Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience by Mimi Nichter
Potomac Press, 2026
On September 6, 1970, 20-year-old Mimi Nichter became a hostage. In her memoir Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience, she recounts surviving the hijacking of Trans World Airlines Flight 741, one of the first incidents of international terrorism. Nichter describes the trauma she experienced after the hijacking and how that trauma silenced her for years.
Reading her story, I kept thinking about how she was only 20 at the time, and at 21 myself, that made her experience feel much more real and unsettling to me.
With everything happening in the world right now, personal stories like Nichter’s feel especially important. Her story gave me a clearer understanding of the challenges and horrors that victims and hostages face. The book sheds light on those experiences while also showing how PTSD affects survivors and how resilience is built.
Nichter answered my questions on Google Docs over the course of a few days. Her responses added another layer to her story, making it feel even more personal and real beyond what is written in the memoir.
Natalie Glosek: In your introduction, you mention how it felt safer to stay silent, and even when you went to therapy, you talked about current issues rather than the trauma of the hijacking you experienced. A huge part of your book is about this trauma and silence that followed after. Why did silence feel safer after something so extreme, and how did that silence end up shaping your life?
Mimi Nichter: This is a huge question; nonetheless, it’s a valid question! Like many women of my age, I was socialized not to talk about things that did not fit the cultural narrative of that time! We did not talk about trauma. Like soldiers returning from war, we hostages were supposed to adjust back to life as soon as possible. The silence was not healthy. In the past decade, trauma has become a frequent topic of conversation among people of all ages, and I followed that trend. The silence shaped my life in many ways: I didn’t express myself fully in other domains of life. I was fortunate in that I lived a productive life with family and career. I was not silent in those domains. I hid something important—I learned that trauma should be addressed, understood, and though it never leaves you, it is best to examine it closely.
NG: In your memoir, you describe sitting on the plane in Jordan for six days without air conditioning or running water, with the uncertainty of life or death constantly looming. There are moments where you begin to shut down as well on the plane like when you write, “Painfully aware of how alone I am, I try not to look at anyone. Like a hermit crab, I retreat into myself.” In this moment, you focus on your internal self rather than the chaos happening around you. What do you think these quieter reactions say about how you were processing everything in the moment?
MN: Hopefully they allow the reader to think about what I was feeling and internally thinking about. I think it’s important to toggle between what I was seeing as a hostage and what was going on inside my head. I do this throughout—it’s important to go deeper than just what is externally occurring. That sentence shows how I dealt with the situation—I tried to be stoic, I had to accept what was going on, but I couldn’t cry. Helping others was a useful alternative to dwelling on my own fear and aloneness.
NG: This hijacking, as you say, is one of the first incidents of international terrorism, so even though this is a very traumatic event, no one really recognized that you could possibly have PTSD. How do you hope your book contributes to public understanding of both the historical significance of this event and the personal, psychological aftermath of terrorism?
MN: Many people have never heard about this event, even if they were alive at that time. Especially given the recent war in Gaza—which began with similar demands as my hijacking 55 years ago—it is important for people to understand the history of these events. This was the first incident, but it has only become much worse since the demands of the Palestinians have never been resolved. In terms of trauma, several people who were former hostages with me on the plane came to a book talk I recently did in New York. We all suffered from PTSD afterwards that was not addressed. I was surprised to learn that most people there—a bit younger than I was, went right back to school the day after they returned home. Now, of course, hostages are provided extensive care both physically and mentally before they reenter their worlds.
NG: You write a lot about how PTSD was not something that was talked about when you got back from the States. PTSD is a hard topic to revisit and learn about especially if you have experienced it. Was there a particular part of this topic that was extremely hard to write for you and did it take a lot of push mentally to write it?
