Passover is over. I sincerely hope you were able to enjoy the chag and can find at least one positive thing to remember – the family time, the rituals, the yummy food, the vacation time, or something else.
Now it’s time to gear up for all of the special days of remembrance – both joyous and somber.
Tonight marks Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day. There will be ceremonies to mark the day and of course the siren tomorrow morning.
We as Jews take remembering really seriously. I was raised on the slogan Never Forget.
It is especially important that we make a conscious effort to keep the memory of the shoah alive now – as there are fewer & fewer opportunities for witnesses to share their stories.
While we are making conscious efforts to keep the memory of the shoah alive – there is interesting research that shows that the memories of the shoah are indeed alive unconsciously – inside the offspring of the survivors.
Researchers have shown that experiences – for example developed fears – can be passed down through the generations – in mice. But new research is showing that the same is true of humans.
Dr. Rachel Yehuda has done a lot of research on inherited trauma. Her team demonstrated how preconception parental trauma in the holocaust was passed down to offspring via epigenetic alterations. To read about that study click here.
How does this work?
Environmental stressors – such as traumatic experiences – actually change the epigenetic or non-coding DNA in our bodies. These epigenetic changes don’t change our genes but they do change how our genes are expressed.
These epigenetic changes help us respond to and cope with the stressful situation. So, for example – if someone grows up in a war zone – they might develop epigenetic changes that make them more sensitive to loud noises – which could be helpful in allowing them to seek shelter when bombs fall.
These epigenetic changes are then passed down to our children, perhaps to give them the same epigenetic resilience and skill set we developed to adapt to that stressful situation.
The problem is that the child, hopefully, doesn’t live in that same environment. And oftentimes these epigenetic changes, while protective and helpful in the face of physical stress and trauma, can also predispose a person to stress disorders.
Many of us may actually be holding pieces of holocaust trauma inside us – passed down to us from our parents and grandparents.
What to do about that? How to respond to that? That’s a whole other conversation.
For now – I just wanted to bring attention to the unconscious “memories” of the holocaust that may still be alive inside you.
Let us all remember.
