The memory of concentration camp survivors

TLDR

The study investigates whether intense emotional events, such as surviving Nazi concentration camps, leave enduring memory traces that resist extinction. The authors compared testimonies from 78 witnesses collected during 1943–1947 and again in 1984–1987 to assess forgetting over four decades. Results show that while camp experiences are broadly remembered, specific details such as maltreatment, perpetrators’ identities, and witnessing murder are often forgotten, indicating that emotional intensity alone does not guarantee memory retention and affecting the reliability of survivor testimony in forensic contexts.

Abstract

Abstract This study is concerned with the question whether extremely emotional experiences, such as being the victim of Nazi concentration camps, leave traces in memory that cannot be extinguished. Relevant data were obtained from testimony by 78 witnesses in a case against Marinus De Rijke, who was accused of Nazi crimes in Camp Erika in The Netherlands. The testimonies were collected in the periods 1943–1947 and 1984–1987. A comparison between these two periods reveals the amount of forgetting that occurred in 40 years. Results show that camp experiences were generally well‐remembered, although specific but essential details were forgotten. Among these were forgetting being maltreated, forgetting names and appearance of the torturers, and forgetting being a witness to murder. Apparently intensity of experiences is not a sufficient safeguard against forgetting. This conclusion has consequences for the forensic use of testimony by witnesses who were victims of violent crimes.