Abstract
Little is known about traumatic memory after genocide over time and the extent to which the memory of genocide predicts physical and mental disorders or resilience. Specifically, is memory recall associated with the health of survivors? Do memories vary over time? We will tentatively answer these questions by means of a review (A scoping review is a gathering of literature in a given area where the aims are to accumulate as much evidence as possible and map the results) of non-clinical studies on long-term impact of genocides on survivors and on their offspring’s mental health. For sure, we do not capture the whole wealth of literature in this chapter. We investigate changes in memory associated with genocide. Traumatic memories are prone to change, giving a sense of nowness of the past, in some instances. Such changes in memory can have an impact on mental health of genocide survivors. This impact on survivors’ mental health may include posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, somatization and substance abuse. Conversely, it may lead to increased resilience. We review research findings showing that that changes in memory are a key feature affecting health and well-being. The empirical longitudinal assessment of memories of genocide survivors and how they vary over time might be an important step in furthering genocide and health studies.
…..Sometimes, things I’d seen during the war would slip through from walled-in basements of memory, demanding the right to exist. But they did not have the power to bring down the pillars of oblivion and the will to live. And life itself said then: Forget! Be absorbed!
Aaron Appelfeld, The Story of a Life (2004).
References
Abramowitz, M. Z., Lichtenberg, P., Marcus, E. L., & Shapira, B. (1994). Treating a Holocaust survivor without addressing the Holocaust: A case report. In T. L. Brink (Ed.), Holocaust survivors’ mental health (pp. 78–80). New York: The Haworth Press.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Amir, M., & Lev-Wiesel, R. (2003). Time does not health all wounds: quality of life and psychological distress of people who survived the holocaust as children 55 years later. International Journal of Traumatic Stress, 16(3), 295–299.
Anderson, M. C., Ochsner, K. N., Kuhl, B., Cooper, J., Robertson, E., Gabrieli, S. W., et al. (2004). Neural systems underlying the suppression of unwanted memories. Science, 303(5655), 232–235.
Barel, E., Van Ijzendorrn, M. H., Sagi-Schwartz, A., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2010). Surviving the Holocaust: A meta-analysis of the long-term sequelae of a genocide. Psychological Bulletin, 136(5), 677–698.
Bennett, M. R., Arnold, J., Hatton, S. N., & Lagopoulos, J. (2017). Regulation of fear extinction by long-term depression: The role of endocannabinoids and brain derived neurotrophic factor. Behavioral Brain Research, 319, 148–164.
Berardi, A., Schelling, G., & Campolongo, P. (2016). The endocannabinoid system and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): From preclinical findings to innovative therapeutic approaches in clinical settings. Pharmacological Research, 111, 668–678.
Bercovich, E., Keinan-Boker, L., & Shasha, S. M. (2014). Long-term health effects in adults born during the Holocaust. The Israel Medical Association Journal, 16(4), 203–207.
Brewin, C. R. (2007). Autobiographical memory for trauma: Update on four controversies. Memory, 15(3), 227–248.
Brewin, C. R. (2014). Episodic memory, perceptual memory, and their interaction: Foundations for a theory of posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychological Bulletin, 140(1), 69–97.
Brewin, C. R., Dalgleish, T., & Joseph, S. (1996). A dual representation theory of posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychological Review, 103(4), 670–686.
Brockmeier, J. (2015). Beyond the archive. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bryant, R. A., O’Donnell, M. L., Creamer, M., McFarlane, A. C., & Silove, D. (2011). Posttraumatic intrusive symptoms across psychiatric disorders. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 45(6), 842–847.
Carmel, S., King, D. B., O’Rourke, N., & Bachner, Y. G. (2016). Subjective well-being: Gender differences in Holocaust survivors-specific and cross-national effects. Aging & Mental Health, 18, 1–8.
Catarino, A., Kupper, C. S., Werner-Seidler, A., Dalgleish, T., & Anderson, M. C. (2015). Failing to forget: Inhibitory-control deficits compromise memory suppression in posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychological Science, 26(5), 604–616.
