Genetic Scars of the Holocaust: Children Suffer Too
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Arya Tsaddiq
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How do you feel about what is being said in the article below? This was on yahoo.com this morning.....
The Holocaust is a crime that never seems to quit. Even as the ranks of survivors grow smaller each year, the impact of that dark passage in history continues to be to be felt. And it's not just the victims who feel the effects; it's their children too.
Psychologists have long been intrigued by the emotional profile of so-called second-generation Holocaust survivors. Parents who lived through the camps were forever changed by the horrors they witnessed. In the 21st century, many - probably most - would be recognized as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Back then, the absence of such a diagnosis meant the absence of effective treatments too. As a result, a generation of children grew up in homes in which one, and sometimes both, parents were battling untold emotional demons at the same time they were going about the difficult business of trying to raise happy kids. No surprise, they weren't always entirely successful. (See photos of Auschwitz after 65 years.)
Over the years, a large body of work has been devoted to studying PTSD symptoms in second-generation survivors and it has found signs of the condition in their behavior and even their blood - with higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, for example. The assumption - a perfectly reasonable one - was always that these symptoms were essentially learned. Grow up with parents afflicted by the mood swings, irritability, jumpiness and hypervigilance typical of PTSD and you're likely to wind up stressed and high-strung yourself. (See more on how children are also vulnerable to posttraumatic stress.)
Now, a new paper adds another dimension to the science, suggesting that it's not just a second generation's emotional profile that can be affected by a parent's trauma, it may be their genes too. The study, just published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, was conducted by a team headed by neurobiologist Isabelle Mansuy of the University of Zurich. What she and her colleagues set out to explore went deeper than genetics in general, focusing instead on epigenetics - how genes change as a result of environmental factors in ways that can be passed onto the next generation. (See pictures of an army town coping with PTSD.)
To conduct their work, Mansuy's team raised male mice from birth and continually but unpredictably separated them from their mothers from the time they were one day old until they were 14 days old. Thereafter, the animals were reared, fed and cared for normally, but the early trauma took its toll.
As adults, the subject animals exhibited PTSD-like symptoms such as isolation and jumpiness. More tellingly, their genes functioned differently from those of other mice. The investigators looked at five target genes associated with behavior - most notably, one that helps regulate the stress hormone CRF and one that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin - and found that all of them were either overreactive or underreactive.
These mice, for the purposes of the study, were the equivalent of first generation of Holocaust survivors. The same mice then fathered young and, like most males of the species, had nothing to do with their upbringing. The pups were raised by their mothers with none of the trauma and separation their fathers had suffered, and yet when they grew up, not only did they exhibit the same anxious behavior, they also had the same signature gene changes.
"We saw the genetic differences both in the brains of the offspring mice and in the germline - or sperm - of the fathers," says Mansuy.
Mouse studies, by their definition, are limited, particularly when the animals are being used as stand-ins not merely for human biology, but for human behavior. Still, in this case, the nonhuman models were actually an advantage, since you could hardly run a control experiment in which second-generation survivors of the Holocaust were separated from their fathers, ensuring that you were studying inherited - not acquired - traits. What's more, says Mansuy, "with animals, you can study the brain in detail."
That doesn't mean that some studies couldn't be conducted in human subjects that sought similar findings. Straightforward analysis of blood, plasma and sperm from volunteers could reveal signs of genetic changes similar to those seen in mice. And a deeper analysis of the mouse genes should yield other target genes to study in people. "We're now doing a high throughput study of hundreds of genes that go beyond the first five," says Mansuy.
The Holocaust is hardly the only life crisis that can shape behavior and genes. Survivors of Afghanistan, Iraq or Darfur - or even those who grew up in unstable or abusive homes - can exhibit similar changes. But Holocaust survivors remain one of the best study groups available because their trauma was so great, their population is so well known, and so many of them have gone on to produce children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. Humans, alas, may never run out of ways to behave savagely toward one another. But the better we can understand the price paid by the victims - and the babies of the victims - the better we might be able to treat their wounds.
The Holocaust is a crime that never seems to quit. Even as the ranks of survivors grow smaller each year, the impact of that dark passage in history continues to be to be felt. And it's not just the victims who feel the effects; it's their children too.
Psychologists have long been intrigued by the emotional profile of so-called second-generation Holocaust survivors. Parents who lived through the camps were forever changed by the horrors they witnessed. In the 21st century, many - probably most - would be recognized as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Back then, the absence of such a diagnosis meant the absence of effective treatments too. As a result, a generation of children grew up in homes in which one, and sometimes both, parents were battling untold emotional demons at the same time they were going about the difficult business of trying to raise happy kids. No surprise, they weren't always entirely successful. (See photos of Auschwitz after 65 years.)
Over the years, a large body of work has been devoted to studying PTSD symptoms in second-generation survivors and it has found signs of the condition in their behavior and even their blood - with higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, for example. The assumption - a perfectly reasonable one - was always that these symptoms were essentially learned. Grow up with parents afflicted by the mood swings, irritability, jumpiness and hypervigilance typical of PTSD and you're likely to wind up stressed and high-strung yourself. (See more on how children are also vulnerable to posttraumatic stress.)
