According to a recent study, ex-death camp inmates who survived and lived long lives were more likely to develop depression in retirement than other peers. Why?
Not so long ago, I received a gift — an autobiographical book “Teach Us to Count Our Days – A Story of Survival and Success”* and a letter from its author, Nathan Katz, who went through the Lithuanian ghetto of World War II and then successfully built his life. He got into the ghetto right from his childhood and youth, which were happy. He quickly joined the underground resistance — at the risk of his life, he stole from the Germans the medicines needed to treat other prisoners. When the threat of total annihilation hung over the ghetto, he fled with his family into the forest.
After the war, he emigrated to America, having only 90 dollars in his pocket for the whole family. There he very quickly refused social assistance and began working at the first job offered to him, saved up some money, launched a private business for buying and selling apartments and amassed a large fortune.
- Andrei Sakharov: 10 thoughts on human rights, the world and yourself
The fate of Nathan is by no means an exception. When the allied doctors examined the prisoners of the concentration camps who survived to be released, they were amazed: many of them, emaciated and exhausted, not only did not develop psychosomatic diseases, but, on the contrary, the diseases with which they ended up in the concentration camp disappeared.
From this, of course, one should not conclude that a concentration camp is the best way to treat all diseases. Very many prisoners died just from the development of psychosomatic diseases against the background of everyday stress, which caused a feeling of despair and helplessness. It was precisely those people who, like Nathan, did not capitulate, survived: they participated in collective resistance or resisted themselves, alone, as best they could. Many of them then started their lives anew, achieved success in their endeavors and turned out to be long-livers.
But here’s the paradox: Recent studies have shown that former concentration camp prisoners who have lived long, prosperous lives and retired are more likely to develop depression than their peers who do not have a difficult concentration camp experience. The authors of the study came to the conclusion that after 50-60 years (!) these people were “caught up” by the stress experienced in their youth and led to depression. **
This explanation seems to me absolutely fantastic, especially considering that in direct contact with the nightmarish conditions of concentration camps and ghettos, many of them, like Nathan, did not develop depression at all. It is much more likely that after decades of overcoming many life challenges and very active search behavior, the sudden transition to a passive lifestyle leads to emptiness and depression.
Nathan avoided a too abrupt «stop» by taking up his spare time to write a detailed autobiography. After reading my articles about search activity, he wrote to me that he never gave up: activity was more important for him than success and money and helped him survive. In the most difficult periods, his slogan was “As long as we are alive, there is hope,” and hope, prompting the search for a way out, kept him alive.
* Nathan Katz“Teach us to count our days. A story of survival, sacrifice and success” Cornwall Books.
** Barak Y., Aizenberg D., Szor H., Swartz M., Maor R. Knobler H.Y.Increased risk of attempted suicide among aging holocaust survivors. American J. of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2005, 13, 701-704