I can’t stop crying. It is so good they get to heal. Gives me hope to know not everywhere in the world has stopped caring for others. I joke a lot to get thru my pain and so I feel silly when I say something I mean, when I’m moved. Bless you, Get well very soon.
2
The police took me for a 72 hour detainment, the staff assaulted me with meds, requirements to 'participate,' and when they inevitable lockup came, they were heard to mock my belief that I was forgiven.
I did not know anything of the incident of my 12 year old self that they referred to. Not until they decided to take my house and needed the guilt to pry sanity from me. My Mom and Dad continued to love me, the only forgiveness there is. I was sent Y camp which I loved. My visit to a 'dentist' gave me erasure. Why was it necessary that they make me remember 30 years later?
Were they so desperate to elevate themselves? Limited people exercising unlimited power. If we've been forgiven, why do we need forgiveness from everyone we meet? Without the memory closed, every nose in our life sniffs out a reason for you to atone. A life of consigned need for forgiveness is not forgiveness, it is abuse.
The turns in the small stream are shadowed by brush barely leaving a daylight strip but my anticipation grows. The water depth gives no hint of the lake ahead. I use the paddle to push my canoe forward. Another twist, and now the stream bed is rocky. Even thicker brush but I disturb a heron. Later I realize the streamflow from the lake is greater here possibly bringing a minnow to the stream. I am surprised when the brush allows me into the lake. The surprise overwashes me. Not surprise but glorious revelation. The entire vista is lake. I am forgiven.
Nothing new here , this is just natural human behavior, only now we have access to global coverage of the atrocities . ONE hundred million native people living in the North and South American continents were killed when Europe invaded their homeland. One hundred million , blankets with smallpox given to American Indians and further south just complete slaughter with total destruction of cities ,farms, food supply .
This is just who we are and why we're not going to be around much longer.
The list of similar atrocities is way too long but as other readers said, 60 million murdered during the first half of the 20th century in Europe and who knows how many in Asia.
2
Want to know how children survive atrocity? Then interview the few survivors left of the Holocaust. Those children who witnessed their parents and siblings shot. Those who witnessed rape. Those who lost everyone in the gas chambers. Your article reeks as if this was the only atrocity around. Open your eyes.
3
@Lori : So covering the victims of atrocities other than the Holocaust is exclusionary?
Trauma expert the world over favor a culturally sensitive approach to treating individuals.
Re-read the article.
14
As bad as life was under Saddam Hussein, we made it worse by invading that country. There were no weapons of mass destruction. That was a lie. It was all a sham to feed the monster of our military war-making machine. For this, I hold George W. Bush completely responsible. That decision alone contributed to the destruction of Iraq and its people. I wish our leaders could be held accountable for deciding to invade Iraq and other unnecessary military invasions going back to Vietnam. The US has sunk into a sick, sociopathic economic system that only cares about corporate power & profit, at the expense of people and planet alike. That is the real mental illness here. It makes me sad, angry and disgusted that our nation contributed to the destruction of these innocent people. I'm really ready for this type of governing, politics and political leadership to end. Otherwise, I don't think we'll survive into the next century as a species.
5
Painful to read until last paragraph:
The girls gathered in the doorway. They said where they were from and described how badly they were beaten. Kristina sang a beautiful song in Arabic. The girls were quiet and listened. The song was melodic, like a lullaby.
“The path of fighting is the path of life,” my translator began. “So amidst an assault, tyranny is destroyed. And concealment of the voice results in the beauty of the echo.”
It was a popular Islamic State anthem, one they played in the beheading videos. Kristina closed her eyes and tipped her head to the sky. “I love it,” she said.
What a gorgeous, devastating piece of journalism. So difficult to read, but so incredibly important for the stories of these children and families to be shared. My heart was breaking as I read it. It is impossible for me to understand how human beings can treat each other in this way, especially when the abuse and violence is towards children. And then for the world to essentially ignore these victims? Shame on us.
8
For those of you who had inquired about how and where you can donate to help with the psychotherapy program sponsored by the Germans, check out yazda.org.
8
The dek refers to "a mental-health crisis unlike any in the world." I hope so, but I suspect there was a similar incidence of PTSD affected populations in Sierra Leone and Liberia after their relatively recent civil wars, and in eastern Congo, parts of Myanmar, North Korea, and other regions today. On a much smaller scale, we are using the raw material of young Central American refugees to create our own population of traumatized children in internment facilities here in the United States. If it were all diagnosed properly, I wonder what the real global numbers on PTSD would be.
12
Please stop with the special effects. It makes your stories very difficult to read. (Pink on white for highlighting-- really!!) I had to give up. Black on white gave me a headache.
People are quite resilient. Remember the Holocaust; the Vietnamese War, the Iraqi Wars.... Life does go on.
Meantime, the masters of the universe live for the creation and sale of weapons of destruction. Why everyday people/men are willing to do their will is beyond me. What is wrong with the people who join ISIS willing? How are individuals encouraged to be suicide bombers? They are victims as well.
5
Trauma work will change the world. We can assume The captors and isis fighters were also traumatized kids. Think of all the children of war around the world who are suffering similarly, children who suffered, and suffer still, because of American wars. I will never forget then bombing of Baghdad and the image of the orphaned girl on the cover being held by a marine, her face bloody from her dead mother. The shame of being American, the pain my tax dollars fund. The soldiers here also traumatized and many committing suicide, others like a distant cousin, make 13k a week as a military contractor. Or how about Gaza a few years ago. Entire families- generations- were wiped out. Some people watched with popcorn on couches, cheering. Children will carry on the pain, to be sure. What damage all of this does to the world for years and years to come. The pain needs a place to go, many find solace in the violence. So it begins again.
Many argue both of these actions of a superb and “ethical” military, were necessary. The bombs somehow are not sending shards of metal into infants. They are sterilized and we do not see the bodies. These military actions are marketed like video games with names: desert storm, operation Iraqi Freedom, with T-shirts.
What is hardest to read is how the children internalized the violence. How they cannot help but continue it. PTSD therapy can change the world.
