The Intergenerational Transmission of the Holocaust Trauma: The Legacy of an Impossible Memory

Although the scientific and clinical interest in children of holocaust survivors dates from the end of the 1960s, fundamental questions and controversies remain unsolved.[2] Is the trauma of the holocaust transmitted to the next generation, and if so, by what mechanism(s)? Some authors consider the concept of the 'second generation' as an illusion and judge the transmission process as nonexistent. Further, many dispute whether or not the second generation displays more or less psychopathology than other comparable groups.…