Sweden's Post-WWII Schools Offer Early Blueprint for Trauma-Informed Education
A new study reveals how Sweden integrated 1,200 Jewish child Holocaust survivors into boarding schools between 1945–1948, treating education as active rehabilitation rather than mere instruction. The model shows how institutions can systematically address psychological and social recovery alongside academics—insights relevant today for policymakers designing support systems for displaced and traumatized youth populations.
Originaltitel: Education as Rehabilitation: Schools for Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors in Sweden, 1945–1948
<p>During the spring and summer of 1945 as many as 31,000 survivors arrived in Sweden, of these, about 1,200 were Jewish children. The overwhelming majority of them were orphans. They were placed in boarding schools or youth homes established by the Swedish state in cooperation with the Jewish community. This chapter examines how the children, and their needs were described and understood in a Swedish context and what kind of education, rehabilitation and training were provided for them during the immediate years after the Holocaust. </p>