Survivors of the Holocaust and Their Children

During the Holocaust, extreme trauma was inflicted on child survivors. Two questions are central to the current investigation: First, do Holocaust child survivors still show marks of their traumatic experiences, even after more than 50 years? Second, has the trauma been “passed on” to the next generation, that is, to the children of Holocaust child survivors? Research on Holocaust child survivors may uncover debilitating effects of extreme war-related trauma, but also surprising reserves of human stamina and resilience. Careful sampling procedures were employed to form a quasi-experimental design with three generations, including 98 families with grandmother, mother, and their infant. Here we show that the Holocaust trauma had noticeable effects on child survivors (now grandmothers) in terms of traumatic stress and unresolved representations of traumatic experiences, but not with regard to their general adaptation. Also the traumatic effects did not transmit across generations, suggesting the resilient nature of parenting of even those exposed to inhuman atrocities. Holocaust child survivors seem to have been able to insulate their World-War II experiences, and protect their children from being infected as well.