MN: The whole book was difficult to write because I had not processed the event before I began writing. I simply jumped in and began, excavating my memories, digging for what I remembered and felt. I cried so much in the remembering, the reliving of the fear, even after multiple rewrites in the editing process, the events continued to frighten me. I believe—I should say other writers have told me—that most memoirists process their stories/experiences through therapy, or thinking a lot about it, before they start the writing process if it is a traumatic story like mine. But I only began talking about this in therapy after I was well into the process of writing. I never viewed this as trauma. Writing is a push, no writing is easy, whether it’s personal or academic. Hostage is my fourth book, my first memoir.
NG: While I was reading your book, I couldn’t help but think about the ongoing conflicts happening in the world right now. Your experience really highlights how conflict hurts real human lives, which often gets overshadowed with talks of political adversaries and debate around it. Your story is such a personal, human look at what most people experienced as the evening news. Why do you think individual experiences are so often overlooked, and how can we start paying more attention to them?
MN: It’s a good question, but I’m not sure how to answer it. What you listen to and privilege as important depends on who you are. Really personal stories, like Hostage, try to engage the reader at a visceral level, and that may “stick” in people’s minds and get them thinking and feeling about world events in a different way. Hopefully…
NG: There’s a moment in the book when you’re playing games with the kids on the plane to try to keep the kids happy and spirits alive. You write about how negotiations for hostages were happening at the same time and your family did not know much of what was happening. When you later learned all that was going on during the hijack, what feelings came up for you about the situation you were put in?
MN: As I write in the book after I returned home, reading the backstory about the hijacking in newspaper accounts confirmed what I and others suspected all along—that we were in serious trouble and could have lost our lives at any moment! But as a hostage, you have to cling to a shred of hope, so you don’t want to really let in the worst thoughts of what could happen.
NG: When you are asked about your religion on the plane, you hesitate but tell the hijackers that you are Jewish. I was really amazed at the bravery it probably took to answer that question honestly. Can you touch on what that decision to answer honestly meant to you, and do you feel your identity has changed or strengthened throughout this experience?
MN: Well, I had just reestablished a Jewish secular identity during my time in Israel and didn’t want to give it up so quickly. So I didn’t want to lie. I was proud to be Jewish, especially after the Holocaust (which hadn’t been so far in the past). Lying also would have been a dangerous choice—what if they knew or somehow found out I was Jewish (as they did soon enough from going through my luggage)? My identity—I guess you mean my Jewish identity—didn’t strengthen through this experience. I’m still a secular Jew, who rarely goes to temple or participates in organized religion. And nowadays, with all the antisemitic rhetoric in the world, it is such a difficult time to be Jewish. There is so much hatred worldwide towards Jews, and Israel has been so aggressive towards our neighbors. Like many Jews, when I think of the 70,000+ Palestinians who have been killed, maimed, orphaned over the past three years, I am dismayed.
NG: You mention that writing helped you start to see yourself as a survivor. What did you learn about yourself through the process of writing this book that you didn’t fully understand before?
MN: I learned that narrative therapy is very useful. In writing the story, I learned that my story is an important one. Many people have shown interest in it and are fascinated to learn this piece of history. I also realize how valuable it has been for me personally to finally release this story that was inside me for so long. In addition to writing about it, the publication of Hostage has led me to actually talk about this story in public. I’ve literally spoken to audiences of over 300 people—something I wondered if I could do, having never spoken about it before. I could! And as a result, I feel lighter, and ready to move on.
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Mimi Nichter is Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona School of Anthropology, where she holds joints appointments in the College of Public Health and the Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences. She is the author (or co-author) of four books. Her first book, Fat Talk, received the prestigious Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association. Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience is her first memoir.
Natalie Glosek is a recent graduate from SUNY Oswego where she received her degree in English and Creative Writing. She has had her work published in Great Lake Review and served as a head editor for The Oswegonian. She currently is working as a Communications Coordinator for Oswego County’s economic development agency. When she is not writing or reading, you can find Natalie scrolling on Pinterest or watching the latest show or movie on her laptop. Go Bills!