coïncide avec la publication du premier roman de Patrick Modiano, La place de l’étoile. C’est à partir de cette époque que la mémoire juive de la Shoah va pouvoir se faire entendre et qu’on constate l’émergence d’une littérature de la génération d’après la Shoah. Modiano appartient à cette génération qui, étant dépourvue d’une mémoire personnelle de la Shoah, se tourne vers cette période dans une quête de racines et d’identité. Comme ses confrères juifs, Modiano a du mal à se réconcilier avec un passé qu’il n’a pas vécu et une absence de mémoire. Cette étude examine de près le recours de Modiano aux années de la Shoah en tant que signifiant de l’identité juive dans quatre ouvrages afin de mettre en exergue le rôle de la problématique de l’identité juive dans la construction d’une identité textuelle chez cet écrivain
Linguistics and Modern Languages
M. A. (French)

The Holocaust represented humanities first confrontation with unparalleled destruction and evil unchecked. It continues to impact upon the lives of survivors, their children- the second generation- and generations thereafter. The study aimed to provide the second generation with a voice. Their roles within their respective family systems and the impact of the Holocaust upon them are explored. The theoretical framework is social constructionism. One-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted with three adults whose parent/s are survivors. The manner of analysis was `Hermeneutic.' The participants' narratives took the form of interview transcripts. These were analysed and themed by the researcher. Themes that repeated themselves were elaborated upon and later linked with the available literature. The researcher hopes that the dissertation will contribute to existing research on the multigenerational effects of trauma in relation to familial and individual roles and memory.
Psychology
M. A. (Clinical Psychology)

Bibliography: leaves 385-417.
x, 417 leaves : ill. (some col.), [1] col. map ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Documents and evaluates the experiences and life outcomes of a sample of WW2 veterans against a background of ideas about the neuroses of war, thereby examining the history of medical ideas about the psychological casualties of war, and the history of the lives of participants of war. The medical framework and social context that underpin the construction of war experience is critically examined in this thesis.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Public Health, 2000

Bibliography: leaves 385-417.
x, 417 leaves : ill. (some col.), [1] col. map ; 30 cm.
Documents and evaluates the experiences and life outcomes of a sample of WW2 veterans against a background of ideas about the neuroses of war, thereby examining the history of medical ideas about the psychological casualties of war, and the history of the lives of participants of war. The medical framework and social context that underpin the construction of war experience is critically examined in this thesis.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Public Health, 2000

My interest in the process and effects of the witnessing act guides the purpose of this study. Here, I initiate a deeper understanding of the vicarious witnessing experience from the perspective of the witnessing participant. My central question is: How do individuals make sense of vicariously witnessing trauma through narrative, visual, and evidence-based representations of traumatic events in the concentration camps of Europe? Vicarious witnessing begins with abstract representations of the event. The evidence is witnessed firsthand, but the event itself is represented through various perspectives such as photographic or artistic images, survivor stories, or physical remnants. Witnessing the evidence evokes a potent embodied experience, so that a person can make the statement, "I have imagined what another has experienced, hence I believe I know." It is through the imagination that a witness forms a picture of the trauma. Undoubtedly, there is immense power in meeting another's experience in the realm of imagination. Compassionate action and social justice is based in this area of human empathy. To best achieve my purpose, I use a narrative method that involves two types of analysis, interpretive readings and narrative instances, as an approach to understand the participant's experience of vicarious witnessing. Participants in this study construct three types of narrative texts-written, spoken, and visual. Each textual perspective shapes the meaning that the participant attempts to express. As a first level of analysis, interpretive readings of the texts include general, specific, visual, and relational readings. Secondly, through exploring the interaction between various parts of these texts, and between the texts themselves, I explore three types of narrative instances--single-text, intratextual, and intertextual. Each analysis of a narrative instance is matched specifically to each participant, and I believe, is uniquely adequate for understanding the experience of vicarious witnessing. My inquiry outlines how individuals make sense of vicariously witnessing trauma, clarifies the meaning that participants make of the vicarious witnessing experience, shows the risks and coping involved in vicarious witnessing, and presents the kinds of social action that vicarious witnessing evokes. In the field of counselling psychology, the witnessing experience is an important aspect of trauma theory that has been left unexplored by psychologists. My research enlarges the social and theoretical conversation concerning the vicarious witnessing experience.

