It was the year 1933 when Joseph and Liesel Yufe they had their twins in port of spainTrinity. He was a Polish Jew and she was a German Catholic.. For reasons that will not surprise anyone, the couple did not get along very well, so it did not take long for them to separate. Undecided about who should have custody of their children, they opted to take one each. Joseph stayed with him little Jackwhile Liesel took Oskar to Germany, where she married a supporter of Nazism. Thus, without thinking, they gave rise to an important study on genetics which would take place several decades later.
And it is that the twins are the perfect candidates to study the role of environment and genes in the development of a person. Are genetically the same, albeit with minor exceptions. That is why it is so interesting to analyze the few cases in which, for one reason or another, they have been raised separately. Like Jack and Oscar.
Both lived through World War II on totally different sides. The environment in which they grew up was radically different. However, when life brought them together again, they discovered that they had a lot in common. Logically, his story caught the attention of science, specifically the psychologist Thomas Bouchardwho conducted a study on these and other twins separated at birth.
You with the Nazis and I with the Jews
Jack did not return to Poland, but stayed with his father in Trinidad. They remained there until he was 15 years old, when he father and son they moved to Venezuela to live with his aunt, the only relative who had survived the hatred of the Nazis.
Therefore, although he did not experience the Second World War in the first person, he showed a logical rejection of Nazism. Oskar, on the other hand, had grown up surrounded by swastikas and Nazi slogans. He even joined the hitler youth.
In reality, neither of them hid the existence of the other, but all the differences that united them generated an intense refusal to know each other. It was Jack who finally, when they were 21, was encouraged to visit his brother in Frankfurt. Both had married and started a family, they were adults apparently far from the tension of war. However, they found no sympathy between them when they saw each other. They couldn’t even communicate Oskar spoke German and Jack Yiddish. They only found reasons to argue, so Jack finally went back to his house in the Caribbean. But he did not forget his brother.
She kept looking for a way to meet him and found it 25 years later, when she read about Bouchard, who was conducting a study on the genetics of twins in Minn. Jack contacted him and told him about his brother. He thought that the laboratory of this psychologist in the United States could be the neutral ground they needed to park their differences. The investigator agreed and contacted Oskar, who agreed to meet them there.
The amazing resemblance of the twins
Thanks to the possibility of meeting on neutral ground, the two twins were able to stop and observe their similarities. Despite not communicating with each other, they both wore wire-rimmed glasses, had mustaches, and had very similar clothing styles.
They also realized their common tastes in the culinary. Both Jack and Oskar loved spicy, but when it came to alcoholic beverages they preferred sweet liqueurs. They loved buttered toast, but not before dipping it in coffee. And also they shared hobbies. The two flushed the toilet both before and after using it. They even had in common hobbies as peculiar as fake a sneeze to break awkward silences.
The resemblance between the two was striking and revealed the importance of genes. As for the environment, it is true that he had forged in them very different visions of the world. It was precisely that personality that generated rejection in their first meeting. But when they put those differences aside, they were able to enjoy their similarities.
This was undoubtedly one of the most curious cases of Bouchard’s professional career, but not the only one. The psychologist is also known for the story of Jim and Jim, two twins separated at birth who were raised with the same name in different places. When they met the 39 years oldThey discovered that they had both married a woman named Linda, then divorced and remarried a Betty. Oddly enough, this must have been a coincidence. After all, our genes don’t dictate the names of the people we marry. At most, our tastes when choosing a partner. But other data, such as the choice of the names of his children, James Allan and James Alan, or his hobbies, could have a genetic explanation.
The two twins loved math when they were in school and had become carpentry handymen in their old age. They smoked and drank the same amount and had headaches at the same time of day.
It’s amazing how much our genes dictate about us. However, we are much more than that. Today it is known, for example, the role of the epigenetics, a branch of genetics that indicates how we can change the expression of our genes without altering the composition of DNA. And it is that sometimes, although we have the same genes, the environment in which we develop can make the let’s turn on and the let’s turn off in a different way. Genetics isn’t everything, but it’s clearly a big part of who we are. Jack and Oskar were a clear example of this.