Now, a new paper adds another dimension to the science, suggesting that it's not just a second generation's emotional profile that can be affected by a parent's trauma, it may be their genes too. The study, just published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, was conducted by a team headed by neurobiologist Isabelle Mansuy of the University of Zurich. What she and her colleagues set out to explore went deeper than genetics in general, focusing instead on epigenetics - how genes change as a result of environmental factors in ways that can be passed onto the next generation. (See pictures of an army town coping with PTSD.)
To conduct their work, Mansuy's team raised male mice from birth and continually but unpredictably separated them from their mothers from the time they were one day old until they were 14 days old. Thereafter, the animals were reared, fed and cared for normally, but the early trauma took its toll.
As adults, the subject animals exhibited PTSD-like symptoms such as isolation and jumpiness. More tellingly, their genes functioned differently from those of other mice. The investigators looked at five target genes associated with behavior - most notably, one that helps regulate the stress hormone CRF and one that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin - and found that all of them were either overreactive or underreactive.
These mice, for the purposes of the study, were the equivalent of first generation of Holocaust survivors. The same mice then fathered young and, like most males of the species, had nothing to do with their upbringing. The pups were raised by their mothers with none of the trauma and separation their fathers had suffered, and yet when they grew up, not only did they exhibit the same anxious behavior, they also had the same signature gene changes.
"We saw the genetic differences both in the brains of the offspring mice and in the germline - or sperm - of the fathers," says Mansuy.
Mouse studies, by their definition, are limited, particularly when the animals are being used as stand-ins not merely for human biology, but for human behavior. Still, in this case, the nonhuman models were actually an advantage, since you could hardly run a control experiment in which second-generation survivors of the Holocaust were separated from their fathers, ensuring that you were studying inherited - not acquired - traits. What's more, says Mansuy, "with animals, you can study the brain in detail."
That doesn't mean that some studies couldn't be conducted in human subjects that sought similar findings. Straightforward analysis of blood, plasma and sperm from volunteers could reveal signs of genetic changes similar to those seen in mice. And a deeper analysis of the mouse genes should yield other target genes to study in people. "We're now doing a high throughput study of hundreds of genes that go beyond the first five," says Mansuy.
The Holocaust is hardly the only life crisis that can shape behavior and genes. Survivors of Afghanistan, Iraq or Darfur - or even those who grew up in unstable or abusive homes - can exhibit similar changes. But Holocaust survivors remain one of the best study groups available because their trauma was so great, their population is so well known, and so many of them have gone on to produce children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. Humans, alas, may never run out of ways to behave savagely toward one another. But the better we can understand the price paid by the victims - and the babies of the victims - the better we might be able to treat their wounds.
Comments
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No replies huh?
Its funny though, because you would think since this is the same forum where a thread can get started about the effects of slavery on black people or the native american genocide and people will say stop making excuses for certain actions done by these groups. Yet, this article does the SAME thing for Jewish decendants of holocaust survivors, and no one has said ANYTHING.......
Just an observation.......... -
I believe all this. My young boys used to wake up screaming every night when they think about how Mastah Tonenburger whipped their mama something awful last week, as she was naked from the chest up.
They can see her back bleeding, even in their dreams!!!!!! Back of her head too, yes'um.
But to comfort them, all I do is show them the good book, the holy Bible, and show them young ? that the Bible supports the beating of slaves.
Them young ? don't get too scared when their mama gets beat or ? in the room next door no mo......they ? on themselves....but at least they don't scream at night no mo!!!! I hate that ? ......I gota sleep well to shine Mastah's shoes tomorow! Thanks to the many, many great, holy white men who edited the Bible so much, a dumb ? like me can understand it better now!
Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!! -
yet we're the ones who need to get over slavery lol.
they'll never tell that story -
marie addams wrote: »yet we're the ones who need to get over slavery lol.
they'll never tell that story
there are still holocaust victims alive today
any living slaves?
well, there are slaves today. in africa. enslaved by blacks. -
Your right Ktulu, but the article is talking about the children of those who went throught the holocaust. Basically saying it hadan effect on them genetically. And that future generations could still be effected by it. So im saying this. If this is true, could'nt the samething happening to decendants of the slaves of thr trans-atlantic slavetrade? Or the Navtive Americans? thats all im saying.
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Your right Ktulu, but the article is talking about the children of those who went throught the holocaust. Basically saying it hadan effect on them genetically. And that future generations could still be effected by it. So im saying this. If this is true, could'nt the samething happening to decendants of the slaves of thr trans-atlantic slavetrade? Or the Navtive Americans? thats all im saying.
isn't it a given that parents with PTSD are gonna give their kids some "issues"? i mean really -
KTULU IS BACK wrote: »there are still holocaust victims alive today
"They have that Holocaust sympathy they can coast on for another 15 years 'til the last survivor dies or the History Channel goes out of business." -
The difference is these Holocaust children have actual parents and grandparents who were there. You have to go back at least 5-6 generations to meet an African American Slave.
