Praise
This is a unique and powerful book that provides a window into a process for bearing witness to intergenerational trauma. The authors, brave and courageous children of Holocaust survivors, share what it was like for them growing up in households where their parents and other family members tried to move forward from unfathomable horrors. As the authors note, ‘… Our parents’ suffering seeped into our souls.’ Seeking to be respectful, loving and strong yet recognizing that the trauma their families endured could and would have an impact on them and generations to come, the stories weave the snippets the children heard with the feelings and reactions that were engendered. This book is a must read for all who recognize the complexity of trauma and the opportunity for post-traumatic growth, resilience, and hope.”
– Michelle B. Riba, MD, professor, University of Michigan; past president, American Psychiatric Association
When a group of suburban, post-WWII members of a reform Jewish synagogue in Michigan came together to ‘enhance Holocaust Remembrance Day’ for their temple, they had no idea that by collecting the stories of their parents, all Holocaust survivors, they would create a non-fiction anthology, The Ones Who Remember. The woman whose leg was crushed by a tank that deliberately drove into the ditch where prisoners were resting; the letters of entreaty to barely known Jews in America to seek safety; children named after dead relatives mourned annually who dug their own graves in the town square before they were executed. All these authors grew up inhaling the atmosphere of heartbreak and inconceivable loss during their childhoods. How could they not be wounded by it? What makes the book bearable is the devotion that impelled its creation, and the vividness of the events, described in simple, unadorned prose. Among the sixteen families represented here, there are no favorites. All have been rendered equal by the shadow of death and the waterboarding of irreplaceable loss. I urge you to read this book.”
– Peter Coyote, actor, director, author, Zen Buddhist priest
This is a unique anthology of memoirs by adult children of Holocaust survivors. It represents over ten years of collaboration by individuals bravely driven to uncover complex webs of repressed suffering affecting their families in the Holocaust aftermath. Together, as members of the same Reform Jewish congregation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they supported one another in excavating beyond deeply buried family secrets, inexplicable arguments, and cries in the night, to find the roots of their own unresolved fears and emotional struggles. These sixteen, honest and moving memoir pieces chart the authors’ journeys from childhoods overwhelmed with adult burdens to newfound empathy and compassion for their parents and themselves, often learning the fuller stories of the persecutions their parents experienced only after parents died. As readers, we learn to understand the universal contours of trauma—the undeserved shame victims carry, their isolation, their often-failing need to prove themselves in imagined worlds of 'normalcy'—and we identify, because we can also see ourselves.”
– Dr. Sharon Leder, co-editor with Milton Teichman Truth and Lamentation: Stories and Poems on the Holocaust and The Burdens of History: Post-Holocaust Generations in Dialogue
Reckoning with one's past is not easy. Reckoning with one's parents' pasts is harder. Reckoning with the intolerable pasts of those who endured the Holocaust is nearly unimaginable. And yet for some children of survivors it is as necessary as breathing. The writers in this book reflect upon their unique legacy with a clear eye and an open heart. It's a remarkable combination.”
– Melvin Jules Bukiet, author, After and other novels
Flickering candles...suffering and resilience...survival, redemption, liberation...these are the memories that haunt Holocaust survivors. Don't miss this inspiring collection of stories written by children of survivors, as the next generations grapple with the legacy of family history. These writers honor the commandment to ‘never forget’ but then they take the crucial next step to bring their personal history to bear on today's challenges.”
– Ann Kirschner, author, Sala's Gift: My Mother's Holocaust Story
This is a unique book which allows readers to look into the lives of individuals and families whose parents survived the Holocaust.....The stories in this amazing collection give voice to a generation that has inherited the trauma but chooses to move onward. It is a generation that is ever mindful of the horrific experiences endured by their parents and have used those memories to try to repair the world. These moving personal reflections of the second-generation will resonate with readers who understand the need to heal world of pain. They saw the pain in their parents’ lives and the took upon themselves the aftershocks of suffering. Any reader who grew up in a family which underwent trauma will find these narratives familiar yet also so specific to the offspring of the survivors. The stories reveal tragedy, courage, fortitude, love, luck, and conflict, qualities passed on from parents to children and indeed grandchildren.
As the child of a survivor and an historian of Holocaust memory these chapters moved me deeply and I think they will do so as well for others. Each story may be unique but they also resonate. They both bring back painful memories of growing up and at the same time they provide inspiration for moving forward.”
