Sense of Coherence During Female Holocaust Survivors’ Formative Years

ABSTRACT

Four female Holocaust survivors were interviewed in order to investigate how they coped prior to the Holocaust, during the Holocaust years, following the end of World War II, and during integration within emerging Jewish society prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. Antonovsky’s (1987) concept of sense of coherence (SOC) and thematic analysis were employed. The analysis suggests that their ability to navigate these life-changing circumstances as young women was the result of the elasticity of the SOC components and the meanings ascribed to them, depending on the situations encountered.

KEYWORDS:

• Coping
• Holocaust survivors
• immigration
• integration
• sense of coherence

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tal Litvak Hirsch

Tal Litvak Hirsch is a researcher and lecturer at the Conflict Management and Resolution Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her research deals with the psychosiocial effects of trauma and terror, and especially within the context of the long-term effects of the Holocaust, dilemmas of identity and otherness, and peace education.

Alon Lazar

Alon Lazar is a researcher and lecturer at the Conflict Management and Resolution Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His research deals with the long-term effects of the Holocaust and peace education.

Orna Braun-Lewensohn

Orna Braun-Lewensohn is a senior lecturer and the head of the Conflict Management and Resolution Program at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her major research interests include mental health outcomes and coping during or following exposure to extremely stressful events.