Article: Holocaust Survivors of Sexual Abuse
Carla Lessing LCSW is a Holocaust survivor who was hidden in Holland for thirty months. She graduated from the Columbia University School of Social Work and acquired a Certificate in Advanced Clinical Social Work from New York University. Mrs. Lessing worked at the Rockland County Community Mental Health Center in Pomona, New York for twenty years in its day treatment programs and clinics. She served as a clinical supervisor and as an individual and group therapist. In addition, she was a field instructor for graduate students in social work. For the last fifteen years she has been a private practitioner treating a diverse population, including Holocaust survivors and the second generation. Mrs. Lessing is one of the founders of the Hidden Child Foundation/ADL and has developed ongoing programs for its members since its inception in 1991. She is the volunteer social worker of the Foundation and has advocated for child survivors of the Holocaust and the second generation nationwide. Mrs. Lessing has planned and developed workshop programs for the annual International Hidden Children/Child Survivors conferences and has facilitated a great variety of workshops. Her article “The Vanished Communal Heritage of Holocaust Survivors: Its Impact on Survivors and Their Children” was published in the Journal of Jewish Communal Service 75(4), summer 1999.