Insight Remember When • • • Becoming Sensitized From the pages of the Jewish News for this week 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 years ago. 1992 Hospice workers learn about the special needs of Holocaust survivors. SUSAN TAWIL Special to the Jewish News y our presence here is a testimony to the profes- sionalism and commitment of hospice profes- sionals," David Techner told an audience of approximately 150 social workers, medical staff, caregivers and volunteers gathered at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. They were attending a June 26 program on the special needs of terminally ill Holocaust survivors and their fami- lies, organized by Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network (JHCN). Techner serves as the agency's president. The day was intended to sensitize the group of hospice workers to the psychology of patients who survived the horror of the Holocaust and now face end-of-life issues. The participants toured the adjacent Holocaust Memorial Center, had lunch and heard from a panel of speakers. "The goal was consciousness-raising," said Rabbi E.B. "Bunny" Freedman, JHCN director. According to his estimate, at least two-thirds of the after- noon's participants were not Jewish. Ten metro-area hos- pices were represented. Panelist Dr. Henry Krystal, psychiatrist, author and expert on massive psychic trauma, addressed the psychological issues that affect survivors. These include post- traumatic stress and lifelong emotional damage, which results in the inability of some survivors to .mourn. "They are haunted by the horror of ideas and feelings that cannot be remem- bered nor forgotten," Dr. Krystal said. Dr. Charles "We need to help Holocaust survivors Silow grieve effectively and heal their shattered selves through love." Psychologist Dr. Charles Silow, director of the Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace Program for Holocaust Survivors as well as president of CHAIM (Children of Holocaust-survivors Association In Michigan), spoke about the impact of hospice on the children of Holocaust sur- vivor patients and the intensity of the emotions involved. Dr. Silow explained how children of survivors were often overprotected and raised by anxious, depressed and panicky mothers who had looming fears of death and disaster. Often, there was role reversal, with the children parenting the parents, helping them negotiate a new country, new language and new way of life. "The survivors are now fighting an enemy that can't be ina and death," said Dr. Silow. The children defeated: aging can't stop the process or undo their parents' pain and suf- fering and, as a result, "can drive caregivers crazy with demands and trying to help their parents," he said. Dr. Silow cited several cases to illustrate how hospice can help reconcile strained parent-child relationships. "It is important to respect the Holocaust survivors and to understand what they've gone through," he told the audi- ence. "They are strong, intense people and can be difficult. You have a tremendous role to play; your love, your con- cern and your caring mean so much." Other panelists included Barbara Cohen, Rabbi Hershel Klainberg and Marianne Wildstrom. Cohen, the author of Hidden Children, now volunteers with JHCN. She recounted some of her experience during World War II, of being placed as a child with a Catholic family in Germany and later being "kidnapped" by her mother. She spoke of her guilt-ridden life, being raised by a depressive, suicidal mother and of how hospice helped her deal with her mother's difficult end-of- life issues. Speaker Rabbi Klainberg, on staff at JHCN, is a chaplain at Menorah House in Southfield and Marvin & Betty Danto Family Health Care Center in West Bloomfield. He also is a child of survivors, who was born in the Bergen- Belsen Displaced Persons camp at the end of the war. Dr. Henry "Survivors are victors who triumphed Krystal over the Nazis and rebuilt their lives," the rabbi said. His plea for caregivers is to "be aware of what these people have suffered. The last speaker was Marianne Wildstrom, who works with Jewish Family Service's indemnification program. She gave a synopsis of her family's escape during the war and explained the European compensation program for survivors. Participant reaction to the afternoon program was over- whelmingly positive. For those who previously had little understanding of the Holocaust and its effects, the infor- mation gained was enlightening. One participant on her evaluation form expressed apprecia- tion for being given an "understanding of the residual effects of Holocaust trauma, especially in family and parenting." Said a staff member from Lighthouse Hospice in Southfield: "What I've heard and learned today has forever changed my life and made me see life in a whole new light." The event was co-sponsored by the Ira and Rose Kaufman Fund and Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Jewish Family Service, Maimonides Society and Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit. Hospices represented at the conference included Henry Ford Hospice, Detroit; Angela Hospice, Livonia; Odyssey Hospice, Southfield; Arbor Hospice, Ann Arbor; Karmanos Hospice, Southfield; Hospice of Michigan, Detroit; St. John's Hospice, Detroit; Heartland Hospice, Southfield; Lighthouse Hospice, Southfield; and Beaumont Hospice, Troy. " ❑ Mark and Risa Finn become the 500th family to buy a home under the Neighborhood Project, an inter- est-free loan program of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. The Anti-Defamation League is protesting the hiring of a security service affiliated with Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan to patrol a public housing project in Los Angeles. King Solomon's Mines and Pillars in Timna Valley Park are reopened to visitors in Israel. The Ontario Human Rights Commission has ordered a local mat- tress-manufacturing firm to restore the job of an Orthodox Jew dis- missed for refusing to work Saturdays. 1972 Israeli concert pianist David Bar- Illan offers to "reimburse" the Soviet Union so Soviet Jewish dancer Valery Panov could leave the country. Traverse City's Temple Beth El, one of Michigan's oldest syna- gogues, will start its first regular services in more than 10 years. 1962 Irving Katz's book The Jewish Soldier from Michigan in the Civil War is translated into Hebrew by Bernard Isaacs; Detroit Historical Museum hosts a special exhibit. 1052 Detroiter.Byron Krieger represents U. S. in fencing at the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Former Detroiter Lt. Myron Duskin receives the Bronze Star for training Puerto Rican troops. 1942 . . . Plans for the building of a Jewish Hospital in Detroit are presented at the Jewish Community Center. — Compiled by Holly Teasdle, archivis4 i Leo M Franklin Aithives, the Rabb Temple Beth El 7/12 2002 33