The general background of the groups investigated The purpose of this
paper is to examine whether the severe psychic and physical stress
situations to which human beings were exposed in the concentration camps
of World \Var II have had lasting psychological results, to discover the
nature of these conditions and the symptomatology they present, and
finally to investigate which detailed factors of the above-mentioned
stress situation can be con- sidered decisive for the morbid conditions
which were revealed. In order to elucidate these questions from
different points of view, I have examined groups of former concentration
camp inmates both in Norway and Israel. The Norwegians who were examined
compose a fairly uniform group of men and women, born and bred in
Norway, who after the War naturally returned to their native country.
The Israeli groups which were examined were drawn from almost every
country in Europe that had been under German occupation during World War
II. They had all immigrated into Israel, mostly after 1948.