ABSTRACT

Fifty years of observations on survivors of the concentration camps and other survivors of the Holocaust has provided a new body of medical and psychiatric literature. Survivors of various kinds have always been of interest and concern to the psychiatrist. Many psychiatric disorders are rooted in the loss of a loved one, leaving behind someone to survive that loss. Mourning and depression are among the commonly researched phenomena in psychiatric writings. The imprint of the trauma is permanent. Many survivors have not only adapted to their past but carved out a meaningful future. The burden of their memories has been passed on, sometimes purposefully, sometimes unknowingly, to their children. It is the children who are presently engaged in some of the more meaningful research on survivors; Clinicians face the challenge of treating the aging survivor whose illness or hospitalization, may re-trigger Holocaust-related memories.