Some time has to pass before any society is able to handle the subject of collective trauma and its consequences. Thus the Holocaust, despite relatively numerous studies devoted to this problem, remains a taboo issue to the professional community of psychologists and psychiatrists. This article presents the results of the study on the distant effects of Holocaust trauma and the change of focus in the research on the Holocaust survivors. While in early research, the emphasis was on pathology, i.e. post-traumatic symptoms presented by the survivors, at present more and more studies are concerned with survivor characteristics such as their strengths, ability to survive, and capability of returning to life after the trauma. The author discusses the PTSD model in the context of other possible consequences of trauma, such as the effects of trauma on the survivors' personal and social identity, on their family relations, survivor's vulnerability and survivors guilt.