Bar-On, Dan. “Descendants of Nazi Perpetrators: Seven Years after the First Interviews”

The article is the follow-up of psychologist Dan Bar-On’s field research that began in 1985, and in which he studies the psychological and moral aftermath of the Holocaust on descendants of Nazi perpetrators in Germany. The article contains the summary of interviews with 9 descendants of Nazi perpetrators in 1993, out of 12 original interviewees who partook in the research of 1985. The interviews, with only a few exceptions, focus primarily on how the knowledge of being a descendant of perpetrators influenced their life—for instance, Renate (pseudonym) believes her knowledge of her father’s Nazi past leads to her estrangement from her remorseless father and her later life decisions such as leaving home, studying law, and supporting leftist ideologies during the student revolution (58)—and how their life perspectives changed over the period of 7 years following the initial interview. In the discussion section following the summaries, Bar-On suggests that after their initial encounter, “all of the interviewees” assume a “more positive life perspective” (67), which he attributes to, though not without drawbacks, the effects of a series of interventions, including their participation in regular meetings after a self-help group was formed in 1985, their interaction with media, and their meetings with a group of the descendants of Holocaust survivors since 1992. The essay ends with Bar-On’s reflection on his interview methodology and the potential of psychological interventions, and his own role as “interviewer, participator and observer” in the process (56). He also poses a series of important questions concerning how to “bring together” the descendants of perpetrators and survivors of the Holocaust (72). His emphasis on dealing with the trauma of the descendants of “both sides” together, along with the interviews of perpetrators’ descendants provided in this essay, contributes significantly to perpetrator studies.

Author of this entry: Chihhen Chang

Dan Bar-On, “Descendants of Nazi Perpetrators: Seven Years after the First Interviews,” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 36.1 (1996): 55-74.