Catastrophic Grief, Trauma, and Resilience in Child Concentration Camp Survivors

"This is a well-written, organized, and accessible book and an important addition to the literature on the long-term impacts of severe childhood trauma in the lives of Holocaust survivors… The authors discuss the trauma trilogy of grief, anger, and survivor guilt; how revisited memories can retraumatize survivors as they come to belated understandings of childhood losses; the mediating impact of early attachment on resiliency; and the catastrophic grief and lack of closure that is ubiquitous among all interviewees." 

- M. D. Lagerwey, emeritus, Western Michigan University, CHOICE

“A book, raw in the visceral descriptions of the effects of the Holocaust provided by ageing child survivors as they painfully and courageously re-visit their experiences in the camps, the death marches and beyond. A book of inspiration in the warmth and compassion of the interviewer who listened and cared and whose personal resonances with the survivors shone through. 

A hugely informative book in all authors' scholarly research on complex trauma, complicated bereavement, ageing, resilience and existential loneliness. A remarkable, must read book in contemporary times not only for its collection of rare testimonies of ageing survivors of the holocaust but for its insights into the very long term but individual effects of massive collective trauma, which continue to dog the twenty first century. It is a testimony to despair and hope, trauma and resilience, and a must read for those who at least wish to try to understand.” 

— Gillian Straker, Clinical Professor, University Of Sydney; Visiting Research Professor, University Witwatersrand