Returning to the Fire: Surviving the Holocaust and “Going Back”

Abstract

This paper examines the multiply determined factors in Holocaust survivors who return to their native countries and sites of persecution. Citing material from archived interviews and consultations with a gravely ill survivor, as well as published accounts from others, the author explores historical, cultural, and psychodynamic dimensions. Intrapsychic, developmental, and traumatic aspects are considered, such as the fantasy of reunion with the lost maternal object, unresolved grief, the repetition compulsion, attempts at mastery, and the use of counterphobic or hypomanic defenses. This constellation of factors is seen in the context of the “Jewish” premium on remembering and the political realities of post war Europe. The role of the “Second Generation” in assisting the survivor parents in the working through process is also emphasized.