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Holocaust regeneration: for children of survivors, the trauma’s in the genes

Pearl Goodman didn’t feel safe in her own bedroom. 

Lying awake in her room late at night, heart pumping, ears tuned to noises outside, she was terrified even by the sounds of fire engines rushing to the aid of the injured. 

“Someone is in a life-threatening situation,” she thought. “Maybe me.” 

Goodman’s childhood fears were not entirely self-created. To her, they were somehow linked to her parents’ tragic experiences during the Holocaust. Her Polish mother survived a slave labour camp. Her father endured a concentration camp.

“I inherited their sensibility that awful things can happen at any time,” says Goodman.

Her mother was constantly on high alert, concerned for her children’s safety. When Pearl was in the bathtub, her mother would knock several times to make sure she was okay, as if her child could drown. She distrusted her daughter’s friends and worried about Pearl when she went on sleepovers. She could never say, “Go out and have a good time” she had left her father and brother at a train station during World War II, thinking nothing of it until they never returned home. 

Goodman’s parents’ over-protectiveness made it difficult for them to separate emotionally from her, too.

“My parents couldn’t allow me to just feel differently about something without being threatened.”

As a teenager, Goodman spoke up against some of her parents’ views. Heated arguments ensued. She always felt overwhelming guilt afterwards. “My parents lived through the Holocaust. My issues paled in comparison to that,” she says.

While we used to think that genes were immutable, they can actually change in response to the environment, says Rachel Yehuda, director of the Traumatic Stress Studies Division at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, who along with Mallory Bowers co-authored a study on the subject of “epigenetics” last year.

Their research shows that human genes can change in order to help the body adapt to a stressful environment. Trauma survivors often say, “I am not the same person – I left myself on the battlefield,” says Yehuda. These people have the same DNA, but something fundamental has shifted as a result of what happened to them. And these alterations can be passed down to the next generation.

Bowers, a post-doctoral fellow in psychiatry, says many Holocaust survivors acquired a modification of a gene that amplifies arousal. 

“This heightened attentiveness makes you more aware of your surroundings,” she says. 

That might help you live through a concentration camp, but the pumped-up stress response can also lead to anxiety and post-traumatic stress in survivors and their children. 

But not all the problems of Holocaust survivors and their families have to do with genetic mishaps, says Baycrest social worker Shoshana Yaakobi. 

As a result of trauma, many Holocaust survivors had difficulty giving of themselves emotionally, says Yaakobi. Stressful situations dealing with their own kids exposed their vulnerability, which could surface in the form of heightened anxiety. 

Rather than nurture their children, some expected their kids to make up for what had happened to them, she says. Fearful of another genocide, Yaakobi says Holocaust survivors were often overprotective and frowned on their children’s engaging with outsiders. 

Children of survivors felt oppressed by that tight grip, but guilt stopped them from rebelling. “It was difficult to rebel against parents if they had suffered,” says Yaakobi.

In spite of these challenges, many second-generation Holocaust victims became successful occupationally their parents usually valued education as a means of promoting their children’s survival. 

Bowers hopes researchers will someday figure out how to undo the epigenetic changes brought about by the Holocaust. For now, though, she recommends social support.

Yaakobi agrees. Participating in a group therapy setting can be very helpful. “It’s very healing to be understood,” she says.

What helped Goodman was finding out that trauma can be passed down through the generations, a fact she discovered during her training to become a psychotherapist. 

“It was like a light bulb went on for me,” she says. 

Suddenly, the events of her childhood began to make sense. This recognition eventually led her to write her memoir, When Their Memories Became Mine: Moving Beyond My Parents’ Past. 

Goodman says she’s come to terms with her family’s legacy. She values the justice, integrity and sense of humour instilled in her by her parents. “In my soul I embody a sense that there was tragedy, and it’s terrible,” she says. “But I’m all right.”

Vivien Fellegi is a former family physician who writes on mental health and social issues.


DIALOGUE FOR DESCENDANTS, a symposium exclusively for children of Holocaust survivors, takes place on Sunday (November 6), 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, at Terraces of Baycrest retirement residence (55 Ameer) as part of Holocaust Education Week, which runs to November 9. For complete program listings, go to holocaustcentre.com

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