98% of women imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust experienced amenorrhea, or the absence of menstruation. A new theory proposes the sudden cessation of menstruation of these women was too uniform to be the effect of trauma and malnutrition alone, but rather caused by the administration of synthetic steroids in their food supply that halted menstruation and impaired the ability to produce children.
Museums dedicated to remembering the Holocaust and its victims can help to facilitate social mobilization and encourage social change for visitors.
Study finds evidence that present-day Germans who live close to World War Two concentration camp sites are more xenophobic, more likely to support extreme right-wing politics, and less tolerant to immigrants and religious minorities. A similar link was previously established in the US between extreme political beliefs, racism, and living in close proximity to areas where owning slaves was the norm.
Neuroimaging reveals Holocaust survivors have decreased gray matter in brain structures associated with emotional processing, memory, and social cognition. Early results show similar neuroanatomical changes in the children of survivors, suggesting an epigenetic link.
A new study reports Holocaust survivors who suffer from PTSD and their adult children age less successfully and display more unhealthy behaviors than those with no PTSD or who did not experience the horrors of the Holocaust.
Researchers report the offspring of mothers who were Holocaust victims as young children, were 1.7 times more likely to have a more severe course of Schizophrenia.
A new study reports preconception trauma can result in the transmission of epigenetic changes from the parent to children.