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del.icio.us Digg It!  new Last update - 14:16 12/10/2007 Study: Holocaust trauma affects grandchildren of survivors By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent tags: survivors' grandchildren  More than 60 years after the Holocaust, the trauma of Nazi persecution is still affecting survivors' grandchildren, a recent study by a researcher from the University of Haifa suggests. The study on the long-term effects of extreme war-related trauma on the second and the third generation of Holocaust survivors involved 88 middle-class families. According to the study, young men and women born in Israel 40 years after WWII suffer greater emotional difficulties than the general population. Advertisement D Advertisement r. Miri Scharf found in her research - which was recently published in the scientific U.S. periodical Development and Psychopathology - that these emotional difficulties often manifest themselves when third-generation 18- and 17-year-olds enter the Israel Defense Forces. Scharf, herself the daughter of Holocaust survivors, says she was attracted to the subject following her own experience. "My father had to live on the run, and moved time and again between 17 different hideouts," she told Haaretz. "My mother also roamed in different areas, trying to survive. Several of my family members perished in the Holocaust, and my father carried with him the terror of living in hiding." According to Scharf, she became aware of the effects of living with third-generation emotional baggage from the Holocaust when she was working with students whose grandparents were survivors. "Some of them spoke of having a hard time trusting, of their fear of getting screwed over," she says. "This comes from a terrible air of suspiciousness at home." In her research, Scharf strove to identify the differences in the functioning of adults whose parents had survived the Holocaust, compared with that of another group. Another objective was to characterize the psychosocial functioning of adolescent grandchildren. Degree of presence of Holocaust in the family was examined in families in which both parents were survivors, in families where either mother or father was a survivor and families where neither parent was a survivor. Mothers' Holocaust background was associated with higher levels of psychological distress, and adolescents in families where both parents were survivors perceived their mothers as less accepting and less encouraging of independence. The teenagers reported less positive self-perceptions than their counterparts. "When only one parent is a survivor, the kids do fine, " Scharf noted. "The problems begin when their homes have too many dark shadows in them." The results of the study, says Scharf, show that it is recommended for clinicians to develop awareness of the possible traces of trauma in the second and the third generation to better treat that section of the population. More Jewish World news and features Bookmark to del.icio.us Sex slaves Studies show that 220 women were forced into prostitution by the German SS during WWII. Laughing through tears Hundreds gathered in Tel Aviv to pay their respects to beloved comic actor Yisrael Poliakov.   1.   Not Made Of Glass 07:02  |  Rowan Berkeley 12/10/07   2.   Grandchildren of survivors of the Naqba? 09:21  |  Palestinian Brit 12/10/07   3.   Question for Palestinian Brit 10:50  |  Jonathan S 12/10/07   4.   the grandchildren of every generation are traumatized 10:59  |  Leona 12/10/07   5.   Living in refugee camps instead of being absorbed 11:04  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 12/10/07   6.   The psychological damage will never end 12:51  |  Ky 12/10/07   7.   Whine, whine, whine; beg, beg, beg 13:49  |  Hannah 12/10/07   8.   Not only Jewish victims of WW2 - 3rd generation 14:41  |  Maria 12/10/07   9.   Sack up and get on with life 14:49  |  whatever 12/10/07   10.   3rd Generation Trauma 15:59  |  Michael 12/10/07   11.   to Hannah no 7 17:49  |  Tina 12/10/07   12.   Israeli society characteristic of post-traumatic stress 17:49  |  Jeff 12/10/07   13.   Mutual reconciliation is the only way 18:03  |  Esther 12/10/07   14.   British colleagues tell me I have a chip on my shoulder 19:09  |  Carol Philips 12/10/07   15.   study of israelis 20:29  |  robert 12/10/07   16.   to 2: always jealous??? 21:42  |  michel 12/10/07   17.   is it really surprising?? 21:43  |  gaon 12/10/07   18.   Holocaust trauma 21:46  |  Vera 12/10/07   19.   N0.3 - are you for real? 22:04  |  Palestinian Brit 12/10/07   20.   Margie 22:08  |  Palestinian Brit 12/10/07   21.   Only the Jews? No 15 22:11  |  Palestinian Brit 12/10/07   22.   demand more money from German government 22:17  |  JACKAL 12/10/07   23.   Carol..... 22:20  |  Tess 12/10/07   24.   "Children of the Holocaust" by Helen Epstein 18:41  |  Frederique 14/10/07   25.   Israeli context may be to blame 22:07  |  Jacob 14/10/07   26.   obvious answer 00:04  |  edgar 15/10/07   27.   Double the compensation, they would feel OK 07:35  |  Roxana from Iran 15/10/07   28.   None of you experience the trauma 08:01  |  sweis Melbourne 16/10/07   29.   trauma 17:41  |  TAZ 31/10/07   30.   well said Michael from Maryland 17:44  |  TAZ 31/10/07   31.   Study: Holocaust trauma 18:36  |  Ionah 31/10/07   32.   I was have been wondering how..... 03:10  |  Mark Faust 01/11/07   33.   2nd generation 16:03  |  Yaakov Reinbach 01/11/07

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