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Name:	Council for Relationships: Transcending Trauma Project
Translated Name:
Affiliation:	Jefferson Medical College
ADDRESS:	4025 Chestnut Street, 1st floor Philadelphia, PA 19104
COUNTRY:	United States
TELEPHONE NUMBER:	+(1-215) 382-6680
FAX:
EMAIL:	Information Not Available.
WEBSITE:	Information Not Available.
OPERATING HOURS:	Monday - Thursday 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Friday 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
CONTACT PERSON(S):	Primary Contact: Dr. Bea Hollander-Goldfein, Director Primary Contact: Dr. Nancy Isserman, Assistant Director
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION:	Transcending Trauma Project (TTP) grew out of a conference organized by the Marriage Council of Philadelphia (now Council for Relationships) in September 1986. "Shattered Promises and Broken Dreams" was the first conference on Holocaust survivors sponsored by a mental health institute rather than a Jewish or Holocaust organization. From the conference grew a pilot project, begun in 1990, that conducted interviews with several survivors and their children. The underlying motive of the pilot project reflected the belief that the literature had heretofore focused almost exclusively on the negative consequences of the Holocaust on survivors, without studying the processes of coping and adaptation after extreme trauma.

OVERVIEW OF ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION:	Sincer 1993, the Transcending Trauma Project (TTP) at Council for Relationships, the Division of Couple and Family Studies, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA has been studying how survivors reconstructed their shattered lives after the Holocaust. The TTP research team is comprised of mental health practitioners along with researchers from other social science disciplines such as anthropology, communication, and political science. Two hundred seventy-five Holocaust survivors, their children, nonsurvivor spouses and grandchildren were interviewed. Through this process, issues of how individuals cope, adapt and recreate their lives after experiencing traumatic life events are examined. By also studying the transmission of identity, personal faith and family continuity, the intergenerational impact of these issues on survivor families is also examined. TTP interviewed survivors and their families who were representative of a cross-section of countries of origin, religious beliefs, political affiliations, and socio-economic backgrounds. Respondents were identified through networking by asking for referrals after interviewing each survivor. Interviewees all maintained some connection to the greater Delaware Valley region. In only a few instances, interviewers traveled to other parts of the country or Israel to interview survivors. The interviewers used a semi-structured interview format accompanied by quantitative instruments designed to evaluate coping strategies and intergenerational religious identification. The interviews included the war years but emphasized pre-war and post-war experiences in an effort to gather broader information about the factors influencing the person's life. Pre-war information included such topics as family of origin demographics, description of relationships, religious identity, family values, and any significant life experiences before the war. Post-war information included such topics as mourning the losses, finding other survivors, emigration to the United States, marriage, children, religious identity, faith, memories, strategies for coping and adapting, and political attitudes. Each respondent was also asked to complete the Transmission of Jewish Identity Survey, which covered basic background information related to the subject's Jewish identity and the transmission of identity to the next generation. The survey also asked about the interviewees' political beliefs and attitudes. The entire collection will eventually be housed at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Collect Holocaust Oral Histories:	No.

Interview Guidelines:	Yes.

Additional Information:	Interviewees are selected through personal introductions. Almost all interviews were conducted in English -- some were in Yiddish, but have been translated into English, and one was in German, also translated. Interviews were conducted by psychotherapists, Holocaust scholars, historians, etc. Some training was offered to interviewers. Interview summaries were written by two research team members (the assistant director and research associate). A professional transcriber was used to transcribe the interviews. Interviewers proof-read the transcripts.

Project Complete:	Yes.
Year of First Interview:	1991
Year of Last Interview:	2004
Interviews Per Year:	Information Not Available.
Average Hours Per Interview:	Information Not Available.

RECORDING METHOD

Audio:	Yes.
Number of Audio Hours:	approximately 3,000 hours
Total Number of Audio Interviews:	275
Number of Audio Reel-To-Reel Interviews:	No.
Number of Audiocassette Interviews:	275 interviews on 60 minute tapes
Number of Interviews in Other Audio Formats:	N/A

Video:	No.
Number of Video Hours:	N/A
Total Number of Video Interviews:	N/A
Number of 1/2-inch Betacam-SP Interviews:	N/A
Number of 3/4-inch U-matic Interviews:	N/A
Number of 1/2-inch VHS interviews:	N/A
Number of Film interviews:	N/A

RULES:
Access to Collection:	Open. Interested parties need to contact project staff first.
Special Requirements for Access or Use:	A pre-requisite is serious interest in the Holocaust; personal or research interests
Notice Required to Pull Tapes or Reserve Facility:	Yes. Telephone contact with the director or assistant director. Need to arrange appointment time.
Access Fee:	Information Not Available.
Research Services:	Yes.
Research Fee:	No.
Research Services Requirements:	Available for those who cannot come to the collection.

