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Speechlessness in the face of catastrophe is an early theme of this anthology, a paradoxical tension reflected in its title. “Handbook” rests uneasily next to “Holocaust,” an experience that can hardly if ever be fully grasped. This extraordinary collection, edited by Ira Brenner, educates readers about the Shoah and its legacy through first-hand accounts of survivors, their children and grandchildren. Structurally the project is divided into six sections: History, On surviving, Transmission of trauma, From the dark side, Creativity, and finally, the resounding Never again? ironically reframed as a query.
The reader is first given a historical overview of the rise of the Third Reich in Germany following World War I, the genocidal persecution of Jews and other “non-Aryans” and the aftermath of Hitler's defeat. The German collective struggle with guilt for criminal acts committed during National Socialism comes as an important later theme, one that has implications for understanding American defenses against guilt for the genocide of Native Americans and persecution of blacks. We follow the history of the analytic movement along with sociopolitical events of the twentieth century, and are reminded how early psychoanalytic interventions commonly overlooked the sufferings of survivors. With traditional focus on the intrapsychic realm in the consulting room, historical reality concerning the Holocaust was disassociated from clinical consciousness.
An early chapter by Dori Laub, “Bearing Witness,” details how massive trauma affects the internal life of the individual. It undercuts thought processes, disrupts sequencing of time and the body's anchoring in space. Second and third generation survivors describe existing in “parallel time” or being pulled through a “time tunnel” to another lived experience of fear and suffering (p. 122). In the words of Yolanda Gampel, descendants of survivors “go back in time … and play the part of the perished family members, not only unconsci