4
Women and children have always been the targets of this type of unspeakable violence in wartime, or with war as the excuse. Isis is nothingh new. A similar scenario has played out in Nigeria with Boko Haram, leaving young women in a permanent state of PTSD and unable to function...and these are just the ones who to survive.
But it bears noting that the extreme violence of Isis is a reflection of centuries of culture in which women existed solely as the property of men, to serve as sexual slaves and breeders, without civil liberties or bodily autonomy, where their genitals have been systematically mutilated. One wonders about the childhoods of Isis sadists: how many mothers, sisters and aunts did they see beaten, raped, burned, even killed, for inadvertently showing a strand of hair or turning their eyes in the wrong direction?
8
I have often wondered about the trauma of Middle Eastern peoples since these wars and conflict have emerged. As a teacher of small children in America, I sometimes feel unable to meet the emotional needs of some of my traumatized students. I feel defeated and alone in my helplessness. This article was such a contrast: a nightmare so unimaginable that I can't stop thinking of those photographs. This powerful story gives me the hope I that I can do some good every day for children. I can't imagine why these people and their stories have been ignored over time. Where is our humanity?
13
I have been thinking about the children for years: children forced to kill in China, Cambodia, Africa, Mesopotamia and the Middle East. (I've probably left out some places.) I have always wondered what became of them because many places do not have facilities or cultures that enable them to heal. I think Dr. Kizilhan deserves several Nobel Prizes.
Our world really needs a moral reboot. On so many levels.
16
I only hope that those of us who can, will - provide whatever is needed for the psychotherapists, NGOs, Medicin sans Frontieres, and other unsung heroes who are giving THEIR lives to help the people maimed, tortured, turned inside out by war - whether by American and Allied troops who fought in the Middle East or ISIS troops who will continue to rain blood and terror on their own people. We are guilty as ISIS is for bombing hospitals, not doing afterwork in these countries - it isn't about Bomb and Leave, it's creating, repairing damage done to humans, ours and theirs. We cannot just leave after we have done so much damage. Who but the "helpers" stay behind to aid victims of this horror? Let us help in whatever way possible, whether donations, NYTimes setting up a campaign, other people of means setting up charities to help the victims in their OWN lands to recover - if that is even possible now.
7
I just wanted to commend the photographer who did these beautiful images of the children and their parents, as well as even the few, more landscape type pictures that accompany this extraordinary text.
These photos are exactly right for this story : simple, with no exagerated esthetics, elegant, profound, and heartbreaking. They are about the people in them, more than the photographer himself.
Thank you.
JEA
19
Our soldiers have also witnessed these atrocities to children. As a social worker, while talking to a soldier who had just returned from deployment. His emotions surfaced when he stated, "Why doesn't anyone care about what happens to the children? " He described an incident that he witnessed and then went silent.
Thank you, Jennifer Percy for this enlightening and incredible reporting. My hopes and prayers are that we will be reading more studies and results from the work that these dedicated doctors and therapists are conducting on behalf of the severely traumatized children of war.
19
As I read this about separated children, I was sadly reminded of all the children who haven'e seen their parents in months or years, who are living in unbearable conditions somewhere on the Mexican border. My heart aches for the Syrians but it also aches for the immigrant children who have been waiting for so long for their Moms to come pick them up.
12
This statement from Kizilhan is terrifying: “I assure you that in America, take New York, if one person will declare a dictatorship, 30 percent of people will be able to torture or kill other people.” This reflects exactly what is happening in this country today as we slowly slide away from being a Republic. It should terrify everyone.
26
This statement from Kizilhan is terrifying: “I assure you that in America, take New York, if one person will declare a dictatorship, 30 percent of people will be able to torture or kill other people.” This reflects exactly what is happening in this country today as we slowly slide away from being a Republic. It should terrify everyone.
5
Hey New York Times—So many of us want to donate to this cause. We are moved to compassion and want to be a part of what this incredible doctor is doing.
Can you please let us all know how to financially contribute??
If there isn’t already a foundation or non-profit set up, maybe the Times should consider doing a gofundme or find another charity that will collect funds for this cause.
Thank you for this brave work of journalism. It’s important for all of us to remember that for many, the journey to recovery is just beginning now that the crisis is “over.”
28
@Bekah I agree. I hope the Times will tell us all how we can financially support this work. In the meantime, I am sending another donation to Doctors Without Borders.
7
@Bekah
My son does humanitarian work in Northern Iraq and is awareof these issues and has worked with the Yazidi people. He said a group called YAZDA does good work on the ground in the Sinjar area. Charlie has met the journalist and says that, unfortunately, the article is accurate. Thank you for caring.
5
ISIS is made up of monsters. It got its start because of George W Bush's invasion of Iraq. Donald Trump has just given it a new lease on life.
11
We are not so evolved as we like to think. We are not the pinnacle of divine creation. We are a species in transition, from animal, towards a kinder, more divine being. We are not there. We can be base and self-concerned, or be altruistic and for the greater good. We are hungry/greedy and brutal. We are kind/generous creators. Not either or but potentially both. Hopefully the healers can undo some of the violence and in so doing, elevate us all.
11
In Angola, following the two-year civil war, our approach was to also help care-givers - nurses, teachers, etc. - better understand how children were affected by the war, especially considering that, after 15 years of armed conflict in the struggle for independence from Portugal, followed by 15 more years of internal, cold war supported fighting, war was almost "normal." And, the importance of a return to a sense of normalcy - being able to attend school again. At the time, it wasn't possible to even imagine individual therapy for the tens of thousands of children affected.
6
Thank you for this report. I can't tell you how important these truths are, how deeply these photos penetrate. I find myself praying just to manage the grief.
6
What if the primary guiding principle of all leaders was to protect children and create a future for them? That is all we need to do for the human race.
5
Heartbreaking, tragic, and infuriating all at once. How is it that ISIS managed so to bastardize Islam?
We certainly haven't helped, with our blundering military adventures in Iraq and elsewhere in the middle East.
Good for those who are helping, and may they be successful.
