On: Response to Mr Ahumada

Dear Editors,

We are pleased that our paper on the destiny of trauma of former hidden Jewish children aroused an enthusiastic interest in several countries (Fohn and Heenen-Wolff, 2011). It is not easy to determine whether Mr Ahumada's letter was a critique or an argument for the conceptual theories developed in the article. We agree that the earliest events are often the most crucial in mind. What we tried to say is: in the après-coup, a later significant event awakes an earlier one that was emotionally significant but not fully understood - even if it had unconsciously a highly traumatic value. If the après-coup does not occur later in life, this past event may not deploy its full traumatic potential. An accurate reading of our article highlights that: “Separation [from their family] seemed simply to have left ‘traces’ which, in many cases, would only later have a traumatic impact” (p. 9). We did not say and we do not think that forced adaptation and concealment of their