Tilburg University An exploration of resilience in the generation after the holocaust Arjan, G. Publication date: 2012 Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Arjan, G. (2012). An exploration of resilience in the generation after the holocaust: Implications for secondary inheritors of trauma, displacement and disastrous events. [s.n.]. 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Download date: 24. sep. 2021 AN EXPLORATION OF RESILIENCE IN THE GENERATION AFTER THE HOLOCAUST: IMPLICATIONS FOR SECONDARY INHERITORS OF TRAUMA, DISPLACEMENT AND DISASTROUS EVENTS Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan Tilburg University op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. Ph. Eijlander, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in zaal DZ 1 van de Universiteit op donderdag 14 juni 2012 om 14.15 uur door Gitta Arjan geboren op 23 November 1946 te Wasserburg am Inn, Duitsland. Promotor: Prof. dr. J.B. Rijsman Promotiecommissie: Prof. dr. E. Epstein Prof. dr. D. Fried-Schnitman Dr. L.J. Meyer Dr. Y. Tal AN EXPLORATION OF RESILIENCE IN THE GENERATION AFTER THE HOLOCAUST: IMPLICATIONS FOR SECONDARY INHERITORS OF TRAUMA, DISPLACEMENT AND DISASTROUS EVENTS BY GITA (BAACK) ARJAN BURDENED CHILDREN/ BELASTETE KINDER, PAUL KLEE, 1930 A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO TAOS INSTITUTE AND TILBURG UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (SOCIAL SCIENCE) 2012 DEDICATION This work is to memorialize my brother Henush Arjan who was murdered at age four under the authority of the Nazi régime. 1 Located on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, it is entrusted - יד - Memorial pin: Yad Vashem 1 with preserving the memory of the Holocaust and passing on its legacy. A unique emblem was designed to symbolize Yad Vashem’s message - Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future. The barbed wire stem recalls the pain and trauma of the Holocaust, while the leaves stemming from the wire symbolize the rebirth and hope that emerged in the wake of this unparalled tragedy. Page i This work is to honour and memorialize my sister Helena Arjan who was murdered at age 3 under the authority of the Nazi régime. This work is is to honour and memorialize their, mother Hela Arjan, my father’s first wife, who was murdered under the authority of the Nazi régime. Page ii This work is to honour and memorialize my grandparents, Moishe and Shayna Alperowicz and Gitel Arjan as well as their parents, and all my lost relatives whose graves and life records are non-existant. This work is dedicated to my indomitable mother, Leja/Laika Alperowicz-Arjan and my devoted father, Zalman/Zygmunt/Sam Arjan. They learned to speak six languages, played cards with zest and taught me to laugh and cry for no reason. My brother, Moishe (Morrie) and me, my father and mother in Israel, after the war. This work is also dedicated to Fela Burman-Wajcer, Holocaust survivor and my second, highly spirited mother, and co-author, with her son, Simon Wajcer of “So You Can Tell: Prisoner 48378 Auschwitz”. A special dedication goes to my children, Alexander and Natalie Baack; my daughter in law, Hillary Baack; my grandchildren Finley and Nikolai (Niko) Baack, my future grandchildren; my brother Morrie Arian and his son and my nephew, Elias Arjan; and my cousin Moshe Schachter. I hope this discourse will help you to create forms of resilience of your own. This is also a hopeful search for my grandfather’s family. He traveled to the U.S. before the war. My father, Zygmunt Arjan and his mother did not join him as she did not think her mother, Beila Arjan, could survive the journey and, of course it was unthinkable then, to leave her mother. And so my father was raised under his mother’s name. My grandfather’s name was either Izik Herskovitz or Aaron Koretz (strange but unfortunately I don’t know his name for sure). I am also looking for the family of my great aunt, Regina Seligman, in California and the children of her son Hymie Seligman. A dedication goes out to my cohort of 600,000 children, born to the survivors of the Holocaust. I would like to say to this generation, we are now adults and living all Page iii over the world; we may not know each other but we are intimately connected. We were given life and an obligation to bear witness. We were given a task to remind the world of the Holocaust in order to prevent hatred anywhere in the world. That