The William G. Niederland Collection contains manuscripts, lectures and published writings by Niederland (and others) as well as 165 court case files consisting of psychiatric opinions, correspondence and court decisions referring to individual indemnification cases. Also included are correspondence with his colleagues and material related to his various research projects

The collection is arranged in eight series. Series I contains examples of Niederland's literary output, including publications, manuscripts and lectures on various subjects, predominantly Holocaust survivors. The series reflects his scientific work as well as his endeavors to raise scholarly and public awareness of this subject by giving lectures in the United States, Germany and Switzerland. Series II consists of publications, manuscripts and lectures of other authors in addition to a few publications by the German government on indemnification laws. Records included here illustrate the scientific debate on the psychic sequelae of the Holocaust. Publications on other topics are also included. Documents regarding scientific conferences, such as announcements, schedules and meeting minutes are contained in Series III. These conferences focus primarily on Holocaust survivors and date from 1946 to 1988. Series IV is composed of correspondence between Niederland and his colleagues as well as private individuals. This series holds a rather small portion of Niederland's correspondence, while the bulk may be found in the records of the Niederland Collection held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Psychiatric Cases, Series V, comprises the largest section of the collection. The series consists of 165 reports on Holocaust survivors claiming indemnification before German courts and several other reports not related to such cases. Due to privacy issues, portions of this series are restricted to researchers. Series VI contains documents relating to the Daniel Paul Schreber case and the Winterstein case. Again, this is a small representative sample of Niederland's records on this topic. The bulk of the documents are held at the Library of Congress

Printed Material may be found in Series VII and includes newspaper articles concerning Holocaust survivors, Niederland's scientific research and published works and other various subjects that were of interest to him. Series VIII consists of miscellaneous records such as handwritten notes, fragments of unidentified articles and several requests for autographs

Dr. William G. Niederland (1904-1993) was a renowned psychiatrist who immigrated to the United States in 1940 via Italy and the Philippines. While he was a psychiatric expert for German indemnification trials of survivors of the Holocaust, Niederland became an advocate of the survivors' claims and an empathetic researcher of their psychic suffering. He engaged in scientific research on psychic sequelae in Holocaust survivors for more than four decades. Niederland is believed to have discovered the "Survivor Syndrome," as a psychiatric disease and condition

The finding aid for this collection is available online

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews