A psychoanalytic grave walk--Scenic memory of the Shoah. On the transgenerational transmission of extreme trauma in Germany.

In this article we describe a phase of a long-term psychoanalysis of a daughter of Shoah Survivors. The article is part of a research project conducted at the Sigmund Freud-Institute in Frankfurt/Main. The focus of the study is on the transmission of extreme trauma from the First to the Second Generation, with special reference to Germany. "Scenic memory of the Shoah" is presented as a concept that stresses the non-verbal, unconscious communication between the generations. The so-called "concretistic" behavior of the Second Generation, which has been described in the literature, is conceptualized here as scenic memory of the traumatic experiences during Nazi persecution, that is, a highly symbolic and metaphorical expression of the extreme trauma handed down to the patient by the parents.