title: Why Do Holocaust Survivors Remember What They Remember?
abstract: The ability to integrate traumatic memories into a coherent life narrative is one factor associated with the mental health and well-being of Holocaust survivors. In the present study, reminiscences reported by survivors in Israel were collected to identify themes arising in positive and negative memories and experience.
  
  
  
  Participants (M = 80.4 years; SD = 6.87) were asked to describe memories that typify a reminiscence function in which they frequently or very frequently engage. Open-ended responses were collected from 269 Holocaust survivors and thematic analyses were conducted in English (translated) and Hebrew.
  
  
  
  Thematic analyses of these data suggest three overarching themes related to bridging the past and present, rebuilding families and the Jewish state, and the duty to share. These suggest how integral endurance, survival, and resilience were to participants during the war and how these themes defined their choices and understanding of their lives.
  
  
  
  The results of this study demonstrate how reminiscence serves many functions. Participants appear to have integrated memories of horror and loss as part of coherent life narratives. Resilience and memory are ongoing and intertwined processes whereby survivors juxtapose their early lives to the present.
authors.affiliation: Gerontology Research Centre, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Canham
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ashkelon Academic College, Israel.
authors.forename: Hagit
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Peres
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health.|Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Aging, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.|IRMACS Centre, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Norm
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: O'Rourke
authors.affiliation: IRMACS Centre, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Department of Gerontology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wertman
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carmel
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health.
authors.forename: Yaacov G
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Bachner
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D017767:Holocaust / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008603:Mental Health; D011939:Mental Recall; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Autobiographical memory; Holocaust survivors; Qualitative analysis; Reminiscence; Resilience