I can’t help but wonder if that’s because, with no direct connection to the Holocaust, as far as I know, I still grew up with a father telling me to always be ready to go. I’ve been over here - for the most part - making moves. And it’s going to last for a long, long time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes for Health, and experts across the nation and world are telling us that this is bad. Quickly, local and state governments are getting on board. At first, many governmental officials said this panic was overblown, including – despite his first White House press conference – the president himself.
But by now, all concerts, festivals, and sports leagues are shut down and postponed for the foreseeable future. I’ve myself brushed it off, seemingly unmoved. I’ve seen people ignore it and not feel phased. I’ve been scrupulously watching and experiencing this pending pandemic unfold. Now that I find myself stuck at home with a dozen cans of beans, several bags of protein-infused gluten-free pasta, two bottles of Clorox, a canister of Lysol wipes, alcohol swabs, Oscillococcinum (a homeopathic flu medicine), and more, I can’t help but interrogate and pause: How much does this have to do with my Jewish ancestry and intergenerational trauma?
Then, by January and February, it was clear - the rumblings of a potential epidemic that were beginning in Wuhan, China, he suspected, would become a worldwide pandemic. The email had one line - the Wikipedia link for “Spanish flu,” the 1918 pandemic that infected 500 million people worldwide.Īt first, he was cautioning us against the prospect of a potentially deadly flu season. Four minutes later, he started a new thread to my mother, my sister, and me. At 7:58 p.m., he replied to a family email my mother sent about getting flu shots. Implications for healing from historical trauma are discussed.The first emails my father sent alluding to any kind of flu pandemic were October 10, 2019. 09, lending support to the idea that family narratives about trauma impact the next generation. Unhealthy communication was related to poorer mental well-being, R2 =. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that stronger Jewish identity and more frequent family Holocaust communication predicted more historical loss awareness, R2 =. Healthy communication was classified as frequent and willing, and unhealthy communication was classified as indirect and guilt-inducing. Next, we examined whether Holocaust-related family communication type predicted mental well-being. First, we examined the associations among Jewish identity, historical loss awareness, and family communication about the Holocaust. Adults ( N = 98) with relatives who had either been killed in or who survived the Holocaust completed online questionnaires.
The current study sampled second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors to examine how family communication about the Holocaust relates to historical loss awareness and the strength of Jewish identity. Some studies have suggested that family communication about historical trauma can impact the strength of cultural identity and mental well-being. Within this literature, one's level of enculturation is thought to impact their awareness of historical losses, which, in turn, is hypothesized to relate to mental well-being. A growing body of literature has examined how historical trauma can transmit across generations.