War Emigration in the Eyes of a Psychologist
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Abstract
In the psychological and psychiatric professional literature more and more proofs are being accumulated that psychological stress alone, once it exceeds certain limits of intensity and duration, can lead to severe impairment of fundamental psychological processes and cause often irreversible, and even progressive mental changes.
In numerous studies of victims of the Second World War these changes, as well as accompanying psychosomatic disorders, were given the name of Concentration Camp Syndromes. The present study discusses the symptoms, the progression, the reasons for differences in intensity of manifestation, as well as the prognoses for the victims of psychological disturbances of this kind.
Although almost all persons who survived prisons, concentration camps, forced labor camps, and prisoner of war camps seem to be, to a greater or lesser degree, touched by the symptoms of this syndrome even thirty years or more after the war, it seems that those who became repatriated to their own countries function comparatively less successfully than those who emigrated, particularly when occupational and financial achievements are compared.
It is possible that the fact of emigration in itself forces the individual to increased efforts to provide for himself and his family, since he knows that he cannot count on anyone else. Nevertheless, despite outward appearances of material success, the survivors who emigrated often experience serious psychological disorders, which in some cases are serious enough to be transmitted to their children.
With this accumulated evidence of long term effects of war trauma, questions arise about the psychological and physical health of Polish wartime emigrants, who were almost entirely drawn from survivors of terror and oppression.
Because we know very little about this group, studies seem to be indicated to identify problems and eventually give assistance to those who may need it, particularly in the second generation.
A work of this nature could also increase the understanding of scientists interested in Polish wartime emigrants, as well as help those researchers, on the international arena, who try to chart long term effects of wartime stresses.
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