ABSTRACT
The Holocaust—the systematic annihilation of European Jews by Nazi Germany as its programmed "Final Solution of the Jewish problem"—is one of the most horrendous destructive acts ever witnessed. Although it took place seventy years ago, the shadow of the Holocaust and its radioactive fallout continue to poison the lives of descendants of both perpetrators and victims in the most palpable ways. It took many years and the crossing of huge psychological distances for the experience of the Holocaust to be put into words and become subject to internal work. Apparently, seventy calendar years are not a long time on the intrapsychic timescale. The initiators felt that this kind of work was timely and necessary for individuals and for the societies involved, yet it was clear that this kind of project would meet with resistance. A source of anxiety is that we will fall into the trap of an easy or pseudo solution, namely that of false reconciliation.