9
Human eyes are not built to read long tracts of white type on black backgrounds. Please?
6
@LarryAt27N Maybe some people have problems with it, but I certainly did not. I appreciated the format because it enhanced the photos.
7
@LarryAt27N I don't know what suffering you have experienced that causes you to focus on the physical characteristics of this moving article rather than its text; but something seems to be getting in the way of your compassion. I hope you are able to find peace and healing.
2
@LarryAt27N Larry, I'm wondering what trauma you have experienced to cause you to respond in such a cold way to the suffering of this article. I, of course, do not know you, but whatever suffering you have experienced that causes you to focus on the typeface, I hope you find some relief.
2
Brutal is too small a word to describe what has been done to these women and children by ISIS. Sadistic, demonic, depraved, and virtually unspeakable would be closer to the mark.
This is perhaps the darkest chapter yet in the history of Islam. The fact that we heard so little outrage from other Islamic countries or Islamic leaders about these atrocities is also a crime. Those who say nothing in the face of pure evil are complicit with it.
Remember those who knew but said and did nothing when the Jews were tortured and murdered in WWII? The majority of the mainly Christian people and leaders in the Allied countries, that’s who.
But the Jews stood by their own. Muslims and Christians don’t have that kind of loyalty to their own.
Do humans have the capacity to choose good over evil given free will? Is our imminent demise a tragedy, or simply good riddance to a failed brutal species?
7
@Gwen Vilen
From me you'll get total agreement except on one point - "our imminent demise" - despite and not diminishing, excusing, or understating the evils members of our species have inflicted upon others, human compassion, courage, altruism, and willingness to pursue justice will prevail. The Nazis, the Fascists, and their Isis heirs have been defeated, as will be their successors.
2
@Gwen Vilen An insightful pastor of mine once said, "When we are looking for the link between the ape and the human, perhaps we are it." I like the message, but at the same time, I do not believe for a moment that apes would do the things humans are capable of.
5
I'm crying. I have two tough immigrant parents that lived through brutal wars and pretty much nothing makes me cry. The abuse of the children is sickening. The purposeful abuse of small young children. Babies. Who or what tortures babies? These ISIS people deserve something worse than death. I do believe in hell, because of the people who hurt children. I hope these animals end up there and that they suffer tenfold. God bless the therapists that try to help. And if there was ever a righteous fight for our nation - this is it. And with our disciplined forces we should be leading it. But, unfortunately, ignorant people elected a circus clown as our president.
13
I wanted to read this story but the white-on-black format kept me from going very far into it. Maybe bc of my 62-year-old eyes
2
This is one of the most horrifying articles I have ever read. These children have survived a holocaust. And very little has been done to help them rebuild their shattered lives. Because the United States is directly responsible for creating the chaos in Iraq that gave rise to ISIS, I think we should pay for the lifelong mental health treatment that these severely traumatized children and their families will need to attain some semblance of physical and emotional safety. I’m still in shock thinking about what they have endured. I also feel a deep sense of sadness and shame for not being previously aware of the extent and depth of their suffering.
31
@Zareen There is an organization called YAZDA that helps the people in the Sinjar area. I know if I donate to a good organization it helps me deal with my sadness when becoming aware of situations like this.
3
@Zareen I agree completely. Wouldn't it be something if the U.S. paid for lifelong mental health treatment for these people? Please have my taxes pay for that. (Also: ISIS grew out of the horrible mess made in Iraq by George W. Bush and his guys. He is a war criminal and should be held responsible.)
1
What is to become of these children? Why are not all the nations that respect life pouring help into these camps?
If they are not helped to heal and learn to see a better future the whole world will reap the whirlwind.
Don't think I will ever forget those tragic empty little faces.
My heart breaks for them.
I hope the Times will offer an update in a few months on how these families are managing.
15
These are the people America has abandoned and let us not forget that Dick Cheney and George W. Bush have their blood and suffering on their hands. These are the people European nationalists hate. These young yet ancient faces look at us and ask a single question: Why? They have fallen victim not only to ISIS but also to the rest of the world's indifference to their fate. They are people who derive their reason for being from collective effort, not from spurious fame and egotism. They merit all the help the world can give them. Thank you to the authors of this stunning article and photographs. I will bookmark this article and read it again.
19
Why is the educated Muslim community in the west silent? Why are they not vociferous in condemning these horrific atrocities? Unless they, as a community practicing the same religion have the conviction that wrongs have been committed and the courage to speak up against their own people, this will be an everyday act that will never disappear. My heart breaks for these children. The perpetrators are cowardly, sociopaths and psychopaths who pretend to fight for a cause. Bravo, to the kind and selfless doctors and volunteers.
3
@Meena Why do you assume that the "educated Muslim community in the west" somehow condones these atrocities? Why do you assume that all Muslims are one monolithic community and that ISIS members are "their own people," when the reality is that there are as many versions of Islam as there are Muslims? A Muslim in California has about as much in common with a member of ISIS as a pork chop does with an apple pie. Let's all please stop with the generalizations.
12
@Mimi
In your entire argument, did you once feel the need to condemn these cruelties towards innocent people? Instead you took up a defensive attitude trying to protect the image of muslims everywhere. Whether you like it or not all sects of Islam have one Allah. Your religion and its ideals have been hijacked, and instead of loudly berating ISIS, you prefer to offer an explanation for why other muslims are different? What does it matter if you have different sects with one religion? Does the abuse of these children not break your hearts? Why remain silent? Why not join in with the rest of us in chorus against these evil people. The more people who dare to speak against such atrocities, the more we can sideline and minimize such terrorist groups.
2
@Meena : really, you are being quite unreasonable! How do you know that normal Muslims do not condemn ISIS? Because your media don’t report it? Another question: where were the American Christians condemning the murders of Black churchgoers at a prayer meeting, in the name of god? Did it feel necessary to call on Christians to do so, or was it taken for granted that no normal person could ever condone such actions? It’s time to get rid of these double standards - condemn perpetrators, don’t look past them to the groups from which they spring (i.e. ALL Muslims, or ALL Christians) in order to sully those groups, and try to grasp what it is that pushes some people into vicious murder in the name of religious belief.
