Decades after World War II, major commemorations are still organised to collectively remember this war. Aiming for inclusive societies, the perspectives of immigrants with different war experiences are important to be heard in relation to these commemorations.

In this article we evaluate micro-history as a method for investigating the meaning of stigma, shame and family secrets through generations. We present micro-histories of two Australian soldiers who developed mental illness years after serving in World War 1 and were committed to a psychiatric hospital where they died. Data were drawn from publicly available records and interviews with family members.

Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and neurologist William Guglielmo Niederland (1904–1993) received widespread acclaim for his research on Holocaust survivors, yet his other psychoanalytic work has yet to achieve comparable recognition. In this article, I will examine the affinities between Niederland’s study of the Holocaust survivors and other major works in his canon to demonstrate the cohesive nature of his worldview, philosophy, and psychoanalytic trajectory while also illuminating Niederland’s portrait of the human being. This work is divided into two sections.

As a cultural trauma, the Holocaust exerted negative psychological effects on many survivors, with such effects often extending to their families. Research has explored these effects with respect to the survivors' children and grandchildren, but the experiences of the next generation have yet to be canvassed.