Permission Required for Use of Material in
Publications:	Yes.
Classrooms:	Yes.
Public Lectures:	Yes.
Documentaries:	Information Not Available.
How To Obtain permission:	Information Not Available.

RESOURCES
Format of Collection
Video/Audio:	Information Not Available.
Transcripts:	Yes.
Other:	Information Not Available.

On-Site Equipment
Audio:	Yes.
Video:	N/A
Users Can Bring Their Own:	Yes.
Other:	N/A

Finding Aids
Guide to Collection Available:	No.
Published:	N/A
Guide Cost:	N/A
Address to Obtain Guide:	N/A
Additional Information:	Conference articles analyzing the data are available, and can serve in place of a guide. Articles can be emailed as attachments or sent by mail.

Transcripts
Audio:	Yes. Entire collection.
Video:	No.
Available for photocopying:	No.

Summaries
Summarized:	Yes.
Available for Photocopying:	Yes, dependent on the use of the material.
Available on Disk:	Information Not Available.
Other:	Information Not Available.

Indices
Tapes Indexed:	No.
Transcripts Indexed:	No.
Summaries Indexed:	No.
Indices Available for Photocopying:	No.
Indices Available on Disk:	N/A
Other:	N/A

Cataloging Information
Collection Cataloged:	No. Will eventually be archived at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Available on Computer:	Yes.
Other:	Material can be converted to CD's or discs
MARC Format:	No.
MARC Format Type:	N/A

Internet Resources
Web Address:	Information Not Available.
Transcripts:	No.
Summaries:	No.
Catalog:	No.
Indices:	No.
Interview Clips:	No.
Other:	No.
Additional Information:	N/A

Bibliographic Information
Belong to:	No.
OCLC:	N/A
RLIN:	N/A
Other:	N/A
Plan to Join:	No.

Loan or Purchase
Material Available Through Interlibrary Loan:	No.
Loan by other collection:	No.
Loan Fee:	N/A

DETAIL ABOUT COLLECTION CONTENT
Demographic Information about Interviewees:

Total Number:
Total Female:	Information Not Available.
Total Male:	118
No Data:	Information Not Available.

	Female	Male	Total	Other Information
Jews:	157	118	275	Yes.
Roma and/or Sinti:				No.
Political Prisoners:				No.
Prisoners of War:				No.
Jehovah’s Witnesses:				No.
Homosexual Men/Lesbian Women:				No.
Resisters:				No.
Partisans:				No.
Rescuers:				No.
Refugees:				No.
Liberators:				No.
Prosecutors:				No.
Perpetrators/ Collaborators:				No.
Refugee Relief Workers:				No.
Other:				No.

Additional Information:	Anyone who experienced Nazi persecution -- specifically, Jewish individuals who lived in Europe and were in danger after 1933 through World War II because they resided in countries controlled by Nazi Germany, regardless of when they emigrated.

Focus of Collection:
Ghetto(s)
Camp(s)
Geographic Area(s)		Poland (44); Germany (18); Hungary (6); Romania (3); Czechoslovakia (10); Netherlands (1); Lithuania (1); France (4); Austria (4); Ukraine (1); Belgium (2); Israel (1).
Experience(s)
Survivor Group(s)
Other

Additional Information:	Additional statistics about the interviewees: 27 escaped from Europe between 1933-45; 43 were in hiding or passing; 45 (33 women and 12 men) were in ghettos; 44 (26 women and 18 men) were in concentration camps. The Jewish religious orientation of some interviewees was as follows: 75 were traditional; two liberal; six were non-practicing; one had a non-Jewish parent. There was also one Protestant interviewee. The political affiliations of some interviewees was as follows: Three were Communist Party members; at least five were Zionist. Data is available for others, but it is not fully analyzed. The following locations and experiences were relevant to the interviewees: ghettos, labor camps, extermination camps, transit camps, hiding/passing, resistance, kindertransport, emigration just before WWII, Russia and Shanghai.