THE 2ND HOLOCAUST - THERAPEUTIC RESCUE WHEN LIFE THREATENS

This paper in its first part, describes a phenomenon termed the second Holocaust, observed in Holocaust survivors and their children, whereb y the original destruction of the Holocaust is not only reexperienced in postwar losses, but reenacted without conscious awareness. The Holo caust colors postwar adjustment, leaving survivors and their children resigned to attenuated and devitalized lives in the shadow of catastro phic Holocaust loss. In its second part, this paper deals with therape utic interventions that can interrupt this phenomenon by initiating ps ychological equivalents of rescue in a patient's current life that wer e unforthcoming during war persecution. Such therapeutic rescue after the event helps restore the parental function of engaging and animatin g life.