Aging Holocaust Survivors Still Suffer From PTSD

From 1942 to 1945, Sonia Reich, a pre-adolescent Jew, was on the run. Orphaned and alone, she fought to keep herself alive while the majority of her extended family was executed in the Holocaust. When World War II ended, Sonia came to the United States, married a Holocaust survivor and built what her son, Howard, calls “the American Dream": a long marriage, children and grandchildren who went to college, a house without a mortgage, a car, and an extended life. From the outside, it seemed that Sonia had escaped the camps.

Family support, family stress, and suicidal ideation in a combat-exposed sample of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans

Background and Objectives: Deployment-related risk factors for suicidal ideation among Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) veterans have received a great deal of attention. Studies show that mental health symptoms mediate the association between most deployment stressors and suicidal ideation; however, family-related factors during deployment are largely unexplored.

Memories of Holocaust-related traumatic experiences, sense of coherence, and survivors' subjective well-being in late life: some puzzling findings

Background and Objectives: This study explores the nexus of relationships between memories of Holocaust-related early traumatic events, survivors’ sense of coherence (SOC), and subjective well-being (SWB) in late life. Design: The basic design of this study, based 106 survivors (54% female), was cross-sectional. Methods: Participants underwent an extensive in-depth clinical interview relating to their Holocaust experiences and responded to measures of SOC and SWB.

From shell shock to PTSD: proof of war’s traumatic history

2015 marks several important First World War anniversaries: the centenary of the first use of poison gas in January; the centenary of the Gallipoli landings and the Armenian genocide in April. It is also 100 years since The Lancet published Charles S. Myers’ article, A Contribution to the Study of Shell Shock.

The study of shell shock

Brief Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Effects on Post-Treatment Suicide Attempts in a Military Sample: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial With 2-Year Follow-Up

Objective: The authors evaluated the effectiveness of brief cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for the prevention of suicide attempts in military personnel. Method: In a randomized controlled trial, active-duty Army soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo., who either attempted suicide or experienced suicidal ideation with intent, were randomly assigned to treatment as usual (N=76) or treatment as usual plus brief CBT (N=76). Assessment of incidence of suicide attempts during the follow-up period was conducted with the Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interview.

Descendants of Holocaust Survivors Have Altered Stress Hormones

A person's experience as a child or teenager can have a profound impact on their future children's lives, new work is showing.

Rachel Yehuda, a researcher in the growing field of epigenetics and the intergenerational effects of trauma, and her colleagues have long studied mass trauma survivors and their offspring. Their latest results reveal that descendants of people who survived the Holocaust have different stress hormone profiles than their peers, perhaps predisposing them to anxiety disorders.

 

Objects, Nostalgia and the Dutch Colonial Elite in Times of Transition, ca. 1900–1970

This article analyses the role of the changing meanings of material objects in processes of identification, inclusion, and exclusion of people in the (former) colony and the Netherlands between 1900 and 1970. It reveals how and why people and nation-states relate to history, and to the Dutch colonial past in particular.

RIPPLES OF TRAUMA AND RESILIENCE : PARTNER RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SECOND-GENERATION SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST

Many researchers assume that the continuing influences of the Holocaust on its survivors are long-term, and hypothesize that its stamp is also present in the lives of the second and third generations of Holocaust survivors (e.g., Shmotkin et al., 2011). This assumption notwithstanding, controlled studies have found that second-generation Holocaust survivors do not report more psychopathology (e.g., Van IJsendoorn et al., 2003).

We are not numbers : Palestinian youth tell the human stories behind the numbers in the news

“There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless.’ There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” --Arundhati Roy

When the world talks about Palestinians living under occupation and in refugee camps, it is usually in terms of politics and numbers – specifically, how many killed, injured, homeless and/or dependent on aid.

Harmless Identities: Representations of Racial Consciousness among Three Generations Indo-Europeans

I wish to introduce the topic of racial consciousness with some words about a Dutch author born in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies: Hella S. Haasse. When she passed away in September 2011 at the age of 93, all obituaries affirmed she wasone of the most-respected and admired modern novelists, whose vivid and lively evocations of life in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies have...

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