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To the Editor:
THIS COMMUNICATION CONCERNS A GROUP of survivors of the Holocaust who spent this whole period or part of it impersonating non-Jews. Contrary to the others these people changed their external identity consciously and purposely, motivated by their intense will to save their lives. Their actions were carried out under conditions of constant extreme stress due to mortal danger, and the physical need to exist.
The external appearance of a human being is a compound of many factors which include external physical features, movements, clothing, facial expression, way of speech, behavior, reactions to sudden happenings and to ordinary events, etc. The appearance may be modified by constant interaction between the subject and the surroundings; the basis being a motivation to fulfill one's needs. Similar examples of identification with the surroundings by adjustment of the external appearance are known in many areas e.g., the survival mimicry of certain animals.
It has been observed that among children of diplomats (or other professionals) of non-Asiatic origin, who have spent long periods in the Orient, and who were looked after by local servants and nannies, original features were modified and there appeared some features which made them resemble the indigenous population.
The motives for my patients' behavior derived from their struggle for survival in a situation of great stress. Most probably they passed through a process of thought and feeling resembling delusion to finally acquire behavior fitting their aims.
Of 40 psychiatric patients who survived the Holocaust as "Christians",