Generational Trauma

By Sharon Lewis

Just like hair and eye color, freckles, family recipes, and heirlooms, trauma can be passed down from generation to generation. This phenomenon is known as intergenerational or transgenerational trauma. According to the article “What Is Generational Trauma?” in the publication Health, which focuses on a healthy lifestyle for women, we can inherit trauma from our ancestors.

Were your ancestors slaves? Were they in combat? Were they displaced from their homeland by war? Were they indigenous people whose land was taken? Were they survivors of the Holocaust? Were they victims of discrimination? Did they live in poverty? Were they abused in some way?

While some of these questions describe extreme situations, any prolonged exposure to an environment that causes stress to the body or mind can have a long-lasting impact on health and well-being.

According to the Mayo Clinic, “the body’s stress response system is usually self-limiting.” That means once a perceived threat has passed, hormones return to typical levels. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, heart rate and blood pressure return to normal.

Other systems go back to their regular activities, but when stressors are always present, and a person always feels under attack, the fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on. The long-term activation of the stress response system and excessive exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can disrupt many of the body’s processes.

The Mayo Clinic reports that stress puts you at higher risk of many health problems, including anxiety, depression, digestive challenges, headaches, muscle tension and pain, heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke, sleep problems, weight gain, and problems with memory and focus. Chronic stress puts your health at risk.

Starting in the womb, an unborn child feels the effects of the mother’s stress. Imagine constantly worrying about day-to-day living activities. Do you have a safe place to live? Do you have a job or some means of supporting yourself? Are you getting the medical care that you need? What about adequate food? Do you have the support of friends and loved ones? The overabundance of stress hormones will impact the future development of that child.

Trauma also causes epigenetic changes, which means there is a shift in one’s DNA due to traumatic experiences. Keep in mind the science of epigenetics is still in its infancy, as reported by Verywell Health. Genetics will still produce someone who looks physically similar to their family. Still, due to epigenetic changes, altered DNA may cause some of the conditions mentioned above for many generations. That may also explain why some ethnicities are more prone to certain medical conditions. It is in the bloodline.

Being a member of a minority group in America gives one a bird’s eye view of issues relevant to this article. Knowing the story of my people left me wanting to know the stories of others.

A coworker connected me with the child of a Holocaust survivor named Marilyn Zaas. Zaas is a lifelong resident of the Cleveland area. She is active in her community and lives much like everyone else. Additionally, Zaas is well-versed in her family history, knowing dates, times, and places. I most wanted to know how her family history affected her life. Zaas told me that, never having lived as anyone else or any other way, the question is difficult to answer.

To help me gain a better understanding of the Jewish experience, she invited me to the Commemoration of the Holocaust and Heroism Ceremony at the B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue on Fairmont Boulevard in Pepper Pike, Ohio, on May 5. Six families shared their Holocaust survival stories. For the Jewish community, it is vital to remember and share so that history does not repeat itself and no one ever forgets. The stories were both moving and heartbreaking.

I met Zaas’s mother, Erika Gold, after the ceremony. Gold is a vibrant, intelligent woman of 94 years. She was born in Hungary in 1932. In 1944, her father had to report to a Shell Oil work camp located on an island south of Budapest, as ordered by law. Gold and her mother went to work in a factory until, one day, the workers were forced onto a flatbed truck. Realizing this would end their journey, Gold’s mother jumped from the vehicle, signaling Gold to do the same.

They walked calmly away from it, throwing away their coats marked by the Star of David to hide their Jewish identities. Her mother recognized the area and knew that their former housekeeper lived nearby. They were fortunate that the former housekeeper hid them for six weeks until the liberation of Hungary. The family was reunited after the war. Her mother learned that her entire family, 45 people of all ages, had lost their lives in the gas chambers—a problematic fact for her mother.

In 1948, her parents bought Cuban visas because the wait for an American visa in Europe was exceptionally long. They were in Cuba for two years before they received American visas and moved to the United States. Gold came ahead of her parents because their visas were not all granted at the same time. Her aunt and uncle drove from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, to pick her up in Florida. Before the drive back, her uncle explained to her that she would see separate bathrooms, water fountains, and many other forms of discrimination. She told me that she found this hard to believe. This was America, where she and her family strove to reach for a better life. These revelations were unbelievable to her.

If you have experienced trauma, you may have triggers that bring back vivid memories. For Gold, the sight of a cattle car, no matter what is in it, brings strong memories of the war. The sensations of being cold or hungry also bring strong memories but are quelled by the knowledge that she can get warm and get a meal. Gold does not say that she is a Holocaust survivor because, for her, that denotes victimhood. Instead, she says that she survived the Holocaust because that indicates that she is an overcomer.

While trauma can be passed from generation to generation, it can be healed and removed from the bloodline.

Learn more about generational trauma and healing at Talkspace and other resources like WebMD and Health.