„Contemprorary Knowledge about Trauma” | Ala Elczewska

Here is the recording of Ala Elczewska-Goldblum’s lecture “Contemprorary Knowledge about Trauma” presented at the webinar “Around the Trauma of the Holocaust” on November 19, 2022.

Ala Goldblum-Elczewska is a psycho-traumatologist and a pedagogue who has been working with refugees in Denmark for over 30 years. She helps people who had experienced violence, tortures and trauma. She was born in Wrocław, Poland and lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. She left Poland in 1969, during the anti-semitic campaign.

Ala Elczewska is a daughter of the Łódź ghetto survivor Halina Elczewska, who was also the originator of the Survivros’ Park in Łódź.

In her presentation “Contemprorary Knowledge about Trauma”, Mrs. Elczewska introduces the topic of the webinar from the point of view of a practician.

Ala Goldblum-Elczewska has also suggested a list of books and a film for those who are not yet familiar with the topic of trauma or those who want to enrich their knowledge by getting acquainted with less obvious positions – testimonies of people from three different generations who have experienced trauma.

Available in English: 

  • Irit Amiel – “Scorched”, „Life: A Temprorary Title”, „Wdychać głęboko”;
  • Joshua Oppenheimer – „The Sound of Silence” (a documentary);
  • Patrycja Dołowy – “I’ll be Back When You’re Asleep. Talks with the Children of the Holocaust”

Available in Polish: 

  • Mikołaj Grynberg – „Oskarżam Auschwitz”, „Ocaleni z XX wieku”, „Księga wyjścia”;
  • Patrycja Dołowy – „Skarb”, „Przecież ich nie zostawię”.

The webinar „Around the Trauma of the Holocaust” was organized by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum and the Institute of the Social Sciences of SWPS University. Speakers from Denmark, Israel, Burundi, Ukraine and Poland discussed trauma in the context of their own research and the experience of work with people experiencing trauma. We had a possibility to listen to psychologists, pedagogues and historians working with this topic professionally, as well as to find similarities between the consequences of war trauma, regardless of where and when it occurred.