Abstract
Some 50 years after the Nazi Holocaust, a group of descendants from the two sides—the survivors and the Third Reich perpetrators—established One by One, Inc. and developed the Dialogue Group, a facilitated group process model for participants to disclose Holocaust related family histories in one another’s presence. These participants were willing to listen to each other despite preconceived ideas about the other side that have echoed through the generations of their families. Descendants of victims spoke emotionally about terrible losses, humiliation, and displacement. Descendants of perpetrators struggled to integrate their family members’ past behaviors with the experiences of them as beloved relatives and to acknowledge their own shame or guilt as Germans. In the group, members confronted and challenged stereotypes about “the other” as they heard real stories. Many have since spoken publicly about their experiences or worked together against prejudice and injustice.
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