RECENT PRESS

Study looks at third generation of Holocaust survivors
by Elissa Provance
The Jewish Voice
Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region (California, USA)
 
When Mark Yoslow was 8 years old, he learned that an entire branch of his family was shot by a firing squad outside of the Warsaw Ghetto.
 
“I have never been able to forget the image that formed in my mind when I was told about it,” he says. “There are moments when I believe that what I imagined was actually what happened, down to the pock marked wall behind my relatives, the freezing winter weather, and the cold feeling of the cobble stones stained with blood. It is a haunting image.”
 
Yoslow, a New York native [living in Los Gatos, CA], is now working towards his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto [CA]. In February, he began studying the third generation of Holocaust survivors for his dissertation, entitled, “The Pride and Price of Remembrance: Post-Holocaust Research Study.” Transpersonal Psychology, he explains, is the study of psychology in combination with spirituality.
 
“In the deconstructionist view it is thought that there is no such thing as a universal experience— that everything is experienced individually,” Yoslow says. However, his research on the history of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) uncovered something quite different.
 
“In contrast to the deconstructionist view, the horror of the Holocaust was a universal experience for everyone who lived through it. We find this experience woven into the diagnosis of PTSD as concentration camp disorder, concentration camp neurosis, survivor syndrome, and a number of other characteristics related to the experiences of Holocaust survivors,” he notes.
 
Research on the third generation of survivors is an area that has remained largely untapped, unlike that of second generation or children of survivors, which began in the 1960s, when survivors began showing signs of PTSD after being interviewed to receive reparations from Germany.
 
“The second generation learned how to deal with crisis and life by mirroring how survivors dealt with crisis,” explains Yoslow. “It was a learned behavior. Psychologists had never seen this type of mirroring before. This led to theories about transgenerational PTSD in the second generation.”
 
Taking it a step further; however, Yoslow adds that clinical psychologists and others who treated children of survivors found that when the person went beyond the surface of the initial response, which reflected PTSD symptoms, a response that was more suited to the situation emerged.  
 
“Aside from seeing responses characteristic of PTSD, they also saw an incredible power and ability to handle different situations beyond the norm,” explains Yoslow. “An ability to support people and an ability to make a commitment to do their best. Aside from the pathology, the second generation is using their enormous power for the good of humanity.” This is evidenced, he adds, by efforts such as the creation of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., which was spearheaded by children of survivors.
 
Yoslow, who also earned Master’s degrees in Education and Psychology, began to wonder if transgenerational trauma would show up in the third generation of survivors.
 
“The third generation has great pride in being descendents, but what is the price of being exposed to Holocaust horrors?” he asks.  “Do they pay a personal price or do they have a profound experience of strengthening and transformation that fosters tikkun olam and action for the good of humanity?”
 
Yoslow hypothesizes that rather than the “transmission of trauma,” there is a transmission of a profound experience of transformation and desire to do good in the world.
 
“If you look at the third generation from a cognitive behavioral point of view and are looking for trauma but don’t find it, you might say there’s nothing there,” he explains. “But if you look at it from a transpersonal and spiritual relationship between people and spiritual responses to events, then the third generation seems to be transforming what they have learned about the horrors of the Holocaust into the conviction that this will never happen again to anyone anywhere, as well as the determination to do good work in the world.”
 
Yoslow locates study participants through contacts with Jewish organizations and agencies such as second generation groups, synagogues, and Jewish Community Centers. After just three weeks of publicity, he had 31 participants. The researcher would like 100-300 participants in order to have a complete view of the third generation as opposed to what he calls a “caricature.”
 
“I want a really clear picture of people and what they’re doing in the world,” he says.
 
The process for participating is simple and confidential. Yoslow sends an information packet, which includes an informed consent form that is returned to him as well as six instruments: a demographic survey, a questionnaire, and four psychological tests.
 
“What’s being looked at isn’t just the trauma of the Holocaust but the strength in having survived it that is passed on,” Yoslow says. “The idea is not to say we should replace the horror of the Holocaust— the horror of holocaust will always be with us. It’s about the transformation of the horror. The only way to transform it is to know about it. You can’t turn your back on it.”
 
Elissa Provance is the Editor of The Jewish Voice, a monthly publication of The Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region in Sacramento, California. This article appeared in the April 2007 issue. To participate in Yoslow’s study, contact him at 800.313.1851.  The research for his dissertation ends in April; however, Yoslow will continue to collect and study data.

Please Note: Below is a list of the nations and communities participating in this study of Third Generation Survivors. The March of the Living, Canada, has responded positively to a proposal asking them to help organize the participation of 50 to 100 of their over-18 graduates in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, this Spring as a centralized event. These results will contribute to the ongoing, worldwide portion of this study (beyond the dissertation) that will be contacting Third Generation Survivors from Yom Hashoah 2007 to Yom Hashoah 2008. Funding is currently being sought for this worldwide study of the transpersonal and transgenerational echo of Holocaust remembrance and the transformation it inspires.

Canada:

Thornhill, Ontario

Ottowa, Ontario

Toronto, Ontario.

Europe:

Paris, France

Galway, Ireland

Stockholm, Sweden

USA:

Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Encino, Claremont, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, Simi Valley, and Ventura, CA.

Astoria, Central Valley, Nanuet, New York, Rockland, Rochester, and Spring Valley, NY.

Buffalo Grove, Champaign, Chicago, and Wilmette, IL.

Madison, WI.

Washington, DC

Nashville, TN

Ann Arbor, MI

Somerville, MA

Philadelphia, PA,

West Linn, OR

New London, CT

Austin, TX