is not to say that we don’t have the right to live our own lives, free of the horrors of our past. Certainly, the task of freeing ourselves from the Holocaust is not an easy one; but we deserve it and the task will be easier with the help of others who can hear us. “We are each of us angels with only one wing. And we can only fly embracing each other.” Luciando De Crescenzo via Leo Buscaglia Page iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have been offered a gift by Taos Institute/Tilburg University when I was given the venue to write a dissertation on the generation after the Holocaust. Dr. John Rijsman, my thesis advisor, and past Dean of Social Studies, Tilburg University, offered me the freedom to be a creator of a discourse, who, like a visual artist, explores the layers within and creates a work of art for others to see their own layers within. He encouraged me to use the act of writing as an act of sense-making. It was his vision and deep understanding of what I needed in order to explore this personal subject, that led me to use this discourse as an instrument of reflection, emerging from my heart, mind, body and soul and from the spirit of my ancestors. Marij Bouwmans, who served as a collaborative coach and part of my reflective choir, provided me with her gifts of wisdom, heart and artistic sensibility throughout. She pointed out that in the asking of the question: “what is resilience?” and in the act of this writing, as well as in the act of conversing with people about this question -- all of these -- are constructions of resilience. She encouraged me to embrace my creativity and to follow the provocative image of Paul Klee’s drawing, “Burdened Children” which led me to unexpected and creative insights. Mary Gergen started me off on this journey and showed me the path of Autoethnography, a methodology that so perfectly suited this scholarly and personal quest. A special thanks to Quynh-Tram H. Nguyen, a fellow Ph.D. candidate, who has been a source of knowledge and a kindred spirit, and who always understood, validated and provided insight into the emotions elicited and the thoughts generated during this study. I acknowledge the generous hearts and creative minds of the voices of: Dialogues and Conversations Judith Maier (Tel Aviv) John Dione Kathi Bailey (Mntl) Leah Meshulam (Tel Aviv) Danielle Silverman Bella Friedman (Mntl) Pnina Felder (Tel Aviv) Pamela Schreiner Abigail Hirsch (Mntl) Judy Bailey (Herziliyah) Gabriella Nagy Sylvia Sklar (Mntl) Billie Laniado (Tel Aviv) Linda Watt Yossi Tal (Tel Aviv) Morris Schachter (my cousin) Frances Kirson Itzik Lichtenfeld (Tel Aviv) Morris Arian (my brother) Mary Canty Merrill Esther M. (Tel Aviv) Fellow Travellers Margot Cameron Dov Spiegler (Tel Aviv) Margot Brink Laurie Cardinal Page 1 ABSTRACT This dissertation began with the motivation to help build an understanding of resilience as demonstrated by the second generation children of Holocaust survivors by exploring the question: How is it that the members of a generation that have been brought up under the shadow of the Holocaust and its losses, are able to not only to get on with their lives, but to be successful and helpful and compassionate with their fellow human beings”? Other questions emerged during the course of the research offering the possibility to universalize this discussion and give meaning to 2nd Geners who have inherited the guilt and sorrow from all sides of the Holocaust: the perpetrators; the bystanders; the collaborators; the resistors, the rescuers, or the partisans; as well as 2nd Generation children and adults affected by other devastating events: Native Americans; Korean, Dutch, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, Egyptian people including Sephardic Jewish people (includes displaced Jewish people from Iraq, Morocco, Egypt, Iran, Africa, Yemen). This led to two additional questions: How can other 2nd Geners affected by the all sides all of the Holocaust, the perpetrators, collaborators, bystanders, neighbours give meaning to their legacy for the sake of their inheritors? Globally, how can successive generations affected by trauma, displacement and devastation get on with their lives and be successful, helpful and compassionate? Finally, I had a deeply personal question and that was to explore a felt memory I have carried in my back since childhood that might explain how my siblings died under the Nazi régime.