survivors (Danieli 1998). Studying trauma – related communication patterns in offspring of Holocaust survivors (Barber et al. 2002) identified a pattern characterized by offspring´s nonverbal knowledge of their parent’s Holocaust experiences coupled with little or no verbal knowledge of it. This familial communication pattern called “knowing and not knowing” (Jucovy 1992), was found to be related to distinct interpersonal patterns in close relationships in adulthood (Wiseman et al. 2002). Acute feelings of loneliness among trauma survivors both in the midst and the aftermath of the traumatic experiences are well documented in the clinical literature (Dasberg 1976; Herman 1997). Very often, due to a fear of diseases, cold and hunger, the children were dressed excessively and provided with excess food, and as a result, they later created a special relationship to food intake and sometimes developed eating disorders. They experienced all of this as a result of the horrors survived by their parents in the concentration camps. A majority of the studies that investigated the mental health of Nazi “Holocaust survivors” (HS) revealed that emotional disorders and significant coping difficulties were prevalent in this population both at the time of release from the camps and many years later. In the clinical setting these are the defining characteristics of the survivors syndrome. This syndrome is a constellation of symptoms, including chronic anxiety and depression, nightmares of wartime experiences, guilt about having survived while other perished, psychosomatic disorders and a lonely, isolated life devoid of any genuine pleasure (Keinan at al. 1988). Given this disheartening reality, many researchers have turned to the “holocaust survivors’ offspring” (HSO) to determine if and to what extent the children also suffer from emotional hardships. The second generation has suffered from the absence of family dialogue, mostly lived through the wounded souls and the bodies of their parents in a non-verbal matter. Trauma, with its roots lying in a large society, and in the previous generation, is processed by the second generation primarily as a consequence of family dynamics. The second generation is accompanied by psychosomatic disorders, sometimes significant eating disorders and the concept of a wounded man, the feeling of guilt associated with depression after the loss of a sense of their own lives (Goffman 2003). It seems reasonable to suggest that the offspring of Holocaust survivors might be as vulnerable as their parents and, similar to their parents, may function adequately in their daily activities but be unable to cope with the emotion of extreme stress or severe life-threatening situations. Second-generation Holocaust survivors are vulnerable to psychological distress and, when confronted with a life-threatening illness such as cancer, will manifest more distress than patients who are not second-generation Holocaust survivors (Baider et al. 2000). 126 (4) Rebeka Ralbovská - Monika Zaviš - Renata Knezović
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