Thank you for this piece. It was hard to consume but this feeling of helplessness and heartbreak is incomprabale to what people continue to experience due to religious terrorism that is ISIS or any other group that needs to kill others nonbelievers, infidels, or just not "us." I felt such anger and despair and I'm amazed there are people like Kizilhan who find ways to do something. I feel useless and incapable of helping. How could this administration abandon these people again? Does anyone read Trump these types of accounts or is he that far removed from reality that he won't even comprehend? Shame. Once again, thank you.
7
Hard to read this, hard to believe in God.Hard to believe in the goodness of people.We all must do better to prevent such atrocities.
There hasn't been much reporting like this over all these years of endless war. To those who advocate ever more bombing and killing... to the US military which inflicts this horrible suffering on people with hardly a thought, shame on all of you.
We cannot do much about the hatred these folks seem to have with each other... sunni vs. shia vs. yazidi etc. but all we do is make it worse with every action we take. It's time to stop.
6
We have the same thing going on with child separation and imprisoning children and shipping some of them off who have disappeared forever to who knows where - so on that level we're as bad as ISIR followers. Don't tell ME that those children and infants who have been torn from their parents aren't suffering and will suffer for the rest of their lives as a result of this treatment - you should know better and shame shame shame on you for totally ignoring what's going on in our country while people here scream and yell in support of the Jailer in Chief.
8
Thank you, because this is what I been looking for! I loved reading these articles, because I often wondered how people in that part of the world are surviving under the conditions of “ISIS!” I am in school studying and majoring in Psychology! As I read I was so sorry to read the invasion of American soldiers made things worst in Iraq! Now I can understand, as I read why the fighting often occur through the very young hearts and minds of the Iraqi, Syrians people! They are conditioned that way of thinking, living to fight. Oh so sad, and we here in America complain about the simplest things! Recently the leader of this terrible, degrading organization called Isis, had been killed! What a great thing because this person was truly deserving of it! The war is still not over and there is lots and lots of work to be done! I pray for these people that had been captured by Isis that God will give them a life of peace!
1
Lets ask our ally Israel if they will step up to the plate and help them. After all, we give them billions of dollars in aid with little to show for it.
1
great report..sad report
I have been traveling in 1971 all through Syria and Irak, hitchhiking very often at night as a young student passionate with archeology; I have been welcome everywhere, getting cared when I needed in clean and competent health centers, kids, a lot of kids playing in the streets....and this was under Bashar El Assad's father and under Sadam Hussein regime...
so please do not forget who is at the origin of the break up of thoses countries, at the origin of today's nightmares, misfortunes and atrocities of simple people with their traumatized children...Lybia..Yemen.. Gaza...
3
Humans are a terrible species.
Capable of love yes but any human is a
potential murderer. We have witnessed this time and again throughout history.
I often wonder what purpose we humans actually serve. We have created the capacity for total destruction of this beautiful planet.
Why? Fear of death I suppose, or some notion of being able to control nature.
This article is painful to read but so necessary.
We must look our capacity for evil in the face.
5
Horror after horror. Why? What is it for?
1
@Thereaa I don't know, but I would hazard a guess that money and oil are in there (aka greed). It was George W. Bush and Cheney who went into Iraq, destroyed so many people's lives, and birthed ISIS. I suppose the ISIS believers were individuals who decided to channel their anger, loss, grief, hatred, etc. into doing to others what the Americans did to them and their country and way of life: total destruction. Since their livelihoods, economy, buildings/offices/homes, were destroyed, what else was there (they figured) but to respond by lashing out? How could they possibly fight back at the U.S.? It's a terrible and wrong response, but that is how those people responded.
Captivity induced PTSD. It's bad because it's "over there".
How many American tax dollars are going to be spent in the not to distant future in litigation and amelioration for cases of PTSD generated by caging children at the southern boarder?
6
“Over and over again, the fighters told him: We kill them because they are not human.”
This reminded me of the Black Mirror episode “men against fire.” Dehumanizing humans is so dangerous and effective and it saddens me to see our president constantly try to dehumanize immigrants by calling these humans looking for a better life “invaders” and “dogs.”
7
Heartbreaking?
The entire western liberal political tradition is about avoiding such heartbreaks. And worse.
But heh.
Go off and act as if you are onto some new truth when you can’t be bothered to learn old truths that were there before this new truth.
Perhaps it is time for a photo piece on the Bataan March or the medical experiments on Chinese by Japanese. So many chances.
2
Every time a piece of armament is sold, every time an American waves a flag and praises a soldier, this can be the result. Traumatized children, raped women, dead men.
5
Sadly many people who've survived such trauma don't recover.
Those playing what they think is some 'global game of chess' should have to face - up front and personal - those who suffer the results of their actions. Sadly, I expect they would categorize such things as 'unintended consequences' or 'collateral damage', unfortunate things that occurred in pursuit of a 'greater good'.
What 'greater good' justifies any of what is described here?
How much of this would have happened if the US had NOT gone into Iraq after 9/11?
30
Please let us know how we can support these therapists and their work. Thank you to the writer and photographer for this story.
14
@Deborah Here is the organization
yazda.org
It breaks my heart. Their suffering is unbearable.
6
Heart breaking. Unbelievable to be sitting on the couch, waiting for the trick-and-treats kids on Halloween night, reading about the atrocious things humans can do to other humans. Eight-year old girls being raped... I don't even want to imagine that. May they heal, may they heal. And may we all follow German's example of providing (mental health) support.
5
Good Goddess! Hopefully, somebody interrupts George W. Bush from his painting of bad portraits and reads him this story of the results of his legacy as a "war pres-i-dent".
6
My heart is breaking. A must read for all of America!
