This study assessed how Jewish Israeli young adults perceive the impacts of the Holocaust on themselves, their family and Israel society. The written responses of 180 respondents, 90 of which were grandchildren of Holocaust survivors (GHSs) and 90 which are not grandchildren of survivors (NGHSs), connected the Holocaust with issues of security, education and culture, and the impact, or lack of it, on family and self. These responses also suggest that NGHS relate to the Holocaust only through sociocultural mechanisms and that GHSs are influenced by the same sociocultural mechanisms, yet are also divided by the perceived impact of intergenerational processes on their personal and family lives. The overall results of the study suggest that regardless of family connection to the Holocaust, in Israel there are sociocultural mechanisms at work that impact the perception of the Holocaust on the third generation of Holocaust survivors as a cultural trauma.
Alexander, J.C. (2004). Toward a theory of cultural trauma. In J. C. Alexander, R. Eyerman , B. Giesen, N. J. Smelser, & P. Sztompka (Eds.), Cultural trauma and collective identity (pp. 1-30). Berkeley : University of California Press.
2.
Auron, Y. (1993). Jewish Israeli identity. Tel-Aviv , Israel: Sifriat Poalim (in Hebrew).
3.
Bar-On, D. (1995). Fear and hope. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.
4.
Bar-On, D., & Chaitin, J. (2001). Parenthood and the holocaust. Jerusalem, Israel: Yad Vashem.
5.
Bergmann, M., & Jucovy, M. (1982). Generations of the holocaust. New York: Basic Books.
6.
Bickerton, I.J., & Klausner, C.L. (2004). A concise history of the Arab-Israel conflict (4th ed.). Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
7.
Blumner, N. (2006, August 10). The Holocaust as stark reminder: Ethno-national identity, Diaspora and the ideological process(es) of memory. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Montreal Convention Center, Montreal, Quebec , Canada.
8.
Chaitin, J. (2002). Issues and interpersonal values among three generations in families of Holocaust survivors. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19, 385-408.
9.
Chaitin, J. (2003). Living with the past: Coping and value patterns in families of Holocaust survivors. Family Process, 42, 305-323.
10.
Danieli, Y. (1982). Families of survivors and the Nazi Holocaust: Some short and long term effects. In C. D. Spielberger, I. G. Sarason, & N. Milgram (Eds.), Stress and anxiety (Vol. 8, pp. 405-423). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
11.
Danieli, Y. (Ed.). (1998). International handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma. New York : Plenum Press.
12.
Elon, A. (1981). The Israelis: Founders and sons (New ed.). Tel Aviv, Israel: Adam.
13.
Herman, S.H., Peres, Y., & Yuchtman, E. (1965). Reactions to the Eichmann trial in Israel: A study of high involvement. Scripta Hierosolymitana, 14, 98-119.
14.
Hever, H. (2006). The transgenerational transmission of Holocaust trauma to third generation female adolescents: The contribution of attachment dimensions, internal maternal representations mental health and empathy towards mother and grandmother figures to coping with the journey to Poland. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
15.
Kellerman, N.P.E. (2001). Psychopathology in children of Holocaust survivors: A review of the research literature. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 38(1), 36-46.
16.
Lazar, A., Chaitin, J., Gross, T., & Bar-On, D. (2004). Jewish Israeli teenagers, national identity, and the lessons of the Holocaust. Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 18, 188-204.
17.
Liebman, C.S., & Don-Yehiya, E. (1983). Civil religion in Israel-Traditional Judaism and political culture in the Jewish state. Berkeley : University of California Press.
18.
Litvak-Hirsch, T., & Bar-On, D. (2006). To rebuild life: A longitudinal study of the influences of the Holocaust on the following generations. Family Process, 45, 465-483.
19.
Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative content analysis. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(2) [Online journal] . Retrieved November 15, 2007http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/2-00/2-00mayring-e.htm
20.
Rakover, S. (1997). HaShoha VeHaMedina: Aimet HaKilayoin [The Holocaust and the state: The horror of destruction]. Dapin LeCheker Tekufat HaShoa, 14, 21-49 (in Hebrew).
21.
Ram, U. (2007). The globalization of Israel: Macworld in Tel Aviv, Jihad in Jerusalem. New York: Routledge .
22.
Rosenthal, G. (Ed.). (1998). The Holocaust in three generations: Families of victims and perpetrators of the Nazi regime. London: Kassel .
23.
Scharf, M. (2007). Long-term effects of trauma: Psychosocial functioning of the second and third generation of Holocaust survivors. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 603-622.
24.
Smelser, N.J. (2004). Psychological trauma and cultural trauma. In J. C. Alexander, R. Eyerman, B. Giesen, N. J. Smelser, & P. Sztompka (Eds.), Cultural trauma and collective identity (pp. 31-59). Berkeley: University of California Press.
25.
Solomon, Z. (1998). Transgenerational effects of the Holocaust. In Y. Danieli (Ed.), International handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma (pp. 69-83). New York: Plenum Press.
26.
Trigano, S. (2004). Kaasher HaSepharadim Pagsho et HaAshkenazim: Lev HaVicuach al HaZehut HaSepheradit ben HaDoglim Be"Am HeYehidi" LeVen HaTomchim Ba"Uma HaYisralit" [When Sephardim met Ashkenazim the heart of the debate on Sephardi identity: Supporting "Jewish nation" versus supporting "Israeli nation"]. Kivunim HaDashim, 11, 90-95 (in Hebrew).
27.
van IJzendoorn, M.H., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J., & Sagi-Schwartz, A. (2003). Are children of Holocaust survivors less well-adapted? A meta-analytic investigation of secondary traumatization . Journal of Traumatic Stress, 16, 459-469.
28.
Vardi, D. (1990). Nerot Zikaron [Memorial candles]. Jerusalem, Israel: Keter (in Hebrew).
29.
Volkan, D.V. (2001). Transgenerational transmissions and chosen traumas: An aspect of large-group identity. Group Analysis, 34(1), 79-97.
30.
Zafran, A., & Bar-Tal, D. (2003). Holocaust memory and its implications for peace process: The influence of fear and self-image as a victim on the Israeli security beliefs. In M. Al-Haj & U. Ben-Eliezer (Eds.), In the name of security: The sociology of peace and war in Israel in changing times (pp. 329-367). Haifa, Israel: HaifaUniversity Press (in Hebrew).
