Prewar Related Findings
- Close and warm prewar family of origin relationships fostered retention of survivor prewar beliefs and/or Jewish ritual practices afterward, tolerant attitudes towards people of different religious, ethnic or racial groups and contributed to the coping abilities of the survivors during the war and postwar.
- Troubled relationships in the prewar families of origin often led to rejection of prewar religious beliefs and/or practices and intolerant attitudes by survivors of perpetrators and other ethnic, racial and religious groups.
Postwar Related Findings
- Survivor parents who were able to put their children’s needs first and hold back on their own needs raised mentally healthy children who were still able to acknowledge their parents’ difficulties. This includes the families where one parent, the mediating parent, succeeded in mitigating the negative impact of the emotionally distressed parent on the children to such an extent that the children felt they were able to live normal adult lives.
- Children who came from families with difficult relationships suffered most from the parents’ anger and depression.
- The impact of trauma narratives on a child of survivors was not only based on what was said, but also on how it was said, including nonverbal messages received.
- The “transformative narrative” told by the survivors to their children played a role in the identity formation of the children because the narratives communicated qualities of the parents that the children integrated as part of their self-identity.