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15. Dec. 2016
Serious impacts on the psyche of descendants of people who have survived the holocaust have been described many times. Experts from Neuroscience Centre, CEITEC Masaryk University are now trying to find biological markers, e.g. changes in the structure of the brain or genetic signature, that would reveal whether the descendants of holocaust survivors are more susceptible to having a higher stress level or, on the contrary, to resist stress better. Scientists are looking for volunteers for their study, i.e. people who have personally survived the holocaust and also two following generations of affected families. However, to be able to compare, they also need respondents who have not been persecuted within the holocaust and their descendants.
The experts from CEITEC MU think, that the experienced extreme stress might have left traces in the form of changes in brain structures, chronic stress, or even changes at chromosome or mitochondrial level. “We are monitoring the level of stress or an opposite symptom, i.e. post-traumatic growth, by means of questionnaires over three generations. When possible, we acquire brain images by means of magnetic resonance and we are looking for possible changes at the level of modification of genetic material. In cooperation with CEITEC Mendel Centre we are aiming to explain if the basis for influencing next generations isigenetic or, on the contrary, social transmission. Genetic factors are examined also in a cooperation with Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK that started recently ” Ivan Rektor, head of the research, has clarified the basis of the research. He added, that apart from brain imaging, people also undergo psychological examinations, taking blood samples to determine the level of stress hormones cortisol and prolactin and mouth swabs for genetic research.
In cooperation with the Jewish Communities of Brno and Prague, scientists have already addressed survivors from the area of Brno and Prague. “Considering their age, we started with the first generation, i.e. direct holocaust survivors. So far we have managed to examine twenty two survivors and also fifteen people, who correspond to them in age, sex and education, but didn´t belong to the group of inhabitants who were systematically eliminated. We have already examined one hundred fifty people in total, most of them belonging to the second generation – children of holocaust survivors. Unique is our interest in the third generation, the grandchildren of survivors” said Rektor.
The aim of the experts is to find as many survivors as possible and their second and third generation descendants and a corresponding number of people for the control sample. “Although primary results show, that we might be able to find some biological markers of stress transmission, we need as many respondents as possible. The reason is that it is an extremely varied group of people, who experienced the holocaust in different forms, ranging from imprisonment in concentration camps, being in hiding, up to active resistance, e.g. as partisans,” Rektor emphasized.
People interested in participating in this study can apply at the following e-mail: monika.fnaskova@ceitec.muni.cz or phone number 549 497 774.
Ivan Rektor believes that the research results will help in the future too. “In fact we are dealing with an up-to-date problem, because what we find out, might be further applied e.g. on the victims of wars in former Yugoslavia or in Syria or another conflict and on their descendants.”
Historians from the Department of Philosophy of Masaryk University, who want to deal with the history of three generations of survivors and find out what traumas they experienced and what their strategies for survival were, have also joined the project. The project has been funded by CEITEC and partly by the Foundation for Holocaust Victims.