Cohen, M., Brom, D., & Dasberg, H. (2001). Child survivors of the Holocaust: Symptoms and coping after fifty years. The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 38(1), 3–12.
Coleman, P. G. (1999). Creating a life story: The task of reconciliation. The Gerontologist, 39, 133–129.
Dalgleish, T., & Brewin, C. R. (2007). Autobiographical memory and emotional disorder: A special issue of memory. Memory, 15(3), 225–226.
Danese, A., & McEwen, B. S. (2012). Adverse childhood experiences, allostasis, allostatic load, and age-related disease. Physiology & Behavior, 106(1), 29–39.
Davison, E. H., Kaiser, A. P., Spiro, A., 3rd, Moye, J., King, L. A., & King, D. W. (2016). From late-onset stress symptomatology to later –adulthood trauma reengagement in aging combat veterans: Taking a broader view. The Gerontologist, 56, 14–21.
De Vries, B., Suedfeld, P., Krell, R., Blando, J. A., & Southard, P. (2005). The Holocaust as a context for telling life stories. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 60(3), 213–228.
Ehlers, A., Hackmann, A., & Michael, T. (2004). Intrusive re-experiencing in post-traumatic stress disorder: Phenomenology, theory, and therapy. Memory, 12(4), 403–415.
Ehlers, A., Mauchnik, J., & Handley, R. (2012). Reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processes. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 43(Suppl 1), S67–S75.
Eitinger, L. (1962). Concentration camp survivors in the postwar world. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 32, 367–375.
Fink, D. S., Lowe, S., Cohen, G. H., Sampson, L. A., Ursano, R. J., Gifford, R. K., et al. (2016). Trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms after civilian or deployment traumatic event experiences. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000147. Accessed 25 June 2016.
Foa, E. B., & Kozak, M. (1986). Emotional processing of fear: Exposure to correcting information. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 20–35.
Friedman, M. J., & Bernardy, N. C. (2016). Considering future pharmacotherapy for PTSD. Neuroscience Letters, 649, 181–185.
Friedman, M. J., Resick, P. A., Bryant, R. A., & Brewin, C. R. (2011). Considering PTSD for DSM-5. Depression and Anxiety, 28(9), 750–769.
Giladi, L., & Bell, T. S. (2013). Protective factors for intergenerational transmission of trauma among second and third generation Holocaust survivors. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, 5(4), 384–391.
Grossberg, S. (2015). From brain synapses to systems for learning and memory: Object recognition, spatial navigation, timed conditioning, and movement control. Brain Research, 1621, 270–293.
Hantman, S., & Solomon, Z. (2007). Recurrent trauma: Holocaust survivors cope with aging and cancer. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 42(5), 396–402.
Keinan-Boker, L., Shasha-Lavsky, H., Eilat-Zanani, S., Edri-Shur, A., & Shasha, S. M. (2015). Chronic health conditions in Jewish Holocaust survivors born during World War II. The Israel Medical Association Journal, 17(4), 206–212.
Kellermann, N. P. F. (2001). The long-term psychological effects and treatment of Holocaust trauma. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 6(3), 197–218.
King, D. B., Cappelizez, P., Carmel, S., Bachner, Y. G., & O’Rourke, N. (2015). Remembering genocide: The effects of early life trauma on remiscence functions among Israeli Holocaust survivors. Traumatology, 21, 145–152.
Labinsky, E., Blair, W., & Yehuda, R. (2006). Longitudinal assessment of dissociation in Holocaust survivors with and without PTSD and nonexposed aged Jewish adults. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1071, 459–462.
Letzter-Pouw, S. E., Shrira, A., Ben-Ezra, M., & Palgi, Y. (2013). Trauma transmission through perceived parental burden among Holocaust survivors’ offspring and grandchildren. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and policy, 6(4), 420–429.
Levav, I., & Abramson, J. H. (1984). Emotional distress among concentration camp survivors – A community study in Jerusalem. Psychological Medicine, 14(1), 215–218.
Levine, S. Z., Levav, I., Yoffe, R., & Pugachova, I. (2014). The effects of pre-natal-, early-life- and indirectly-initiated exposures to maximum adversities on the course of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 158(1–3), 236–240.
