[Nursing care for elderly Holocaust survivors. Experiences of Israeli nurses as related to their own life stories].

As the survivors of the Holocaust grow older and become more dependent on various ways of care and support, the topic of nursing care for elderly Holocaust survivors is becoming increasingly urgent in the last years, and new questions and problems are emerging. This article deals with the experiences of 18 nurses in Israel who work with elderly Holocaust survivors in the community, in homes for the aged, and in hospitals. Some of the nurses mention that they see their patients as especially demanding; some survivors are said to show the conviction that they deserve a better and preferential treatment, as a result of their experiences in the Nazi-persecution. Consequently, the nurses describe their care for these people as especially hard, because it takes an enormous amount of patience, time, understanding, and attentiveness. Considering the background of their parents as well as of their personal history, it becomes clear that those nurses who belong to the second generation themselves tend to take also into account the history and trauma of others among their patients, who aren't survivors of the Holocaust. They stress the perspective that everybody in Israel has had a difficult life, and by that they oppose a certain attitude and expectation which assumes that the survivors of the Holocaust need to be treated and cared for in an extraordinary manner; this attitude would create an even heavier burden for the nurses and therefore bear the danger of overtaxing them. Finally, the author tries to show how the nurses' experience of their clients as demanding and belligerent can lead into a vicious circle of demands from the clients and rejection by the nurses. By means of information and increasing of awareness as well as by comprehensive support for the nurses, it may be possible to interrupt this circle and bring about a more sympathetic care for the elderly survivors.