Survival Strategies During Acute Traumatisation
It must be stated first and foremost that, with all that is said here, in the end the survival of the individual prisoner in a concentration camp is merely a question of coincidence. Still, it does seem that certain behaviours have been conducive to survival. Quindeau views the development of this type of behaviour patterns as so-called ‘survival strategies’.1See Quindeau 1995, p. 45.
Attempting to see a meaning behind persecution and repression, can be viewed as such a strategy. That is specifically true of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a group, where the individual person is part of a larger religious collective.
Judith Kestenberg particularly emphasises the maintenance of primary narcissism (love of one’s own ego) as being of great importance to surviving incarceration in a concentration camp. Memories of the period prior to persecution and arrest are of great significance due to the stabilizing influence on the narcissistic economy.2Kestenberg 1990, p. 40. These ‘good memories’ have the power to prevent a narcissistic emptiness, despite the amount of destruction of object relations. The Bible Students in particular, managed to create alternatives for the religious community in an amazing way, which made it possible to have a feeling of togetherness and a sense of belonging within the group. Even under the saddest of conditions imaginable, the female Jehovah’s Witnesses could derive something meaningful from the situation, by offering mutual assistance, or doing ‘good deeds’, according to the Christian faith. In this manner, successfully preventing the threat of narcissistic emptiness.
Aggression, channelled outward in the form of work and activity, has likewise contributed to reinforcing the survival instinct.3See Quindeau 1995, p. 47 It was the Bible Students, who took on each task – as long as it was not in conflict with their faith – and carried out their work diligently, and who were known for their ‘zealous devotion to duty’. At this point I recall the description Margarete Buber-Neumann gave about cleaning the model barracks in the women’s concentration camp at Ravensbrück. Neumann outlines the image of the Witnesses venting their emotions by their furious cleaning efforts. This activity provided an outward target for unleashing their aggression.
In my view, the most significant survival strategy is in maintaining social relationships. The Nazi terror, which was bent on isolation and destruction of the interpersonal trust in relationships, met with collective resistance from the religious community of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The female Bible Students upheld friendly consideration for each other, based on their communal faith, despite the totally inhumane social conditions in the concentration camp. Psychological and physical assistance in various ways created a social safety net that provided a relatively safe shelter for those most seriously threatened – inasmuch as one can speak of safety in connection with camp imprisonment.
Defence mechanisms, such as regression, identifying with the aggressor, fantasizing or primal repression during the acute trauma phase, should not be considered from a non-historical perspective. It is essential that the ‘trauma content’ represents the historic occurrence that the person reacts to with specific defence mechanisms. The kind of defence used, will of course depend on the state of the Ego-development and on the personal life history of the individual. By which I mean that the age and life course – thus also the so-called constitution of the individual – play an important role when calling on the defence mechanisms and therefore also on the specific survival strategies. Assuming, just as Erikson4See Horie 1997, p. 81, table ‘Stages of development of personality according to Erikson’. does, that personality development does not end with adolescence, but carries on through various stages in adulthood, then traumatic experiences will influence development stages at that moment. So, the trauma may negatively influence the personality development related to the specific stage of the development goal. My research covered an age group of women between 20 and 55 years old, imprisoned in the concentration camp at St. Lambrecht. According to Erikson’s personality development model, this would affect the development of intimacy, creativity, and integrity of this age group. He considers that the damage caused by trauma will hinder these competencies, leading to a pathological development of isolation, stagnation, and despair. This is therefore detrimental to the self-esteem and the life plans of traumatised persons.
Aleida Assmann suggests that the traumatic damage to Holocaust victims results in the inability to convert the trauma experience into rescue symbols. Trauma and symbol are mutually exclusive.5See Assmann 1998, p. 151. In other words, the significance of the trauma cannot be abstracted and given a place by endowing a specific value to the symbol. Both Assmann and Lyotard indicate that the trauma records the historical memory, although there is no recollection of this, and it is ‘fixed in the shadows of consciousness as a latent presence’.6Assmann 1998, p, 148. Experiences that never got the status of memorable symbols, can also never be forgotten.
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