Emotional distress among concentration camp survivors – a community study in Jerusalem

Abstract

Three hundred and eighty former concentration camp inmates were identified and interviewed in the course of a community health survey in Jerusalem. A set of 8 questions derived from the Cornell Medical Index was used as an index of emotional distress. The concentration camp survivors had a higher prevalence of emotional distress and more symptoms of this type than other European-born members of the community, controlling for age and education. The findings suggested that 16.0% of the emotional distress observed in male camp survivors and 22.9% of that among female camp survivors could be attributed to the camp experience almost three decades after the Holocaust. In this survey, data were elicited in a context unrelated to benefit-seeking such as clinic or compensation claims.