A study has been found in Biological Psychiatry about Trauma's epigenetic fingerprint observed in children of Holocaust survivors. The study is on children of survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. There has been evidence that concentration camp survivors and their children show changes in the epigenetic regulation of genes. Epigenetic is relating to non genetic influences on genes expression. There has been research on animals and the studied proved that epigenetic changes from stress exposure can be passed on to the offspring. Which, is quite similar to what is happening to the concentration camp survivors passing on post traumatic stress disorder to their children.

Researchers examined blood samples of 32 Holocaust survivors and 22 of their adult children, and also examined a few Jewish parents that weren't in the Holocaust to see the difference. The results showed that Holocaust survivors and their offspring did have epigenetic changes and the Jewish parents who weren't in the Holocaust didn’t pass nothing on to their offspring. Parents and their children are not born with post traumatic stress disorder but they may inherit the trait. The results was hard to tell if the post traumatic stress is due to the parental gametes or the changes occurring to offspring during pregnancy. Children of the concentration camp survivors showed childhood adversity which was common. The researchers tried to see if the children own trauma played a role in the observed effect and that wasn't the case. The findings indicated that it was possible to say trauma that the Holocaust survivors had went to their offsprings.