Citation

Bloch HA. Am. J. Sociol. 1947; 52(4): 335-341.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1947, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/220019

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The effect of life in a concentration camp upon the behavior and personality of former inmates is explored through case studies. The principal findings are based upon a limited control group of 547 Jewish women. The formation of the structural characteristics normally found in institutions of detention was prevented by unique self-attitudes, isolation, and the psychological effects of trauma. Following liberation, the social patterns appear to be those of desocialization, manifested in nascent person-to-person, dependent relations, which lack many of expected elements of group structure.