The Holocaust In Three Generations

Victims and Perpetrators What form does the dialogue about the family past during the Nazi period take in families of those persecuted by the Nazi regime and in families of Nazi perpetrators and bystanders? What impact does the past of the first generation, and their own way of dealing with it have on the lives of their children and grandchildren? What are the differences between the dialogue about the family past and the Holocaust in families of Nazi perpetrators and in families of Holocaust survivors? This book examines these questions on the basis of selected case studies.

What form does the dialogue about the family past during the Nazi period take in families of those persecuted by the Nazi regime and in families of Nazi perpetrators and bystanders? What impact does the past of the first generation, and their own way of dealing with it have on the lives of their children and grandchildren?What are the differences between the dialogue about the family past and the Holocaust in families of Nazi perpetrators and in families of Holocaust survivors?This book examines these questions on the basis of selected case studies.

Genia spent two years in Auschwitz. Ze'ev fought with the Partisans. Olga hid in the Aryan section of Warsaw. Anya fled to Russia. Laura lived in Libya under the Italian fascist regime. All five survived the Holocaust, emigrated to Israel, and started families there. How the traumatic experience of these survivors has been transmitted, even transformed, from one generation to the next is the focus of Fear and Hope. From survivors to grandchildren, members of these families narrate their own stories across three generations, revealing their different ways of confronting the original trauma of the Holocaust. Dan Bar-On's biographical analyses of these life stories identify several main themes that run throughout: how family members reconstruct major life events in their narratives, what stories remain untold, and what is remembered and what forgotten. Together, these life stories and analyses eloquently explore the intergenerational reverberations of the Holocaust, particularly the ongoing tension between achieving renewal in the present and preserving the past. We learn firsthand that the third generation often exerts a healing influence in these families: their spontaneous questions open blocked communications between their parents and their grandparents. And we see that those in the second generation, often viewed as passive recipients of familial fallout from the Holocaust, actually play a complex and active role in navigating between their parents and their children. This book has implications far beyond the horrific reality at its heart. A unique account of the interplay between individual biography and wider social and cultural processes, Fear and Hope offers a fresh perspective on the transgenerational effects of trauma--and new hope for families facing the formidable task of "working through."

Motivated by her Auschwitz-survivor mother's death to explore her world, psychologist Alteras (Hunter College, City College of New York) takes testimony from three generations of women and finds connecting themes in their life stories. She studies her mother's generation who grew up in Eastern Europe, her own cohorts who had immigrated to the US as youngsters, and their children who were born into an environ of heightened Jewish and feminist consciousness. The book concludes with reflections on shifts in, and survival of, Jewish identity. Includes photos of each generation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

An exploration of the experiences of the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors - who have particular relationships to the Holocaust, mediated through their interactions with their parents, grandparents, and communities. The book's editors innovatively combine scholarly work, dealing with questions of trauma and its transmission across generations, with autobiographical accounts, which incorporate many of the concerns raised by scholars.

Writings by survivors of the Holocaust, children and grandchildren of survivors, and the students who have understood.

How is the Holocaust understood by people across generations? Whereas during, and in the aftermath of WWII, the experience carried immediacy and traumatic meaning for the first generation of Holocaust survivors, received understandings of the second generation may be distinguished from the first. The second generation's perception, recounted from memories by parents and relatives, sought to protect the legitimacy of an earlier generation's lived reality, while also lending further layers of understanding. Now, with the third-generation post-Holocaust, memory is further diluted, posing potential danger of treating the Holocaust as some distant horror having lesser real meaning. This empirical project seeks to explore meaning and understanding of the Holocaust -- the terms that contour the way it is defined in the minds of inter-generational subjects, how use and connotations have changed over the past eighty-plus years, and specifically, how the Holocaust is presented to the world today. The study will analyze use of language, survivor testimonies, interviews, psychology, current events and historical facts to discern whether understandings of the Holocaust have evolved or remained the same.

An entirely fresh take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that examines the life-shaping reverberations of wars and ongoing tensions upon the everyday lives of families in Jerusalem. An American, secular, diasporic Jew, Lis Harris grew up with the knowledge of the historical wrongs done to Jews. In adulthood, she developed a growing awareness of the wrongs they in turn had done to the Palestinian people. This gave her an intense desire to understand how the Israelis’ history led them to where they are now. However, she found that top-down political accounts and insider assessments made the people most affected seem like chess pieces. What she wanted was to register the effects of the country’s seemingly never-ending conflict on the lives of successive generations. Shuttling back and forth over ten years between East and West Jerusalem, Harris learned about the lives of two families: the Israeli Pinczowers/Ezrahis and the Palestinian Abuleils. She came to know members of each family—young and old, religious and secular, male and female. As they shared their histories with her, she looked at how each family survived the losses and dislocations that defined their lives; how, in a region where war and its threat were part of the very air they breathed, they gave children hope for their future; and how the adults’ understanding of the conflict evolved over time. Combining a decade of historical research with political analysis, Harris creates a living portrait of one of the most complicated and controversial conflicts of our time.

Victims and Perpetrators What form does the dialogue about the family past during the Nazi period take in families of those persecuted by the Nazi regime and in families of Nazi perpetrators and bystanders? What impact does the past of the first generation, and their own way of dealing with it have on the lives of their children and grandchildren? What are the differences between the dialogue about the family past and the Holocaust in families of Nazi perpetrators and in families of Holocaust survivors? This book examines these questions on the basis of selected case studies.