In another 4-5 generations will the descendants of Holocaust survivors still be like that?
IMO the mistreatment of blacks currently and during the mid 1900's is where our current mental issues stem from. We also still suffer from the effects of slavery in the United States, our communities and way of living is part to do with Slavery. We were always booked in separate communities and right after slavery ended we were basically forced into ghettos and not long after civil rights ? was pushed into these areas to slow or stop our building as a race. The holocaust survivors children aren't on that level. In the end though both we and them will make it, humans are too resistant to giving up. Our dark skin just made us go through more to reach the promise land. -
ThaChozenWun wrote: »IMO the mistreatment of blacks currently and during the mid 1900's
1877 to 1964 to be exact -
Swiffness! wrote: »1877 to 1964 to be exact
I said mid 1900's being that would the time of our grandparent/parents in some cases so it relates to holocaust children. -
ThaChozenWun wrote: »The difference is these Holocaust children have actual parents and grandparents who were there. You have to go back at least 5-6 generations to meet an African American Slave.
In another 4-5 generations will the descendants of Holocaust survivors still be like that?
IMO the mistreatment of blacks currently and during the mid 1900's is where our current mental issues stem from. We also still suffer from the effects of slavery in the United States, our communities and way of living is part to do with Slavery. We were always booked in separate communities and right after slavery ended we were basically forced into ghettos and not long after civil rights ? was pushed into these areas to slow or stop our building as a race. The holocaust survivors children aren't on that level. In the end though both we and them will make it, humans are too resistant to giving up. Our dark skin just made us go through more to reach the promise land.
NO NO NO!!!!!!! You wrong boy!!! You wrong!!!!!
Mastah Tonenburger tells me that we Negroes are naturally bad and EVIL! He claims the Bible proves that, although I haven't seen it there mesulf.....but I don't doubt Mastah!!! I been workin so hard pickin this cotton er'day, I just don't got no time to be lookin for Bible passages lately. Not the negative ones at least!
I gots to keep my mind fresh and positive! Stop talkin all that negative stuff boy!
Slavery is a good thing.......the Bible tells me so!!!!!! Are you dare questioning the Bible boy? My family ain't been slaves fo' 250 years to get mental issues!
My wife ain't gettin' ? and beaten fo' mental issues! Neither are my high yella sons, who got Mastah's eyes......NO!
We slaves for Jezuz!!!!!!!
If you talk negatively about slavery one more time boy, I'm gona get Mastah Tonenburger to whip yo ass 50 times like he did to my daughta for not giving him ass!!!!
My daughter needs to understand......she's not sexin Mastah for him.....she's sexin Mastah for further pleasures in heaven!!! Read the good Book heathen and understand!!!!!
Hallelujah!!!!!!!! -
KTULU IS BACK wrote: »there are still holocaust victims alive today
any living slaves?
well, there are slaves today. in africa. enslaved by blacks.
Mastah Tonenburger tells me that slaves be everywhere!!!!
In Russia.....Ukraine.....Brooklyn.....Iowa......everywhere!!!!
Mastah Tonenburger has a thing for them Asian womens that he says are enslaved by Chinese gangstas! In America!
I find that too hard to believe.....my Black ass aint gots no freedom, and yet them yellow boys got THEMSELVES some slaves? Russian gangsta types too!
Mastah tells me there's something called the Russian mafia that be holdin lots of slaves in America and Europe.....most of them white!
Ha! Well them Chinese and Russian boys can have slaves.....but if they not readin the Bible and Christian, than they gon' go to HELL!!!!!!!
I'm not sure why Mastah does so much business with them heathen women though.....he has good Christian ? in my wife!!!!!!!!!
Why put your ? in a non Christian woman? Just don't understand Mastah sometimes. -
No replies huh?
Its funny though, because you would think since this is the same forum where a thread can get started about the effects of slavery on black people or the native american genocide and people will say stop making excuses for certain actions done by these groups. Yet, this article does the SAME thing for Jewish decendants of holocaust survivors, and no one has said ANYTHING.......
Just an observation..........
Because no one cares when crackas ? crackas. -
Because no one cares when crackas ? crackas.
But apparently they do, or this article never would have been written. I think you missed the point I was trying to make. I was saying that this article gives a lot of reasons why decendants of holocust survivors act the way they do. And no one has said "stop making excuses" to this article yet. But if someone attempts to justify some of the psychologitcal issues that could have been caused by slavery, they are told they are making excuses. Thats all im getting at bro. -
I know there are some descendants od holocaust survivors on here possibly. Do any of you agree with this article?
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so some parents have a ? up experience, become crazy and the kids with crazy parents have issues. ok.
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While it may be to a much lesser degree, this happens all the time. Of course the trauma is transferred to the children. Anything the parents experienced shapes who they are and how they relate to those around them; it's just human nature.
