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A trace of a trace : an analysis of trauma in Shoah perpetrator auto/biographical narratives

University of British Columbia

In this study, I attempt to prove that many Shoah perpetrators potentially suffered the effects of trauma and that traces of their traumatisation exist within their auto/biographical narratives. In my endeavour to demonstrate this belief, I first discuss how many Shoah perpetrators were not merely prompted to take part in the Shoah because they were antisemitic, but that they were heavily influenced by the social and political environment around them. However, even though many of the perpetrators took part in othering processes as a response to their interpellation and socialisation, they still suffered from the effects of trauma. I then discuss the reasons for why many of the perpetrators wrote auto/biographical narratives, ultimately stating that an unconscious need to work through the effects of trauma was a possible reason for constructing these narratives and that traces of traumatisation do exist within the pages of these discourses. Finally, I make the case that many of the Shoah perpetrators suffered the effects of what Rachel M. MacNair terms Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress and that their traumatisation allowed them to perpetuate trauma on others through traumatic reenactment.

Text

2011-08-12

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/36658

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/