Making Sense of the Past—Perspectives on Resilience Among Holocaust Survivors

Abstract

The concept of “survivor guilt” has come into increasingly widespread use over the past four decades. However, there has been almost no research on the resolution of moral dilemmas following exposure to severe trauma. The present study employed qualitative analyses of five testimonies of holocaust survivors to explore moral dilemmas and their resolution. In all five testimonies, survivors discussed a discrepancy between their behaviors prior to the war and after the war in contrast to their behaviors during the war. Remaining human in the face of dehumanizing experiences was described as a major struggle in all five testimonies. Ways of resolving this discrepancy varied, with some survivors willingly acknowledging its presence and others denying it. In all cases reviewed, however, the discrepancy continued to exist even five decades after the Holocaust.