(11 Apr 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Exterior of Shaar Menashe Mental Health Centre
2. Close of writing on building (Hebrew): "Hostel of Holocaust survivors, Booth Number 1"
3. Mid of residents singing and volunteer leading dance inside centre
4. Close of residents
5. Pan from residents to volunteer clapping
6. Man lying on sofa
7. Sign in Hebrew and English saying the centre was opened in 1997
8. Man sitting at table
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rachel Tiram, social worker at the centre:
"Surely the Holocaust has affected their lives. Some of their psychiatric problems were not prominent until they came to Israel, until they had to try to lead a normal life, and they couldn''t cope with it. They couldn''t cope with raising a family, they couldn''t cope sometimes with marriage, with working in a normal job, and they just could not take it."
10. Various of Tiram talking to resident
11. Man watching television
12. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Alexander Grinshpoon, director of the Shaar Menashe Mental Health Centre:
"This population is different, they are different in that in one way or another, they keep their trauma (to themselves) and they don''t tend to talk about it. That keeps them complete and helps them to avoid falling apart, that is why it''s very important with these people not to try and force the story out of them, but by letting them see other examples such as TV programmes and anything related to Holocaust survivors, then they are encouraged to tell their own story."
13. Pan up of woman moving feet and hands to music
14. Extended shot of volunteer dancing to music, leading the residents in the activity
STORYLINE
As Israel on Sunday night begins its annual 24 hours of remembrance of the Nazi genocide, the focus will be on the six million (m) Jews murdered and on the survivors who built new lives in the Jewish state.
Much less is ever said about the survivors for whom mental illness is part of the Holocaust''s legacy.
At the Shaar Menashe Mental Health Centre in northern Israel, residents still struggle from the trauma of the Holocaust.
Some patients refuse to shower because it reminds them of the gas chambers.
Others hoard meat in pillow cases because they fear going hungry.
Even today, 65 years after the end of World War II, there are sometimes screams of "The Nazis are coming!"
"These are the forgotten people. These are the ones who have been left behind, the people who have fallen between the cracks," said Rachel Tiram, the facility''s longtime social worker.
Tiram said, for some of the centre''s patients, the devastating legacy of the Holocaust meant that psychiatric problems developed after the war when they tried to lead a normal life.
"They couldn''t cope with raising a family, they couldn''t cope sometimes with marriage, with working in a normal job, and they just could not take it," Tiram said.
The centre''s director, Alexander Grinshpoon, said research has shown that those who have experienced emotional trauma are five times more likely to develop serious mental illnesses.
Holocaust survivors, he said, have a higher rate of suicide.
Eighty percent have trouble sleeping and two-thirds suffer from emotional distress, according to a survey commissioned by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel.
After the war, some survivors suffering from psychiatric problems ended up in ordinary institutions which were not necessarily the best place.
Patients had to wear pyjamas, which reminded them of concentration camp inmates'' uniforms.
At the centre, patients don''t have to wear pyjamas.
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