In the face of horror – secondary traumatisation and mental distress in employees and volunteers at national socialism related memorial sites

ABSTRACT

Background: Employees and volunteers at national socialism related memorial sites in Germany (MemoS) are confronted with severely aversive documents of German history on a regular basis.

Objective: Enhance knowledge on mental health in MemoS.

Method: In an online study, mental distress, secondary traumatisation as well as potential risk and protective factors were assessed in MemoS and a control group.

Results: 40.9% of MemoS reported at least one kind of secondary traumatic event experienced in the context of their work. Depression and general mental distress were higher in the MemoS than in controls, and symptoms of secondary traumatisation were significantly more common.

Conclusions: Our results give clear evidence for mental distress and symptoms of secondary traumatisation in the MemoS group. This finding shows secondary traumatisation symptoms based on documents of atrocities that happened more than 70 years ago. Further, the high mental burden in the MemoS suggests the necessity of supervision for people dedicating their work life to assuring remembrance of the crimes of the Nazi era.

HIGHLIGHTS

• first systematic examination of mental health and trauma in employees and volunteers at national socialism related memorial sites in Germany.

• mental distress and secondary traumatisation symptom load significantly higher in people working at the memorial sites than in controls.

• findings indicate a need for support of the people working at the memorial sites.

Antecedentes: Los empleados y voluntarios de los sitios conmemorativos relacionados con el socialismo nacional en Alemania (MemoS) se enfrentan periódicamente a documentos de la historia alemana severamente aversivos.

Objetivo: Mejorar el conocimiento sobre la salud mental de los MemoS.

Método: En un estudio en línea, se evaluaron el malestar mental, la traumatización secundaria, así como los posibles factores de riesgo y de protección en los MemoS y en un grupo control.

Resultados: El 40.9% de los MemoS refirió haber experimentado en el contexto de su trabajo, al menos un tipo de evento traumático secundario. La depresión y el malestar mental general fueron mayores en los MemoS que en los controles y los síntomas de traumatización secundaria fueron significativamente más comunes.

Conclusiones: Nuestros resultados brindan una evidencia clara de malestar mental y síntomas de traumatización secundaria en el grupo MemoS. Este hallazgo muestra síntomas de traumatización secundaria basados en documentos de atrocidades ocurridas hace más de 70 años. Además, la elevada carga mental de los MemoS sugiere la necesidad de supervisión de las personas que dedican su vida laboral en asegurar el recuerdo de los crímenes de la era Nazi.

背景：德国国家社会主义相关纪念场所（ MemoS ）的员工和志愿者经常面对严重令人厌恶的德国历史文件。

目的：提高 MemoS 心理健康知识。

方法：在一项在线研究中，在 MemoS 组和对照组中评估了心理痛苦，二次创伤以及潜在的风险和保护因素。

结果： MemoS 组中40.9%报告了在工作环境中至少经历过一种二次创伤事件。 MemoS 中的抑郁和一般心理痛苦高于对照组，二次创伤的症状显著更常见。

结论：我们的研究结果为 MemoS 组的心理痛苦和二次创伤症状提供了明确的证据。这一发现展现出基于 70 多年前发生的暴行记录的二次创伤症状。此外， MemoS 组中的高心理负担表明，有必要对那些致力于确保纳粹时代罪行得到记录的人进行监管。

KEYWORDS:

• Secondary traumatisation
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• memorial site work
• employee mental health
• national socialism

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Traumatización secundaria
• trastorno de estrés postraumático
• trabajo en sitios conmemorativos
• salud mental de los empleados
• socialismo nacional

关键词:

• 二次创伤
• 创伤后应激障碍
• 纪念馆工作
• 员工心理健康
• 国家社会主义

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the memorial site employees and volunteers who participated in the study, and who helped us to improve our understanding by sharing personal experiences and ideas and by asking critical questions. In particular we are indebted to Matthias Heyl for his great support. We are also grateful to the members of the University of Konstanz for their participation. Finally, we are thanking Dr Thomas Müller from the ZfP Südwürttemberg for his careful and important comments on a previous version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Transparency and openness

This study was not preregistered. The processed data is available at https://osf.io/kqj3n/. We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions, all manipulations, and all measures in the study. We do not have any previously published or currently in press works stemming from this dataset. The study was approved by the local ethics board of the University of Konstanz and participants gave written informed consent on the survey start page.