JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS SUFFERING FROM TRAUMA AND MENTAL ILLNESS: APPROACHES IN POST WAR SYDNEY An Untold Story DEBORAH GREEN B. Soc. Stud. M.A. (History). A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies University of Sydney, December 2019. This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge the content of this thesis is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purpose. I certify the intellectual content is the product of my work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and identifying sources, is acknowledged. Signature Name: DEBORAH GREEN 1 ABSTRACT Between 1938 and 1960, over 31,000 Jewish refugees found a new home in Australia, at no cost to government for a period of five years after arrival. After surviving the Holocaust, some few arrived with extreme trauma. PTSD was only recognised as a diagnosis in 1980, and the study of Holocaust trauma only matured in the last 30 years. The lives of these survivors and those who helped them has not been explored although in 1955 over ninety were mental hospital patients. In 1938 the government did not have a genuine refugee policy and Rutland confirmed that responsibility for survivors was delegated to the AJWS for five years. Case studies of these survivors are reviewed to help understand and explain what happened to this group by studying the role of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society (AJWS) and a number of doctors. Jewish refugees embodied the dominant narrative of successful migration, but this is not true for all arrivals. This thesis aims to show that understanding those who suffered extreme trauma is important as evidence of how genocide affects survivors and how they were treated in Sydney in the 1950s. 2 Table of Contents ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... 2 ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................... 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 8 Aims and Focus ............................................................................................................................... 10 Research Setting and PoPulation .................................................................................................. 16 A Journey through the Archives ................................................................................................... 17 Case Study Methodology ................................................................................................................ 21 Chapter 1. A HISTORIOGRAPHY OF TRAUMA ................................................................ 23 In the Beginning .............................................................................................................................. 24 World War One ............................................................................................................................. 25 World War TWo .............................................................................................................................. 27 The Vietnam War .......................................................................................................................... 30 Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) .................................................................................... 31 Holocaust Trauma ......................................................................................................................... 31 Early Studies .................................................................................................................................. 33 ComPensation and Treatment ....................................................................................................... 35 Healing and Living with Extreme Trauma ................................................................................. 37 Resilience of Survivors .................................................................................................................. 39 Getting to Understand Trauma ..................................................................................................... 44 Trauma in Australia ....................................................................................................................... 45 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter 2. THE STATE OF THE RESEARCH .................................................................. 51 3 Global JeWish Migration ................................................................................................................ 51 Jewish Refugee Migration to Australia ........................................................................................ 57 Immigration and Mental Illness .................................................................................................... 64 Trauma Studies in Survivors ......................................................................................................... 66 A Long Silence ............................................................................................................................... 68 Testimony as TheraPy .................................................................................................................... 69 Trauma Studies in Australia ........................................................................................................ 72 Refugee Doctors .............................................................................................................................. 78 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 81 Chapter 3. THE AUSTRALIAN JEWISH WELFARE SOCIETY ...................................... 85 Policy towards Jewish migration before World II ....................................................................... 87 Government Policy toWards JeWish Migration after World II .................................................. 90 Why Choose Australia? .................................................................................................................. 93 The DeveloPment of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society ...................................................... 94 Walter Levi Brand ........................................................................................................................ 100 AJWS Lay LeadershiP: Saul Symonds and Sydney David Einfeld ........................................... 99 Funding for Survivors .................................................................................................................. 105 Jewish Refugees Doctors .............................................................................................................. 107 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 109 Chapter 4. SURVIVORS, TRAUMA AND MENTAL ILLNESS ....................................... 114 Mental Distress Treatment .......................................................................................................... 115 New South Wales Mental HosPitals ............................................................................................ 117 Mental HosPitals and Migrants .................................................................................................. 119 Wolfgang Matsdorf ...................................................................................................................... 122 Public Attitudes to Mental Illness in the 1950s .......................................................................... 125 Problem Cases .............................................................................................................................. 127 Crisis Management ...................................................................................................................... 129 Long Term Cases .......................................................................................................................... 132 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 139 Chapter 5. DR HANS KIMMEL: THE CASE STUDY ....................................................... 142 Monasterzyska the Early Years .................................................................................................. 142 Life in Vienna ............................................................................................................................... 144 The Kimmel Family Returns to Galicia ..................................................................................... 150 The University of Vienna ............................................................................................................. 152 The ImPact of World War I .......................................................................................................