3
This is but a small glimpse into the heart of darkness that is carefully kept hidden from we Americans, as our politicians of both party's rally us to support their endless, illegal, immoral - so called "regime-change wars." Western support for ISIS, cynically used as proxies in our efforts to topple the governments of both Libya and Syria, has created the unspoken moral wound that our entire society lives and breathes daily. Though perhaps consciously unaware of just how close our own lives as American taxpayers intersect with these uber-traumatized victims of our war-machine - still I dare say more and more of us are suspecting a rather intimate relationship. Will our own appropriate guilt and shame spur some ethical action? One can only hope so.
7
@Gary Weglarz
Barack Obama was the only member of the U.S. Senate to oppose that murderous, disastrous war. And our current "president" mocks him. Let us restore decency to our executive --turn this wannabe demagogue out of office.
4
Where were we in 2014? That's all I could thing when I read this.
3
Great photojournalism, difficult to read, but we mus not forget the plight of the Yazhiri and the scars inflicted on a younger generation.
I fear for the future. When the fabric of
basic human relationships is so horribly shredded, and for the nth time in not so many generations, the fabric of social life in Iraq will be hard to mend. When we allow such things to happen to children we create the monsters in their minds that shape future wars. To think that the distance between the west and the rest will insulate us morally and physically is delusional.
15
A searing account made more effective by its simple, matter-of-fact telling. Kudos to Ms. Percy and everyone else involved. At first I found the arty black-box presentation to be mildly irritating, but soon realized I needed the blank space and photos to recover a bit from the paragraph I had just read.
Like many other readers, at the end of the article I was left with a strong urge to donate in some way to Mr. Kizilhan's heroic work. This article should be translated and published around the world, particularly in Sweden, so that the people who decide the Nobel Peace Prize are aware of Mr. Kizilhan. Perhaps the NYTimes could run a follow-up article with an option to make a donation?
9
I wish, from the depths of my being, that I could help these poor, traumatized people. I know that no matter what, I cannot have a profound effect on their suffering. When faced with such extreme suffering, sometimes all we can do is cry for the victims and pray for them and become firmer in our resolve to be more loving and compassionate in our daily lives.
19
"How Does the Human Soul Survive Atrocity?"
Often it does not or the scars are permanent.
Research on Holocaust survivors and their children has shown that trauma is often passed on to second and third generation.
13
@Joshua Schwartz
Yes, the scars are permanent but it isn't just ISIS commuting atrocities. Our drones reduce families to charred bits of meat that survivors collect. We train and arm perpetrators of horrific violence around the world. An American loses a pet and gets years of counseling. Too many in places like Afghanistan, Syria and Honduras receive only more scarring horror.
5
@Joshua Schwartz Yes, so true, Joshua, thank you for understanding that the scars run deep and last for many generations. We must find ways to help the soul heal and become more loving, compassionate, and kind beings. The heart will show us the way, if allowed to open to the wounding that hurts all of us. Carie
2
The soul has nothing to do with mental health. What this article is trying to say is that these children suffer from a unique form of brain injury caused by the trauma of violence.
5
@Dad W : I think your hang-up with the word "soul" is that you are interpreting it in a religious sense. The word "soul" can mean, in other context, the "self."
@Lmca
No it cannot. ‘Soul’ implies immateriality thus it plays no role in modern medicine.
1
Thank you for it his very very hard read.
10
Please tell us how we can help. My heart is breaking reading this.
10
This is a horrific story that highlights the consequences of religious fundamentalism carried to an extreme. What drives people to be so wicked in the name of God? It’s easy to pretend that this is an Islamic problem, history shows how this isn’t the truth. With the scope of this problem and the relative lack of resources to deal with it, there are going to be many future jihadist among these children. It seems to me that humanism needs to become more dynamic to counter religion. We need to create a good reality that doesn’t need the escape of religion.
14
Stupendous work. At least, we can stop war, USA wars, and do no harm to our fellow human beings.
5
@Kathy Barker Except when they come to our border to seek refuge and a better life and our government subjects them and their children to the trauma of family separation, unnecessary
detention in prisons, and waiting in the harsh streets of Mexican border towns
With all that is going on in the world in terms of dictators and terrorists, the world is headed for one giant case of PTSD. How this next year is played out politically is anyone's guess. If Trump's insanity continues and I believe it will, the disaster this world is headed for.....well. There will not be enough therapists to heal us all.
8
We are not human in either the loving or divine sense. We are a species that lives by devouring in many ways other less capable species. As such we are just another part of the food chain. A food chain that ends when we are all reduced back to the dust we came from. Over the eons there were probably many species as ours in our universe. The more like us, the surer their demise. We are a sick species and if we were created by some deity, hopefully it will learn from its mistakes and do better with its next creation. I’d rather accept we were a simple fluke of nature as I really don’t care to believe in a deity that might have designed such an ill conceived species as us.
5
@BS God has given all humankind the Blessing and the Curse of Free Will. It is our choice that makes goodness or evil.
2
Like all who commented here I am horrified by the cruelty these people have endured at the hand of ISIS. Just as horrifying is to learn of the brainwashing of these children until some identify with their tormentors and survive by emulating them with some even finding tormenting others to be “fun.” It staggers the mind and pierces the heart that such profound cruelty has reaped such terrible outcomes. I also fear the results of our country’s treatment of innocents at our borders will effect the children taken from their parents there, even without the other cruelties so eloquently and clearly reported here. Please let us know how we can support the work being done by the therapists described in this article.
50
I'd like to donate to the psychotherapy program referenced in the article. Any idea how and where I can?
Thanks.
13
Breath-taking piece of journalism. At age 55, this article is one of the best I have read in my life. The photographs are searing.
11
What happens to the soul of a country that does this to children?
The US bombs children every day and has done so for decades.
US taxpayers pay (and borrow money from China) billions of dollars every week to bomb children.
People read this and see these photos and say how heartbreaking it is while their tax dollars are used to commit these acts.
How can the US ever become a nation with integrity?
9
@Baruch
Indeed and thank you. Some of us have good memories as this poem from the latest issue of the Blue Collar Review demonstrates --
Fallujah Forgotten
Is the header on the article
written for: Peace in Our Time,
Veterans for Peace newspaper.