Levine, S. Z., Levav, I., Yoffe, R., Becher, Y., & Pugachova, I. (2016). Genocide exposure and subsequent suicide risk: A population-based study. PloS One, 11(2), e0149524.
Liberati, A., Altman, D. G., Tetzlaff, J., Mulrow, C., Gotzsche, P. C., Ioannidis, J. P., et al. (2009). The PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses of studies that evaluate healthcare interventions: Explanation and elaboration. British Medical Journal, 339, b2700.
Lindert, J., Knobler, H. Y., Kawachi, I., Bain, P. A., Abramowitz, M. Z., & McKee, C. (2017). Psychopathology of children of genocide survivors: A systematic review on the impact of genocide on their children’s psychopathology from five countries. International Journal of Epidemiology, 46(1), 225–246.
Lis-Turlejska, M., Luszczynska, A., Plichta, A., & Benight, C. C. (2008). Jewish and non-Jewish War II child and adolescent survivors at 60 years after war: Effects of parental loss and age at exposure on well-being. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78, 369–377.
McNally, R. J., Metzger, L. J., Lasko, N. B., Clancy, S. A., & Pitman, R. K. (1998). Directed forgetting of trauma cues in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse with and without posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107(4), 596–601.
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Taylor, A., Kokaua, J., Milne, B. J., Polanczyk, G., et al. (2010). How common are common mental disorders? Evidence that lifetime prevalence rates are doubled by prospective versus retrospective ascertainment. Psychological Medicine, 40(6), 899–909.
Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., & PRISMA Group. (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA statement. BMJ, 339, b2535.
Mollica, R. F., Brooks, R., Tor, S., Lopes-Cardozo, B., & Silove, D. (2014). The enduring mental health impact of mass violence: A community comparison study of Cambodian civilians living in Cambodia and Thailand. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 60(1), 6–20.
Morina, N., van Emmerik, A. A., Andrews, B., & Brewin, C. R. (2014). Comparison of DSM-IV and proposed ICD-11 formulations of PTSD among civilian survivors of war and war veterans. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 27(6), 647–654.
Nadler, A., & Ben-Shushan, D. (1989). Forty years later: long-term consequences of massive traumatization as manifested by Holocaust survivors from the city and the Kibbutz. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57(2), 287–293.
Niederland, W. G. (1988). The clinical after-effects of the Holocaust in survivors and their offspring. In R. L. Braham (Ed.), The psychological perspectives of the Holocaust and of its aftermath, Holocaust studies series (pp. 45–52). New York: Social Science Monographs.
Opaas, M., & Varvin, S. (2015). Relationships of childhood adverse experiences with mental health and quality of life at treatment start for adult refugees traumatized by pre-flight experiences of war and human rights violations. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 203(9), 684–695.
O’Rourke, N., Bachner, Y. G., Cappeliez, P., Chaudhury, H., & Carmel, S. (2015a). Reminiscence functions and the health of Israeli Holocaust survivors as compared to other older Israelis and older Canadians. Aging & Mental Health, 19(4), 335–346.
O’Rourke, N., Canham, S. L., Wertman, A., Chaudhury, H., Carmel, S., Bachner, Y. G., & Peres, H. (2015b). Holocaust survivors’ memories of past trauma and the functions of reminiscence. The Gerontologist, 56, 743–752.
Panter-Brick, C., Grimon, M.-P., Kalin, M., & Eggermann, M. (2015). Trauma memories, mental health, and resilience: A prospective study of Afghan youth. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry., 56(7), 814–825.
Rieder, H., & Elbert, T. (2013). The relationship between organized violence, family violence and mental health: Findings from a community-based survey in Muhanga, Southern Rwanda. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 4, 21329.
Rubanzana, W., Hedt-Gauthier, B. L., Ntaganira, J., & Freeman, M. D. (2015). Exposure to genocide and risk of suicide in Rwanda: A population-based case–control study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 69(2), 117–122.
Rugema, L., Mogren, I., Ntaganira, J., & Krantz, G. (2015). Traumatic episodes and mental health effects in young men and women in Rwanda, 17 years after the genocide. British Medical Journal Open, 5(6), e006778.
