to those who lived it. Sometimes history doesn't seem
far away. They called us jews. When we went to school,
we have to call Heil Hitler in the beginning and sai
good morning Heil Hitler when we didn't know the hands
up. They give us with the stick And to those closest to
that kind of pain. It's their history too. Even if they
didn't live it, it's in my blood, it's in my blood. 101
year old asked her Kosner celebrate Shabbat every
with her Children, her grandchildren and if they're
around her great grandchildren. But But she's easily
transported to a different home when she lived in
nearly nine decades ago in Cologne Germany one. Nazis
once stormed into looking to take away her brother here.
He's not here. So they didn't, they pushed away. I
started crying. I was a little girl. Did your husband
talk about the Holocaust a lot when he was alive No,
why not Well, he he lost his parents and and brothe
and the sister. Do you think it was too painful to talk
about The initial reluctance to discuss that trauma
bled to her Children, Her grandchildren, including he
grandson. J I saw my uncle had a tattoo on his arm and
I said, what is that And my dad was there And he said,
oh that's the number of his girlfriend because my uncle
didn't want to say anything and then everyone chan
the subject. Survivor reactions to trauma are as varied
as the millions of people who suffered. Some kept their
memories tucked away in place. No one could access some
re experience to their trauma only in nightmares.
Others told their harrowing accounts to anyone who
would listen vocal or not. The impacts ripple through
generations. There is a history of 2000 and more years
of persecution and discriminati and death threat all
the time over the heads of Jewish population ever
Dr irit Felsen, a psychologist who specializes in
holocaust related trauma knows this subject on a deeper
level. One that books could never teach both of her
parents were survivors, making a two G or second
generation survivor. Children of trauma survivors have
an experiential knowledge of their parents, trauma of
experiences that they never actually lived through. She
says passing on generational trauma is not just the
retelling of holocaust stories many times. It's through
experiences in daily life through their pay,
personality being hyper vigilan about all kinds of
things all the time. A little suspicious, a little, a
little always scanning for dang for what can go wrong,
anticipating the worst outcome. Perhaps when some
people wouldn't um mistrustful nous um anxiety, a
tendency to sort of depressive experiences in the y
after the holocaust resources were scarce and mental
health care just was not the focus. Many survivors who
had witnessed repeated murder of other jews of their
family and during years of torture and starvation were
told to just let it go. But the reality of that trauma
was tangible. Even years later, as many survivors
created their own families, they had little to no
extended family of their own no aunts and uncles,
cousins or grandparents. My fat was one of eight, my
mother was originally one of seven. None of my mother's
siblings survived. The amazing thing is that the
survivors did not become a population of psychiatric
patients. Decades later, experts say these experiences
are still impacting the very fabric of families. A 2015
study by Dr Rachel Yehuda at Mount Sinai hospital found
genetic changes to holocaust survivors descendants
specifically focused around the gene associated with
stress hormones. That means not only could survivors
suffer from PTSD, but their descendants are more pron
to it. Dr Felson uses this photo when she speaks to
groups of two Gs. It's a photo taken of vines on a
snowy day, but she says she typically hears an audible
reaction from the crowd. They see holocaust survivors
standing at morning roll call in the snow. Those not
impacted by the holocaust. She says, see just a snowy
vineyard. She calls it the dual reality of trauma for
survivors and their Children. T live in the here and
now, but also in the reality of trauma and the react
will be very much from that trauma reality and
sometimes completely not really appropriate to the
stimulus in the here and now and so for dr Felson both
personally and professionally. goal is to make sure
the next generation is not as traumatized as the last
that maybe one day future descendants of survivors
just see snowy vines while remembering the horrors a
lessons of a genocide and chance. I want to talk a
little bit about those second generation survivo
because they are dealing with a lot of trauma that is
still being studied, particularly physiological trau
These second generation survivo are dealing with high
cholesterol, high blood pressur And dr Felson points
to studies that basically say if their parents dealt
with prolonged starvation, that there's a possibility
that that could have been passed down genetically. S
their bodies would be predispos to be able to handle
that kind of prolonged starvation. And since they
haven't thank goodness had to deal with that that their
bodies are essentially not programmed correctly to deal
with the life that they're living here and now and
emotionally these holocaust survivor Children are
dealing with this added secondary pressure because they
have seen their loved ones and their relatives either
flee or die for their religion. Uh and they feel this
level of pressure. I talked to that grandson j that you
saw in the piece, he said, how can I walk away from my
heritage when my relatives had to free because now he
has the freedom to practice his Judaism as much or as
little or not at all if he wants to. And so there's
this pressure to make sure you carry it on