Nathan Durst, Jerusalem About the work with video-testimonies at AMCHA
- AMCHA (a non profit organization) was founded in 1987; among the main basic goals: To offer a broad range of social and psychosocial support for Holocaust survivors and their families, the 2nd Generation. We have branches in the four main cities in Israel and five extensions in smaller cities.
The following services are offered: Individual and supportive therapy, support-groups, "non-clinical" peer groups, social clubs, Russian speaking groups, volunteer activities, outreach to home bound survivors and life review and documentation.
Documentation of personal testimonies is one of the programs offered to the clients, and provides both process and short-term intervention, is based on the premisses which were developed by Dori Laub, and enables the survivor to remember, to recall, deal with and tell the story of his life before, during and after the Holocaust.
The central aspect of documentation is personal, experiential and subjective, the perspective is phenomenological. That means that each survivor has his own truth, tells his life story from his unique point of view. The length of the process is not limited by time. This lack of restrictions allows many emotional and cognitive processes to develop, and enables episodic and semantic memory to come forth.
The only instruction the survivor receives at the start of documenting the life-story on videotape, is to try to recall the events in a descriptive manner, using all his senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, feel – and to remember signs, voices, colors (J. Kestenberg). He may give his testimony in the language of his choice, whichever is most comfortable.
The process of giving testimony at AMCHA exists for its own sake, but often also serves as a beginning or ending to psychotherapeutic treatment.
During the course of documentation, between sessions, the interviewer – who is always a qualified psychotherapist – remains in contact with the witness, primarily to make sure whether he needs support in dealing with his feelings or dreams that arise or result in conjunction with documentation.
The atmosphere during the interview is one of openness and non-judgemental objectivity, which also can have a strong impact on the interviewer.
After the formal conclusion of the testimony, the survivor will have to decide how, when and to whom to transmit their life-story. One of the options is to invite members of the family, and/or friends to the AMCHA location, where parts of the video can be shown, in the presence of the interviewer-therapist.
Testimony is a non-clinical form of memory processing, of utmost importance for the elderly survivor, and also a way to save his individuality and personal identity, to memoralize those family members who were murdered and to create intergenerational links with the future.
AMCHA –
National Israeli Center for Psychosocial Support
of Survivors of the Holocaust and the Second Generation
Hillel 23
IL-94581 Jerusalem
Israel
Tel. 0097/2/262 50745
Fax. 0097/2/262 50669
Email amcha@amcha.org
URL http://www.amcha.org
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Short biographical note
Dr. Nathan Durst
was born in Berlin and survived the Holocaust in hiding in Holland. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the university of Amsterdam. Dr. Durst is co-founder of the "Study Center for the Psychological Impact on Holocaust Survivors” at the Bar-Ilan University, Ramath Gan, Israel. He teaches at both the Bar-Ilan University and the Tel-Aviv University on the subjects of long-term effects of traumatic experiences and the Holocaust.
Dr. Durst serves as Clinical Director of AMCHA-Israel.
Nathan Durst
Email durst@netvision.net.il
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Citation Nathan Durst, About the work with video-testimonies at AMCHA. In: Trauma Reserach Newsletter 1, Hamburg Institute for Social Research, July 2000.
URL TraumaResearch.net/focus1/durst.htm
Copyright © 2000, Nathan Durst and trauma newsletter, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the trauma newsletter. For other permission questions, please contact via email the editor Cornelia_Berens@his-online.de
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