Second Generation Voices: Reflections by Children of Holocaust Survivors and Perpetrators

Heirs to the legacy of Auschwjtz, the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors and perpetrators have always been thought of as separated by fear and anger, mistrust and shame. This groundbreaking study provides a forum for expression in which each group reflects candidly upon the consuming burdens and challenges it has inherited.

In these intensely personal and frequently dramatic pieces, understandable differences surface. The Jewish second generation is unified by a search for memory and family. Their German counterparts experience the opposite. Yet surprising common ground is revealed. Each group emerges out of households where, for vastly different reasons, the Holocaust was not mentioned. Each struggles to break this barrier of silence. Each
has witnessed the continued survival of parents and must grapple with living in households haunted by denial. And each knows it is his or her charge to shape the Holocaust for future generations.

To be sure, there is disagreement among the groups about the need for-or wisdom of-dialogue. Yet Second Generation Voices boldly engenders authentic grounds for discussion. Issues such as guilt, anger, religious faith, and accountability are explored in deeply felt poems, essays, and narratives. Jew and German alike speak openly of forming and affirming their own identities, reconnecting with roots, and working through their own "psychological Holocaust."

Author: Alan Berger
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 06/01/2001
Pages: 398
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.24lbs
Size: 9.14h x 6.02w x 0.73d
ISBN: 9780815606819

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 04/15/2001 pg. 1531
Choice 01/01/2002 pg. 955

About the Author

Alan L. Berger holds the Raddock Eminent Scholar Chair for Holocaust Studies and directs the Center for the Study of Values and Violence after Auschwitz at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of Crisis and Covenant: The Holocaust in American Jewish Fiction, Children of Job: American Second Generation Witnesses, and editor of Judaism in the Modern World.

Naomi Berger is a marriage and family therapist on the staff at the Counseling Center at Florida Atlantic University and is in private practice.