PTSD transmission: a review of secondary traumatization in Holocaust survivor families

Canadian Psychology,  Nov 1998  by Williams-Keeler, Lyn,  McCarrey, Michael,  Baranowsky, Anna B,  Young, Marta,  Johnson-Douglas, Sue

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The main point to note here is the appropriateness of the PTSD diagnosis, in retrospect, among survivors and the significantly higher rate of occurrence among those exposed to greater traumas. The question of whether some form of PTSD exists in the second generation arises logically from this body of literature.

Theories of Trauma Transmission

The study of how trauma is transmitted from one individual to another is still at an early stage of development. We will limit our focus primarily to trauma transmission from Holocaust survivor to offspring, although there are theories outside of this realm that further support the notion of trauma transmission (Allen & Bloom, 1994; Edwards, 1995; McCann & Pearlman, 1990). Holocaust survivors suffered directly from the injustices of the Nazi regime. The next generation were not directly exposed to the cruel fate of their parents' generation, and yet, there is substantial evidence that many of the offspring suffered from a secondary exposure to the trauma which their parents faced.

Albeck (1994) explains the phenomenon of trauma transmission in Holocaust-survivor offspring as follows: "These offspring, the 'second generation' from the trauma, may thus bear 'the scar without the wound,' since they are significantly, if only indirectly, affected" (p. 106). In response to much of the research that assumes psychopathology in the second generation, Albeck discusses the importance of addressing issues of second-generation psychology (their appropriate psychological response toward the trauma of their parents) rather than psychopathology in the second generation. Based on his view, trauma may be transmitted but the offspring are still able to become healthy effectual adults. Albeck emphasizes the importance of recognizing that if trauma experienced by the survivors is transmitted, it will manifest as a unique entity in the offspring. Albeck uses the term "empathic traumatization" to describe the offsprings' attempts to understand their parents' wartime experiences and pain as a means of establishing a connection with them. In doing so the offspring imagine Holocaust scenes which they attempt to successfully escape or survive. The offspring literally maintain their familial ties by integrating their parents' experiences.

Mor (1990) offers a different but complementary view of trauma transmission. Mor suggests that the children of survivors "adopted" their parents' trauma through one of two types of parental communication. The first possible interchange was through an almost obsessive re-telling of Holocaust stories from survivor to child. The second means of transmission was accomplished through an all-consuming silence. Although the silence was meant to be protective, it led to a fearful reflection of the horrors that befell the parents and the missing grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Albeck (1994) and Mor's conceptualizations are easily integrated. The offspring learn about the Holocaust through their parents' communication and use these messages to create a bridge between themselves and their parents' past traumas.