Details horrific scenes where
the liberators become as
bad as the former oppressors;
disrespectful of religions, decorum,
laws, customs . . .
Protesting citizens, at peaceful
demonstrations against USA
occupiers are shot at by soldiers.
No mention of casualties but,
just the fact of it, suggests there
must be some, suggests where this
new occupation is headed.
Years later, in a second battle
for the city, methods include free
fire zones, bombing of civilians
and a "Family Game" that would
have defied descriptions if we had
not seen what went on inside
the American held prisons.
This Family Game not like
what we see here, not like
The Dating Game, Eligible
Bachelor, Family Feud . . . but one
where the first person exiting
a dwelling is summarily shot,
no matter how old he or she may be.
Then her father trying to retrieve
the body. Then two sons, one
managing to close his father's eyes
and dragging his dead sister
inside though wounded himself,
only to die a protracted, painful
death himself from the untreated
wound. The other long dead from
a head shot.
Those still inside could
smell the remains not eaten
by wild animals for days --
weeks after.
-- Alan Catlin
4
Which is more heartbreaking in the eyes of the children - the dead unfocused stare or the haunted emptiness? I wish all who are hurt that they find a way to happiness and joy. May the find a way to love.
2
I encourage the helpers to take care of themselves as they support these children through their trauma. I am lost trying to find the words to express my grief for these children. How do little minds absorb and process such unspeakable cruelty and terror? I am thankful for the bravery of those who help them.
14
The ripples of mayhem triggered in the name of energy and security can’t be calculated or measured in our lifetimes or even in our children’s lifetimes. In a handful of weeks, all we can say is we’re protecting the oil. May we never be so blind and deaf as to ever believe in “never again” but it seems we’re destined to do just that.
6
Nadia's OpEd extended her reputation. She won the Nobel Peace Prize. Children traumatized must be surrounded by support and constant care, good food, love and good listening. A diaspora is underway. America, Australia, Canada, Germany, Western Europe must help Yazidis to retain their culture while gently assimilating. They are few in number, often victimized because they are different. We cherish those that are different. They learn from us, we from them. The USA can open to immigrants. Many Yazidis come with education and culture. Many with advanced degrees. I'd like to see their youth enrolling in our colleges. Those willing to share should reach out. We can help.
4
@S B Lewis
Rather than encouraging Yazidis to leave their ancient homeland and assimilate, we should help them to remain in Iraq. Yazidi culture will not survive if they are scattered among various Western countries. We should ask why they are still in refugee camps, and not permitted to return to their villages. We should ask why the Iraqi and Kurdish governments are not facilitating their return. It’s unfortunate that this article did not address or even question why so many Yazidis remain virtually imprisoned in camps. ISIS is no longer an excuse. They could be safely resettled in Nineveh Plain.
3
Pulitzer worthy. Thank you, Jennifer. This must have been traumatic to experience and writer - it certainly was to read and view.
15
A stunningly difficult and moving piece, the photos resonating the destruction wrought upon these people and yet with hope shining through the stories of abject misery and torture.
Godspeed to Mister Kizilhan and his work as well as all those who follow, more so to all the millions they will need to treat.
5
The plight of these innocent children and the adults is devastating yet eye-opening. Trauma especially PTSD inflicted during childhood is supposed to be really hard to completely recover from. It makes me wonder if these children are now going to struggle through their lives despite the coping tools.
Heartbreaking- makes me so mad that mankind can be such barbarians.
4
Let us not forget that it was the George W. Bush administration whose illegal invasion of Iraq destabilized the Middle East and opened the way for rogue groups such as the Daesh to gain traction.
Saddam Hussein was a cruel dictator, but what came after the U.S. overthrew him was much worse in every respect.
The U.S. government has a lot to atone for.
20
@Pdxtran - And those of us who continue to vote for Chickenhawk warmongers.
4
Journalism at its best, and thank you to all who worked on this important piece. These stories need to be told, no matter how hard they are to read. What saddens me is the fact that Trump has allowed many Isis fighters to escape. Could one of them be the man who put that two year old baby in a hot box for seven days? My heart breaks!
6
This beautiful piece of writing and art captured and stunned me. Such heart-rending stories, dramatized even more with black and white photos, presented in a creative layout!
This left me feeling how little Americans, in general, probably know about other cultures, and how ignorant we are about the effects of what we do upon others. Last week’s abandonment of the Kurds to hostile incoming Turks and militias is a case in point. Any forethoughts about what would happen to that Kurdish settlement and the others they have taken in? Another topic for another time.
8
We gave to yazda.org in 2016. I met Murad Ismael by phone following Rukmini Callimachi's reporting. I met Nadia Murad in March in a penthouse off Broadway on 87th. She came to the farm to start her book. She is a great cook, she has a terrific sense of humor, we love her and her people.
2
Pulitzer Prize journalism & photography.
3
This is journalism as its best. I am always reduced to tears when I read about the kids--be it ISIS, opioids, asylum seekers...it's the suffering of the children that really exposes the staggering immorality of the choices of those in power.
6
The university in Duhok is a great undertaking. America could be developing ideas like that. Americans get hysterical if their child is late for soccer. How does one even live, day to day, not knowing where children are taken, only to have them returned, maybe, as broken bits of humanity. It is not religion, which is only the excuse. It is humans, a credulous, gullible, fearful species, which requires little pressure to become insufferable.
4
It is morning where I live and my usual chores remain undone, because I could not stop reading this extraordinary, soul-shattering article. How can we humans do this to each other? How is it possible for some of us to believe that others of us are not human, not worthy of life? What's at the root of these teachings? Is it quest for territory? Is it fear of 'not enough'? Will we ever, as a species, be able to live in peace with each other? All these caregivers are so heroic - as are the children who get up every day, and walk around with the results inside them of the torture, be it physical or psychological. I live in both hope and doubt that we will make it. My heart breaks for the possibilities that elude us, but also with such gratitude for those who work towards the light. Thank you, NYT, for publishing this incredible work.
26
That was an absolutely extraordinary article, I'm speechless.
