Retraumatization of Holocaust survivors during the Gulf War and SCUD missile attacks on Israel.

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to study the reaction to a new threat and a new trauma of people severely traumatized in the past, when the new trauma had associations with the original one caused by the Holocaust. The situation created during the Gulf War gave a rare occasion to study it. We also wanted to check if the reaction of Holocaust survivors to the war differed from that of the general population. In addition we wanted to find out if there was a difference in reaction to the war between two clinical populations: Holocaust survivors and patients who are not Holocaust survivors. Sixty-six Holocaust survivors living in Israel, 31 of them undergoing psychiatric or psychological treatment either as in-patients or as out-patients, were interviewed during the Persian Gulf War. In addition to the clinical group, there was a non-clinical group of 35 Holocaust survivors--21 whose homes were not damaged by SCUD missiles, and 14 whose homes were damaged by missiles. Those whose homes were damaged by SCUD missiles were retraumatized, and showed reactivation or exacerbation of the survivor syndrome. Six of them displayed the full syndrome of PTSD.