"Every Old Person Has His Story" Two Kinds of Holocaust Survivors in Israel

The integration of Holocaust survivors into Israeli society was difficult. In the founding years, a national myth was established that stressed strength and ability to fight. The image of persecuted Jewish victims stood in shameful contrast to that. Only after the Yom Kippur War did the attitude to the Holocaust and its victims change. A repressed trauma became a public event. Social recognition for survivors grew. But one group has hardly profited from it: the Russian-speaking Holocaust survivors who came to Israel only later. Their situation is precarious. The live on the periphery of society, frequently in considerable poverty and isolated. The clinical psychologist Natan Kellermann provides background information.