21
In Rwanda there is still healing and trauma therapy going on 25 years after the Genocide. There is also hope but it didn’t happen by accident. People need stability and safety. We should support Iraqi efforts to rebuild the country as we caused part of its destabilization and we should also be able to learn which organizations are doing effective work. If our government won’t contribute, let’s give to organizations that will.
26
My heart aches for these children, the Yazidi, the devastated Iraqi people. Thank you for bringing this story to us. I pray they experience healing and hope in their future, aided by Kizilhan and his colleagues.
21
Thank you for this. My heart is racing. I am now late for work. This was so difficult to read, yet I could not stop.
17
Although this was challenging to read through without tears, I thank you for bringing this human and intimate portrait of terrorism and war. I for one, think the mental health care workers are brave and clearly heroes/heroines. I wonder how we can help Mr Kizilhan and his colleagues. It seems our foreign policy should focus on funding medical/psychological care, not weapons and troops.
34
This was such a tough read, it will haunt me. The stories are unimaginable and it’s so important that we know about this so that we can find ways to support the survivors and shine a light on such traumatic experiences. Thank you for truth telling, thank you
35
Thanks to The New York Times for this great piece. Thanks to Rukmini Callimachi for her breakout coverage of the Yazidis.
Nadia Murad is recognized. Heads of state know her personally. The UN and the White House know her. She has met the president and vice president.
Still, there is little being done to help the children traumatized and often orphaned. There is a way to help them. I experienced milieu therapy on campus at The University of Chicago in 1950. There is a way.
Kids trashed by war must be loved and helped... milieu therapy is all there is.. if their parents and families are gone.
The effort must be organized...
Americans can do this if a focused effort can find its way, well financed and surrounded with students and faculty on campus with a shared interest to help.
Yazidis now living in Canada, Houston and Lincoln Nebraska would help.
27
I introduced Nadia and Murad Ismael to Bard College to learn how students would react, how she would react, to learn if she might teach Americans deeply to feel what she has experienced. It worked. She is a gifted communicator. Murad Ismael translated. He is fabulous. A moving YouTube of that visit was distributed world wide.
21
Ms. Percy, that was the single most powerful story I have ever read. My heart bleeds for all the victims in your piece. The new psychotherapy program: what a godsend. I hope it gets more and more support to help more people -- and that other, similar programs will emerge around the world where they are needed. It's amazing.
Thank you and your photojournalist for the incredible reporting and storytelling. And Kizilhan...what an extraordinary man. I hope his insight and efforts multiply.
45
I had tears streaming down my face the whole time reading this article. Thank you for tell this story. I believe these experts are correct that addressing trauma with therapy is the only way to break the cycle. Hearing about the survivors who were treated in Germany and the healing that came from that seems hopeful. I would love to find a way to donate the the psychotherapy and Psychotraumatology program at the university of Duhok that was cited throughout the article. A cursory google search didn’t make clear if there was a way to give to this cause, so if anyone from the NYT staff could provide this information I am sure others would also want to give to this life saving cause. Thank you for this story the writing and photographs were incredibly powerful and very humanizing.
59
@Kelsey Yes, I wish to donate too. Some days' news feels like the whole human world needs psychotherapy. This kind of journalism does not seem to reach those that need to understand. And the rest of us are desperate to make the world a better place. I am horrified and frustrated beyond any combination of words.
5
@Kelsey same!
@Kelsey Yes I’ve been searching all afternoon and can’t figure out how to financially support!
I want to do my part to help. Please provide ways, be it financially, time, etc. i wish i had the heart to let my 19 year old read this article. But certainly i have pushed her in my own way to maybe pursue psychiatry or a similar career to be able to make a difference. Another thing i have told her is to choose a career that brings fulfillment and hapiness instead of solely materialistic rewards. Somehow this article helped me to clear my priorities.
30
Thank you for relating these stories. I am just numbed by humanity's inhumanity. For the beings who suffered through these situations and more often than continue to suffer, and all who were slaughtered, I will not forget fhem. They are now part of my soul. We Americans too often stir up parts of our World in the name on "American interests". This here again we see the results.
44
I am deeply moved by this article. It was devastating to read and I cannot imagine these children living out happy lives, but I am grateful to read that there are people trying to give them a chance to. I hope they suceed.
I am deeply offended, however, by the placement of ads, color, moving ads, throughout the beautiful stark layout. Surely the NYT can forgo ad revenue for such a beautifully formatted piece. It is clear that enormous effort went into styling this article. It really is a shame it is ruined by ads.
73
@PaulaC. Thanks for highlighting the inappropriateness of the ads, I often feel this way when reading about the many crisis that fill our news and feel there is something obscene in this juxtaposition. Thank you for speaking this, I wish I had.
14
@PaulaC. Journalism isn’t free and the most moving articles are likely the ones to bring in the most ad revenue. The best way to help reduce ads is to subscribe.
3
@PaulaC. Given that I pay to read this difficult and moving piece, I agree that the ads would be better left off the page.
2
so much trauma Legacy all around the world every war we've ever had gets passed down and Trauma patterns in the family and Society Humanity has a humongous backlog this is the most hopeful story I've read in a long time we have so much healing to do including healing our relationship with the natural environments of our planet it's all the same process it's all the same project We Are One
18
Excellent report. If this mental health crisis isn’t addressed then we are looking at lost generation of beautiful children who had terrible things done to them. Can we find out about the groups working on this and how much support they get?
32
Heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing this story.
54
Heartbreaking. The things we humans do to each other.
58
Pulitzer Prize journalism & photography.
138
@blackrose agree wholeheartedly
4
A devastating piece of journalism. The suffering of children throughout the world, including within our detention centers for innocent immigrants and refugees is unconscionable. We have a lot to answer for.
153
@Dominique yes, this is true, working in border towns of USA and Mexico and in migrant farm worker camps in USA communities we as a culture need to educate mental health therapists, educators, politicians, etc, etc, to help treat these traumatized individuals, families who basically remain unseen in our communities as we remain comfortably ignorant of their traumatized existence.
