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Psychosoziale Beratungsstelle fuer Holocaust-Ueberlebende
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Revital Ludewig-Kedmi, Zuerich Moral dilemmas of Jewish collaborating prisoners (Kapos). Coping strategies of Holocaust survivors and their children
Abstract
- Jewish collaborating prisoners, also called Kapos, are often perceived as a symbol for absolute evil: "They were worse than the Germans" said some of the Holocaust survivors. After the war, several Kapos were sued for collaboration with the Nazis.
What is myth and what is reality in the way in which Kapos are perceived? Were the Kapos "only" perpetrators or "also" victims? Jewish Kapos were concentration camp prisoners who were assigned a function by the SS. As "collaborating prisoners" they were responsible for order and discipline in their groups of Jewish prisoners.
In a similar sense, the members of the Jewish Councils (Judenrat) in the ghettos were also collaborating prisoners. For example, the Judenrat had to write the lists for the transports to the concentrations camps for their communities. Because of their position between the perpetrators and the victims they were confronted with conflicts between different values: should I write the deportation list for the Nazi in order to protect my family and myself?
In psychological interviews with Jewish collaborating prisoners and their children in Israel and Germany, the difficult moral dilemmas of Kapos were identified and analyzed. One is placed in a moral dilemma, if one has to choose between two moral principles, both of which are important for the person, but are mutually exclusive in the specific situation. To fulfil the first moral principle means to negate the second. The result of such moral dilemma is that one’s moral self image is diminished. This is a traumatic experience for the person and, as with any other trauma requires the development of coping strategies. Which coping strategies did Kapos develop in order to deal with their past?
The first psychological work about the coping strategies of Kapos and their children
In biographical case studies, individual and family coping strategies were assessed and the self perceptions of the Kapos and their children were analyzed. A model of coping strategies was developed, showing the persistent influence of moral conflicts on the family dynamics and explaining the interdependence of coping strategies of the first and second generation in these families. This work was written as a dissertation at the Department of Psychology, Technical University Berlin, and will be published as a book in 2000.
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Short biographical note Dr. phil. Revital Ludewig-Kedmi is trained and working as psychologist in the newly established counselling center TAMACH, situated in Zuerich. The center opened its doors in 1998 to survivors of the Holocaust and family members in all of Switzerland. "Survivors" are viewed as persons who survived the Holocaust as refugees, in hiding or in camps as well as those who lost family members in the Shoah. Activities and services of TAMACH include: individual, couples and family counselling as well as group discussions.
In Germany Dr. Ludewig-Kedmi has given seminars dealing with therapeutical counselling for families from the victims´ as well as from the perpetrators´ side. These seminars are developed especially for psychologists and were so far fruitfully performed in Bergen-Belsen und Buchenwald. Since October last year Ms. Ludewig-Kedmi has been working as well at the university, doing research about Germans who saved Jews during the Nazi period. In this project she is analyzing interviews with rescuers, which were taped in the sixties - an effort, which had been carried out, but could never be completed by the late researcher M.Wolfson.
Dr. phil. Revital Ludewig-Kedmi, Dipl.-Psych.
Psychologist
Ruetistrasse 45
CH-8032 Zuerich
Email Revitallk@compuserve.com
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Citation Revital Ludewig-Kedmi, Moral dilemmas of Jewish collaborating prisoners (Kapos). Coping strategies of Holocaust survivors and their children. Abstract. In: Trauma Research Newsletter 1, Hamburg Institute for Social Research, July 2000.
URL http://www.TraumaResearch.net/net1/forum1/kadm.htm
Copyright © 2000, Revital Ludewig-Kedmi 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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