A psychiatrist and himself a child of Holocaust survivors, Hass has
written a balanced, informative work on former death camp inmates
and others who outlived the murderous Third Reich. His book is
based on lengthy interviews with 58 survivors from 14 countries, as
well as extensive reading of journalistic and clinical studies of
survivors. In contrast to the plethora of publications describing
this group in terms of pathology, Hass (Psychology/Calif. State
Univ., Dominguez Hills) focuses on survivors' postwar adaptability
and resilience: A large number married and had children, many after
losing their families of origin and first spouses. Yet, unlike
William Helmreich's recent Against All Odds, his book doesn't
romanticize survivors, noting how many are highly, if
understandably, pessimistic, mistrustful, lugubrious, and secretive
(Hass claims that most survivors haven't discussed with even their
spouses the details of their Holocaust experiences). In an
excellent chapter on family life, he observes how survivors, as
parents, often invest an inordinate amount of emotional energy in
their children, who are seen as new affirmations of life and hope
after the Holocaust's unmitigated death world. At times, however,
survivors can be overprotective of their children to the point of
being emotionally smothering. Hass breaks little new ground,
covering issues raised by such other writers as Helen Epstein,
Dorothy Rabinowitz, Reeve Robert Brenner, Lawrence Langer, and
Helmreich. But his basic format - chapters are usually organized
around character traits and emotional states - works well, and he
wisely lets the survivors speak extensively through well-chosen
quotes from his interviews and secondary literature. Hass
consistently writes clearly and well, with both the empathy of an
"insider" to the world of survivors and the perspective of a
thoughtful social scientist. (Kirkus Reviews)
The Aftermath offers a perspective of how one who has lived with
terror for years is able to avoid paralysis and move forward. It is
a book about how people live with gnawing doubts and uncertainty
concerning their past actions and inaction. It is a tale of the
anguish they feel because of their first hand knowledge of the evil
in their fellow human being which so unjustly struck and deprived
them of what was rightly theirs. For a while the Holocaust survivor
seems, in most ways, to be like you and I, they are also aware of
their subterranean world which may afflict them without warning.
The Aftermath offers the most comprehensive examination of the
psychological impact of the Holocaust on survivors ever undertaken
and covers the widest range of topics including: survivor guilt,
the absence of mourning, the psychological characteristics of
survivor families, a survivor's view of God, survivor's feelings
about Germans as well as their own countrymen of origin, and the
survivor's ongoing sense of vulnerability.
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