Grodin Calls New Holocaust Book "Monumental," in JAMA Review

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Published on Tuesday, 10 August 2010 18:30

Michael Grodin

Holocaust survivors and their families may be the most-studied group of genocide survivors in history, but the publication of a new book that uses clinical evidence to examine their psychological outcomes and treatment is a "monumental event," writes Michael Grodin, Boston University School of Public Health professor of health law, bioethics and human rights, in a book review published in JAMA.

Grodin, in his review of "Holocaust Trauma: Psychological Effects and Treatment," by Natan P. F. Kellermann, dubs the work "the most important book published on this topic in a decade." He notes that Holocaust survivors are the first group of survivors of genocidal trauma to reach old age and experience the normal process of aging. "Decline in function for survivors, however, must be seen in the context and shadow of the Holocaust," Grodin says. "The children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors are the largest group to experience the intergenerational transmission of trauma."

Holocaust Trauma: Psychological Effects and Treatment

by Natan P. F. Kellermann

Grodin, a Holocaust expert who also is a professor of socio-medical sciences and community medicine and psychiatry

at the BU School of Medicine, writes that the "take-home" message of Kellermann's book is that each survivor is unique, with a personal narrative that might include immigration, social isolation, vulnerability to loss, depression or complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

"As survivors age and acquire dementia, they are triggered by flashbacks, many again thinking they are back in Auschwitz," Grodin's review says. "Kellermann highlights the problems experienced by child survivors, who were deprived of their childhoods. Many were hidden with Christian families, leading to later abandonment and attachment issues."

Kellermann, the son of Holocaust survivors, is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience working with survivors and their families. He is a director of the National Israeli Center for Psychosocial Support of Holocaust Survivors and the Second Generation in Israel.

Read Grodin's review online.