News Intergenerational trauma evident in offspring caring for holocaust survivor parents

[MyPTSD]

More than 70 years since the end of World War II, there are still signs of intergenerational transmission of Holocaust trauma that are manifested in the way adult offspring of Holocaust survivors care for their elderly parents.

Dead Link Removed

 

[lostnconfused]

Thank you for the research article! I'm glad there finally was a study; I tried mentioning how it affected my relatives and how they parented me, but others (I think young people who didn't understand what I was trying to say or who don't have that type of family history) didn't seem to sympathize or understand.

 

[KwanYingirl]

I trained and worked at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston for 15 years beginning in 1972. We were routinely educated about caring for Holocost survivors, many who we extremely frail and easily triggered. BI went to great lengths to honor and reduce the suffering of this group, and to support families caring for them. This article didn’t teach me anything I didn’t know.

 

[lostnconfused]

From the article:

...On the one hand, there are those who claim that offspring of Holocaust survivors demonstrate impressive resilience and do not differ in major health markers (such as symptoms of depression and anxiety) from those whose parents did not experience the Holocaust. Other researchers insist that survivors' suffering has lingered across generations, thereby affecting their offspring and other kin...

I wonder whether the difference between some Holocaust familes' resilience might be due to wealth, college educational opportunities, etc. (i.e. that those descendants who went to college improved their economic standing, and, as a result, their mental health, whereas those who weren't able to afford it, fared worse and developed mental health problems, which they passed down to their offspring.)

My only criticism is that, for a professional study done by college-educated researchers, I wish they would've pointed out that not only Jewish people were Holocaust survivors; my relatives have always felt hurt and angry at being excluded from Holocaust discussions/articles/movies, etc.