![]() Though many decades have passed since the inception of this theory, the psychoanalytic literature continues to discuss the ongoing psychological difficulties of survivors and their offspring. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, I reviewed fifty-five case descriptions of children of Holocaust survivors. The theory argues that psychological symptoms and ego impairments observed in Holocaust survivors’ children are unique: a consequence of a vicarious exposure to their parents’ traumatic experiences. “I realised that if they could speak to us beyond the grave many would have agreed the mourning has to stop and be replaced with something more constructive.In this paper, I revisit the theory of an intergenerational transmission of Holocaust trauma. ![]() “What would our grandparents have felt if they had known we have had to carry their torment through generations? Wouldn’t they have wanted us to find the peace that was robbed from them? Wouldn’t they want us whole and living lives that they lost? Until then we cannot properly celebrate their lives or any kind of victory. “We should be releasing these old wounds to something beautiful rather than staying paralysed in memory and fear. “Our grandparents went through one horror, but it is important that we learn to process and debrief from their story to bring about wholesale recovery for this generation and the next. Glass says that while it is essential to preserve historical facts, the traumatising effect of memory should be addressed now. Never Ever Again! wants to move from what it calls “melancholic memorialisation” to “positive action”, and is calling for mental health provision to treat inherited trauma, as well as campaigning on various issues, including increased surveillance of fascist groups across Europe, supporting the Human Rights Act and challenging anti-immigration legislation. But unless it is processed properly, they make even more anxiety for themselves and other generations.” Our grandparents went through one horror, but it is important that we learn to debrief to bring about wholesale recovery Dan Glass ![]() ![]() “Constantly talking about events like the gas chambers to grandchildren is a way that traumatised people try to get rid of it – by sicking it up. ![]() Psychologist Ruth Barnett, whose Jewish father fled Germany for Shanghai, narrowly escaping the Holocaust, says she has witnessed inherited trauma in some of her clients. Some in the field of epigenetics say the intergenerational effects of the Holocaust are very pronounced and that the atrocities altered the DNA of victims’ descendants, so that they have different stress hormone profiles to their peers. Trauma research about the impact of the Holocaust on subsequent generations varies some studies conclude there is no effect of trauma two generations on, while others claim that breast milk of survivors was affected by stress hormones that impacted on the physiology of the next generation. The woman later developed anorexia and believes it was related to the war stories that had been passed down the line and never processed. A young woman from London told Glass of how her grandmother, who was in the Dutch resistance, avoided starvation at times by digging up flower bulbs and sucking out the nutrients. ![]()
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