The Effect of the Subjective Holocaust Influence Level on Holocaust Survivors’ Offspring

Abstract

This paper examines how is the Subjective Holocaust Influence Level (SHIL) of Holocaust survivors’ offspring (HSO) is reflected in their daily life, habits and wellbeing. For this purpose, we asked 346 Jewish-Israeli HSO about their daily life, habits and emotions and divided them into three groups based on their SHIL. We find that higher SHIL correlated with increased worry, being more suspicious of others, higher anxiety about the future, feeling a need to survive, risk aversion, self-rated health and unwillingness to discard food. However, we found only a minor effect on their financial behavior.

Keywords:

• Holocaust;
• offspring;
• second generation;
• wellbeing;
• trauma

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank the research unit of the School of Business Administration in the College of Management Academic Studies Israel for the financial support.

Notes

1 Levav et al. (2007) also examine the HSO group according to their parents’ “trauma level” by comparing subgroup of HSO whose parents were in extermination camps to a comparison group. No differences were found.

2 The questionnaire was approved by the ethics committee of the College of Management Academic Studies, Israel (number: 0074-2016)

3 We asked these questions at the end of the questionnaire in order to avoid any bias that might be triggered by Holocaust questions, and affect the answers to the other questions.

4 The options were: (1) Did not finish high school, (2) High school without a matriculation certificate, (3) Matriculation certificate, (4) Bachelor’s degree, (5) Master’s degree, (6) Doctorate.

5 Based on the Social Survey 2017, administered by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, there were 10 possible answers, in New Israeli Shekels (NIS). (1) Less than 2,500; (2) 2,501–4,000; (3) 4,001–5,000, (4) 5,001–6,500, (5) 6,501–8,000; (6) 8,001–10,000; (7) 10,001–13,000; (8) 13,001–17,000; (9) 17,001–24,000; (10) More than 24,000.(Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 2017). The exchange rate at the time of the questionnaire was approximately US$1 to N.I.S 3.5.

6 There are some evidence of disordered eating in the second and the third generation (Zohar et al. 2007). Others show that eating is related to the survival issue of Holocaust survivors (Scharf &Mayseless, 2011).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gila Oren

Gila Oren is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Business Administration at the College of Management Academic Studies, Israel. Her research focuses on Holocaust heritage and the posttrauma of Holocaust survivors and their families.

Tal Shavit

Tal Shavitisan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Business Administration at Ariel University, Israel. His research focuses on behavioral economics, risk perception, decision-making and economics of happiness.