Holocaust & Post-Traumatic Growth

"Men who survived the Holocaust live longer than other Jewish men of the same age who did not go through the hell of the Nazi death camps, new research has revealed.
Researchers from Haifa University in Israel found a phenomenon known as 'post-traumatic growth' enabled Holocaust survivors to develop enhanced 'personal and inter-personal skills'.
As a result, male survivors lived up to 18 months longer than Jewish peers who were not confined to concentration camps during the war.


Holocaust survivors also gained 'new insights and a deeper meaning to life' as a result of their intense psychological ordeal inside the concentration camps, the scientists said.

The study of more than 55,220 Polish Jews found men and women who escaped before Hitler started his campaign of terror had an average life expectancy 6.5 months shorter than those who made it to Israel between the armistice and 1950.
Study leader, Professor Avi Sagi-Schwartz, from the Department of Psychology at Haifa University in Israel, said he was 'surprised' by the finding that male survivors lived for up to 18 months longer.
He said: 'Holocaust survivors not only suffered grave psychosocial trauma but also famine, malnutrition, and lack of hygienic and medical facilities, leading us to believe these damaged their later health and reduced life expectancy."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2383277/How-overcoming-adversity-DOES-help-live-longer-Men-survived-Holocaust-outlive-Jewish-men-age.html#ixzz2aopoicda