Study: German Children Born During World War II Not Yet Over Trauma | February 4, 2008 | AHN Berlin, Germany (AHN) - Even if the war had ended six decades ago, the psychological wounds of older Germans who were children during World War II were never dealt with. As a result, many of them are still carrying the wartime trauma they went through without any professional help, said Hartmut Radebold, a psychiatrist in Kassel. Radebold, who studied the German war children for years, observed that many women from that generation found it difficult to form relationships and open up to a male partner because most of them were reared solely by their mothers and grandmothers since the German men perished in the war, could not be located or returned home much later. The psychiatrist explained the painful war memories were locked in the children's memories and stayed in their adult subconscious while they tried to live normal lives. Now, as they near retirement age, with no jobs to distract their attention, the memories resurface. The likely symptoms are depression, panic attacks and heart ailments. But most of them have learned to ignore these signs, Radebold said. Sirens or other reminders of their traumatic childhood, like lack of space inside a medical chamber, may trigger haunting memories of their youth. They endure all of these because they see themselves as survivors. "They live according to the saying: What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger," Radebold said. Meanwhile, understanding better the Holocaust is being offered to Briton youths through government-sponsored student trips to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The British government piloted the program in 2006, which paid for day trips to the death camp in Poland to two British students from every secondary school in England. British School Minister Jim Knight said with a $3 million (1.5 million pound) allocation for the program, it will be made permanent until 2011. There is a possibility that there will be more funds beyond 2011, Knight said. The two Briton students who are given the opportunity to visit the Auschwitz-Berkenau camp are expected to share their insights and experience with their fellow students upon their return home. Around 1.1 million people were estimated to have died at the hands of Nazis between 1940 to 1945 in the Auschwitz camp.
