Occupational Understandings from the Experiences of Holocaust Survivors

Abstract

Experiences of survivors of the Jewish Holocaust can inform understandings of occupation in relation to how people manage extreme situations. Using a qualitative approach, this study explored the importance of everyday activities in maintaining personal life purpose and survival, within Nazi concentration camps of World War II. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three now elderly survivors and analysed with an occupational perspective. From the rich data of the interviews, notions of occupational loss and survival occupations were developed. Survival occupations are described as primarily self and other protective, not adding meaning to life but enabling life. Survival occupations involve creativity, affirming relationships and the benevolence of others. Transition back to participating in normal occupations included addressing immediate health problems, searching for significant people and places, and finding and forging new occupations and relationships. A way of considering transition out of and into normal patterns of occupation is described that has relevance for understanding the responses of people in other life threatening and survival situations.

Keywords:

• Survival occupations
• Occupational loss
• Occupational transition
• Occupational re-creation
• Holocaust survival

Acknowledgements

The authors respectfully thank the participants for agreeing to be interviewed and staff of their Holocaust Center for facilitating the interviews. Thanks also to United States colleagues who supported and assisted the first author in the study visit; the Hawke's Bay District Health Board for financial support provided; New Zealand colleagues and others whose comments in review of earlier versions assisted in the shaping of this article.