7
This incredible piece of journalism took me about an hour to read and digest. A devastating reminder that conflict and trauma don’t happen in a vacuum, and last for generations.
This atrocity needs a name so it can be entered into mainstream consciousness and receive the global attention it needs (similar to 9/11 and The Holocaust).
12
@Dominique
My God, what has America done to Iraq?
5
Mr Rogers always said, "Look for the helpers." Thank you for telling us about them. It helps to know there's a ray of hope amidst all the evil and violence and madness.
105
Thank you, NYT , for this excellent picture essay. It is lamentable that not enough articles like this are published to clarify the lasting effects of wars and disasters.
95
Thank you for telling the world. It’s very hard to read. A long time ago, during another genocide, my grandfather went through the same sort of horrors. He survived. And all his life, he never did anything else, survive.
82
This is such important journalism; we must learn more about the effects of war, violence, jihadism, traumatic stress disorder in order to help treat the disorders, and heartbreak of those who were abused, tortured and denied human kindness and decency. Thank you for writing this article to tell the world these awful stories. We in the West have an obligation to know what has happened from these endless wars in the Middle East. I am horrified when I think that this administration has unleashed ISIS again with its reckless decision two weeks ago to leave our hard won victories behind and abandon the Kurds. Please publish more and especially give us more books to read, and ways to help support the work being done. This is the true power of the press, and thank God, you keep doing the work of telling the stories that need to be told.
138
@Al Agreed! Also, I grew up in Carmel!
@Al We know a ton already about the effects of war, how teens are turned into jihadists, how to bring them back into normal society, etc. We already know about this: research and programs (way too small and underfunded) already existing in England, Netherlands and USA. We did tons of research on this in Bosnia when those wars and genocides were going on. Truly, people, those of us in psychology and social sciences know how to do this work, both the preventive and the post-trauma treatments. Let's scale it up to a global level--as is already happening in counseling and psychology due to multiculturalism which will save us and the planet. It's time to implement and make it happen.
Thank you for this important piece of journalism. You report with brilliant writing, images and humanity.
61
I am speechless at the horrors these people, these children have been through. And terrified at how violence breed violence in some unending stream of human history. Jan Kizilhan is a hero for daring to intervene.
121
@cheryl
There is so much known about trauma now. Dialectical behavioral therapy is so good for PTSD. Typical psychiatry and therapy, I don’t think work, from experience. For years, re traumatizing people with analysis, not biophysical work, truly making a patient feel safe and finding the way in to the pain, then out again, with skills to let it go and live.
I have had therapy for years but nothing like this. Perhaps so many of our prescriptions could be lessened and pharmaceuticals would make a lot less money, if people just did trauma work. Psychiatry has to change across the board to integrate what this brilliant man is doing.
This article is heartbreaking on so many levels, and while I rejoice that those featured have received some treatment, the sheer number of those needing help after the incredible trauma they have suffered, and who are unable to get it is overwhelming.
One thing is clear; ISIS is not based upon Islamic teaching or any religion at all. It is an abomination based upon violence and cruelty - a terrorist organization that feeds on killing, raping, and destroying innocents. That they would prey on women is appalling, but to prey on children is beyond disgusting - it is inhuman.
I don't know what the answer to any of this is - no one does. Education and the most basic health care are needed, but how to deliver those things? It's beyond my understanding why these ancient civilizations haven't moved forward in centuries. In our "information age", the victims of ISIS and war in the region have been left behind, clinging to their culture and their religions because for them, there is nothing else.
I pray for the survivors, all of them, that they will find peace, and that in time, the horror of their past fades, replaced by hope. Their lives, so incredibly painful and difficult, make my problems seem insignificant in comparison.
64
@Chris Wildman
"why these ancient civilizations haven't moved forward in centuries."
What are you talking about? ISIS (Da'esh) is not an ancient civilization, it's a modern cult. As for the victims of Da'esh, why should they turn away from their culture and religion? What does that have to do with anything? It really sounds like you feel super to these victims because...you're not a victim, you are an American, you are "modern"? Doesn't it seem a little odd that you can piously offer your prayers for their well-being, but you denigrate their prayers?
1
@Salix
I agree - ISIS is not an ancient civilization. I was referring to the Middle East in general, the "cradle of civilization", where many ancient civilizations merge, and while they have made progress in many ways. But they remain lodged in a society where men dominate, and women are submissive, abused and killed to satisfy ancient laws.
And yes - I do feel sorry for those who survive among terrorists who manipulate them by forcing their twisted notion of "religion" upon them - their obscene version of the teachings of Mohammed. I don't denigrate the prayers of the good - but the evil.
I think that you completely over-reacted to my comment for reasons I don't understand.
1
The soul always survives, in some form, but it may be very, very twisted.
14
For readers of this article that are interested in the latest research on trauma and how to treat it I would recommend "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel van der Kolk. As far as the soul is concerned then one would have to consult philosophers or the religious in my opinion, or perhaps simply and more directly, talk to trauma survivors themselves.
41
It seems to me that it is the body and mind that are traumatized by violence and loss, not the soul—which is commonly understood to be the spiritual or immaterial part of our existence. If the soul can survive the death of the body, surely it can deal with any other kind of bodily experience, no matter how horrific. Psychotherapy is for the mind, which is the most vulnerable and easily-damaged part of our nature.
27
@Omalansky
Yes these are attacks on the body and on society. Those that survive live with the stigma of "damaged goods." That is very unfortunate and will end up being the most difficult handicap to overcome. They should be praised and respected for their heroism, for their courage to keep breathing. Their souls are intact. The souls we should be worried about are the souls of the perpetrators.
2
@Omalansky
The soul responds to love, and those who listen, treat and help are showing a form of deep love and devotion to healing, who of us can claim to know the soul’s mysteries, particularly in the grips of such brutality
@Omalansky
The soul has nothing to do with mental health. What this article is trying to say is that these children suffer from a unique form of brain injury caused by the trauma of violence. In fact, 'mental health' is a misnomer - it's brain health we're talking about. All psychiatry is the brain.
4