Sagi-Schwartz, A., van Ijzendoorn, M. H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2008). Does intergenerational transmission of trauma skip a generation? No meta-analytic evidence for tertiary traumatization with third generation of Holocaust survivors. Attachment & Human Development, 10(2), 105–121.
Sagi-Schwartz, A., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., Linn, S., & van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2013). Against all odds: Genocidal trauma is associated with longer life-expectancy of the survivors. PloS One, 8(7), e69179.
Sales, J. M., Merrill, N. A., & Fivush, R. (2013). Does making meaning make it better? Narrative meaning making and well-being in at risk African-American adolescent females. Memory, 21, 53–66.
Schacter, D. L. (2001). The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Schock, K., & Knaevelsrud, C. (2013). Retraumatization: The vicious circle of intrusive memory. In M. Linden & K. Rutkowski (Eds.), Hurting memories and beneficial forgetting. posttraumatic stress disorders, biographical developments, and social conflicts. London/Waltham: Elsevier.
Sherin, J. E., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2011). Post-traumatic stress disorder: The neurobiological impact of psychological trauma. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 13(3), 263–278.
Shrira, A., Palgi, Y., Ben-Ezra, M., & Shmotkin, D. (2011). Transgenerational effects of trauma in midlife: Evidence for resilience and vulnerability in offspring of Holocaust survivors. Psychological trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, 3(4), 394–402.
Sigal, J. J. (1995). Resilience in survivors, their children and their grandchildren. Echoes of the Holocaust, 4, 9–13.
Sigal, J. J. (1998). Long-term effects of the Holocaust: Empirical evidence for resiliencein the first, second, and third generation. Psychoanalytic Review, 85, 579–585.
Squire, L. R., & Dede, A. J. (2015). Conscious and unconscious memory systems. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 7(3), a021667.
Stein, D. J., McLaughlin, K. A., Koenen, K. C., Atwoli, L., Friedman, M. J., Hill, E. D., et al. (2014). DSM-5 and ICD-11 definitions of posttraumatic stress disorder: Investigating “narrow” and “broad” approaches. Depression and Anxiety, 31(6), 494–505.
Stessman, J., Cohen, A., Hammerman-Rozenberg, R., Bursztyn, M., Azoulay, D., Maaravi, Y., & Jacobs, J. M. (2008). Holocaust survivors in old age: The Jerusalem longitudinal study. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 3, 470–477.
Suedfeld, P., Soriano, E., McMurtry, D. L., Paterson, H., Weiszbeck, T. L., & Krell, R. (2005). Erikson’s ‘Components of a healthy personality’ among Holocaust survivors immediately and 40 years after the war. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 60(3), 229–248.
Van der Kolk, B. A., & van der Hart, O. (1989). Pierre Janet and the breakdown of adaptation in psychological trauma. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 146(12), 1530–1540.
van Emmerik, A. A., & Kamphuis, J. H. (2011). Testing a DSM-5 reformulation of posttraumatic stress disorder: Impact on prevalence and comorbidity among treatment-seeking civilian trauma survivors. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 24(2), 213–217.
Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Fridman, A., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Sagi-Schwartz, A. (2013). Aftermath of genocide: Holocaust Survivors’ dissociation moderates offspring level of cortisol. Journal of Loss & Trauma, 18(1), 64–80.
Weinberg, M. K., & Cummins, R. A. (2013). Intergenerational effects of the Holocaust: Subjective well-being in the offspring of survivors. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 11(2), 148–161.
Zuj, D. V., Palmer, M. A., Lomen, M. J. J., & Felmingham, K. L. (2016). The centrality of fear extinction in linking risk factors to PTSD: A narrative review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 69, 15–35.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lindert, J., Knobler, H.Y., Abramowitz, M.Z. (2018). Genocide and Its Long Term Mental Impact on Survivors – What We Know and What We Do Not Know. In: Lindert, J., Marsoobian, A. (eds) Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Genocide and Memory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65513-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65513-0_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65511-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65513-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)