v. 1 [Novel]: End of the night girl [Embargoed] -- v. 2 [Exegesis]: Navigating the kingdom of night: writing the holocaust
'End of the Night Girl': Nothing seems to go right for Molly – she’s stuck in a dead-end waitressing job, she’s sleeping with a man she doesn’t even like, and she’s just been saddled with a swarm of goldfish and a pregnant stepsister. The chance discovery of an old photograph leads her into an act of creation, and brings her into contact with the ghost of a woman who has been dead for more than sixty years. Sixty years earlier, in Poland, Gienia’s family arranges her marriage to a distant cousin. Not long after her marriage to this stranger, the Nazis invade and she has to face life in the ghetto and the horrors of Auschwitz. End of the Night Girl is a complex fictional narrative in which the lives of these two women, ‘real’ and imagined, imagined and re-imagined, are inextricably combined. ‘Navigating the Kingdom of Night’: Critics, historians and Holocaust survivors have argued for decades over whether the Holocaust should be accessible to fiction and, if so, who has the right to write those fictions. ‘Navigating the Kingdom of Night’ addresses such concerns and analyses various literary strategies adopted by authors of Holocaust fiction, including the non-realist narrative techniques used by authors such as Yaffa Eliach, Jonathan Safran Foer and John Boyne and the self-reflexivity of Art Spiegelman. Through the course of the essay I contextualise End of the Night Girl by turning my attention to works that raise critical issues of authorial intent and the reader/writer contract; for example Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird and Helen Darville’s The Hand That Signed the Paper. How did I resolve my own concerns? Which texts helped me and why? Together End of the Night Girl and ‘Navigating the Kingdom of Night’, one creatively and one critically, explore these complex and controversial questions in a contemporary Australian context.
Thesis(PhD)-- School of Humanities, 2007

Text in German, summaries in German and English
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-197)
In dieser Forschungsarbeit wird untersucht, ob und inwieweit transgenerationale Übertragungsprozesse als Folge von psychischen Traumata, welche Vertriebene in und nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg erlebten, heute noch bei Nachfahren in der Kriegsenkelgeneration eine Rolle spielen. Dabei wird unter anderem untersucht, wie sich das Ereignis der Vertreibung mit Blick auf psychische Traumata konkret auswirkte und zu welchen, auch heute noch spürbaren, Symptomen es geführt hat. Auf Grund der Symptome wurden in einer empirischen Untersuchung fünf sogenannte Kriegsenkel interviewt, um zu erfahren, wie Betroffene die Auswirkungen dieser Symptome im Alltag beschreiben und welche Rolle dabei geistliche Erfahrungen spielen. Die Ergebnisse dieser Interviews führen zum Abgleich der Thesen und sollen schlussendlich helfen, praktische Konsequenzen für die Seelsorgearbeit zu ziehen und eine Hilfestellung in der Problemdiagnose zu geben.
This thesis explores if and how transgenerational transfer processes which are a consequence of mental traumata of displaced people in and after World War II still play a role in the lives of their descendants in the generation of the “grandchildren of war”. For one thing it looks at how the event of forced displacement specifically has had an impact on mental traumata and which symptoms have resulted, that are still perceptible today. Based on the symptoms five of the so called “grandchildren of war” have been interviewed in an empirical survey, in order to find out how those affected describe the effects of these symptoms on their everyday lives and which is the role of spiritual experiences. The findings of these interviews are compared to the theses and finally, should help to draw practical conclusions for councelling and offer help to diagnose problems.
Practical Theology
M. Th. (Practical Theology)