Silence et reconnaissance sociale dans le processus de reconstruction d’anciens enfants juifs cachés

Abstract

BackgroundDuring World War II, many hidden Jewish children survived the Nazi occupation by hiding under false identities, in most cases separated from their parents. After the war, these children were not considered as survivors of the Holocaust and their suffering was often not recognized. Consequently, their experiences were ignored in many narratives of the Holocaust, and this until the end of the 1980s. ObjectivesThis study aims to explain the long lasting silence of former hidden Jewish children and to understand what later made them communicate about their experiences related to World War II. MethodsWe have collected and analyzed 60 life narratives of former hidden Jewish children in order to understand this phenomenon. These people were between 65 and 78 years old when they were interviewed. ResultsWe highlight that cognitive immaturity, psychic sideration, the uncertainty of certain memories, the over-adaptation to the environment and other defensive mechanisms, as well as the absence of social acknowledgment, permit to understand this specific destiny of an early trauma. In the experience of hidden Jewish children trauma is associated with a lack of understanding and a lack of integration of traumatic events. Their young age and the fact of being considered as “lucky” in comparison to other Holocaust survivors reinforced an emotional and representative freezing in the psyche of these children and young adolescents. Psychic freezing is related to their inability to integrate their past and to share it on a collective level. Moreover, their uncertainties in regard to their childhood memories have discouraged them to speak about the past and they lacked backup from the environment to do so; a child though needs the help of an adult in order to understand traumatic events. The over-adaptation to the environment and the fact that often they continued to hide their Jewish identity in adulthood contributed to the maintenance of silence. Furthermore, the lack of social acknowledgement of their trauma and the maintenance of defensive mechanisms impeded the social sharing of their experiences. In the case of hidden children, the narration of a story – that can be told, shared and symbolized – has been impaired by these factors. ConclusionThe experience of hidden Jewish children highlights the importance of social acknowledgement as a condition for sharing traumatic memories, emotions and the recovery of frozen psychic processes. Social acknowledgement has eventually led to a personal recognition of trauma and to the construction of a collective memory. Social acknowledgment of their trauma, projective identification with their grand-children, the desire to transmit their past, aging and the concept of deferred action can explain the resurgence of childhood memories and the sharing of their experiences after decades of silence. These factors often induced a better understanding and a process of symbolization of what had happened to them. If social sharing led to a revival of trauma, it also provided collective support to elaborate the past.