A study of the differences in the narrative of autobiographical memories of coordinate bilingual Holocaust survivors, when told in Hungarian and English / Vera Michaels.

The study examines the impact of bilingualism on the traumatic memory of Holocaust survivors in Hungarian and English speaking bilinguals (N = 12). Four standardized instruments were used to measure the variables. The Mini-Mental State Examination, Language Questionnaire, Wechsler Vocabulary Subtest and Global Word Naming Test. Narratives are exposed to “idea-unit” and “thought-unit” investigation. It was anticipated that the telling of memories in the language of reference would be more vivid than in the subsequently learned language indicating a more complex encoding and depth in that language. The results did not support this hypothesis, but found participants eager to speak of past experiences, using the second language as an additional layer of defense against being overwhelmed by anxiety provoking emotion.