– Hasia R. Diner, Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History. New York University
This gracefully-written collection illuminates the relationships between survivors and their children with complexity and candor. The writers examine how the legacy of the Holocaust influenced them as children, as parents, and as deep thinkers attuned to psychology and history. A sensitive book about the ways our lives are shaped by others. Readers will not soon forget The Ones Who Remember.”
– Rebecca Entel, PhD, author, Fingerprints of Previous Owners
In a few years there will be no more living survivors of the Holocaust, but memoirs and reflections like these assure that the cruelties the survivors suffered and the courage and resilience they showed will not be forgotten. Those in the second generation lived with their parents’ screams in the night, with tattooed numbers their parents felt they dare not explain, with ghosts of grandparents, uncles and aunts they never met, with ‘the inescapable shadow’ of the Holocaust on their own personalities. What they learned from the first-hand witnesses made them witnesses, too. The moving memories in this book ensure that the survivors’ testimony will endure.”
– Joseph Berger, senior reporter, The New York Times
Seventy-five years after the Holocaust, we have been blessed with being witnesses to a myriad of survivor narratives, which we treasure. At last, an account has been written by the generation following, those who were born after the Shoah and yet live in its shadow, sharing both their parents’ silences and memories. The Ones Who Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust lovingly yet honestly portrays these households with incredible compassion and kindness, understanding and acceptance.”
– Francie Weinman Schwartz, senior editor, Moment magazine
A gripping narrative of first-person portrayal of the lives of sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors is remarkably honest. Readers of The Ones Who Remember will be awed by the survivor parents who triumphed despite emotional challenges and provided their children an opportunity to thrive in America. What makes the book extraordinary is that the personal essays are poignant and heartrending. They engage us with the reality of everyday life growing up with parents who at times had different values or aspirations for their children. In this post-Holocaust world, the baton of remembering, Zachor, has been passed on to the next generation along with an indomitable spirit.”
– Eva Fogelman, PhD, author, Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust
'Who will tell your stories when the last Survivor is gone?’ It was a question I asked Catherine Crier to pose to Elie Wiesel back in 1997 when he was a guest on the show I was producing. Professor Wiesel was taken aback: ‘I would not want to be the last Survivor, to be the last to bear witness, it would be too much for any one person… it is my hope that when we are all gone, people will remember’. The Holocaust was an omnipresent entity in our house: dinner conversations about the ghetto, mass deportations, executions, and the murder of our families were common. It was all told very matter of factly. As the child of a survivor and since his passing, it is now my legacy to share my father’s story. I tell and retell it because I am proud to be his son, I am in awe of his ability to have survived, and most importantly, that no one ever forgets the worst brutality mankind has ever known. I give praise to all who contributed to The Ones Who Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust as they continue to deliver testimony for their parents about the evil no one should ever forget.”
– David Brown, Emmy award-winning news producer
This beautifully written anthology proves that the Holocaust is not simply an historical fact. Thousands of families live with its consequences. How do you mourn relatives you never knew but carry their name and unravel the stories of who they were and how they met their deaths? In these extraordinary accounts the second-generation have finally found their voice and their testimonies are a vital contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust.”
– Rosie Whitehouse, author, The People on the Beach: Journeys to Freedom After the Holocaust
The Ones Who Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust leaves us as second-generation survivors reaching out to the public to not forget. We – who heard the words of our parents, who witnessed their tears, their woeful stories – bear witness to the loss that occurred in their lives, obligating us and our children to shout out our warnings: ‘Never Again!’ Join me in reading our messages.”
– Hadassah Freilich Lieberman, author, Hadassah: An American Story
The Ones Who Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust is an important collection for many reasons. Foremost among them is its ability to dig deeply, but lightly, below the surface of the many issues and triumphs faced by the Second Generation in the years after the Holocaust.”
– Jamie L. Wraight, PhD, director, The Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive
This collection is a meaningful and important addition to the conversation around Holocaust remembrance and the lasting impact of what happened on the generations that have come after. These essays convey the complexity of growing up as a child of Holocaust survivors and the authors beautifully interweave their parents’ stories with their own poignant narratives. We all have a lot to learn from both the pain and the resilience of those who live as the Second Generation.”
– Rabbi Alison Abrams, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
“ What was unimaginable did, in fact, happen. We know because those who survived told us. Truth needs light. Truth needs telling. Truth bears repeating. Read these accounts. And never forget.”
-Harry Smith, NBC News
Deeply moving and sharply observed. The far-reaching effects of Holocaust trauma not just on the survivors themselves, but also the second generation are explored with searing honesty. These stories should never be forgotten.”
-Deborah Cadbury, BBC producer, historian, author