The impact which severe traumatic experiences have on the personality of survivors of persecution was studied in the clinical setting of an Israeli hospital. After a period of 'latency' many survivors of Fascist persecution show severe regressive changes of character, requiring permanent psychotherapeutic care. These changes are the delayed sequelae of the traumatic experiences inflicted upon these people in the death camps. Some of the manifestations may be subsumed under the concepts of trauma and repetition compulsion, but on the whole Freud's categories must be widened to cover this kind of psychopathology. As is the case with war neuroses, the infantile neurosis, while influencing the modes of reaction to the trauma, is not the main determinant in the disturbances of persecution survivors.