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Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors
"I set out to find a group of people who, like me, were possessed by a history they had never lived."The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Helen Epstein traveled from America to Europe to Israel, searching for one vital thin in common: their parent's persecution by the Nazis. She found:
Gabriela Korda, who was raised by her parents as a German Protestant in South America;
Albert Singerman, who fought in the jungles of Vietnam to prove that he, too, could survive a grueling ordeal;
Deborah Schwartz, a Southern beauty queen who—at the Miss America pageant, played the same Chopin piece that was played over Polish radio during Hitler's invasion.
Epstein interviewed hundreds of men and women coping with an extraordinary legacy. In each, she found shades of herself.
Gabriela Korda, who was raised by her parents as a German Protestant in South America;
Albert Singerman, who fought in the jungles of Vietnam to prove that he, too, could survive a grueling ordeal;
Deborah Schwartz, a Southern beauty queen who—at the Miss America pageant, played the same Chopin piece that was played over Polish radio during Hitler's invasion.
Epstein interviewed hundreds of men and women coping with an extraordinary legacy. In each, she found shades of herself.
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1979
55 people are currently reading
695 people want to read
About the author
Helen Epstein
49 books44 followersBorn in Prague.
Grew up in New York City.
Graduated Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Graduated Columbia Journalism School
Taught at NYU Journalism
Now live outside Boston, MA
Grew up in New York City.
Graduated Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Graduated Columbia Journalism School
Taught at NYU Journalism
Now live outside Boston, MA
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
June 13, 2018
Una miccia potente, pronta a esplodere da un momento all'altro.
E' questa la sensazione che si prova leggendo le storie dei personaggi che popolano le pagine di "Figli dell'Olocausto", quel disturbante senso di "non detto" che cova e cova per anni, portando con sè sofferenza, rancore e male di vivere e poi, di colpo, traborda come un fiume in piena il quale non aspettava altro che liberarsi del suo fardello. Questo di Helen Epstein, ebrea figlia di due ex deportati nei campi di sterminio nazisti, è uno straordinario lavoro a cavallo tra la biografia, il reportage e il saggio: una preziosa e curiosa testimonianza, che indaga uno dei temi forse meno esplorati dello sterminio del popolo ebraico, ovvero la trasmissione del trauma dai sopravvissuti ai figli, i cosidetti testimoni di seconda generazione. L'autrice scava nei ricordi dei genitori e ci mostra quanto i loro incubi influenzino anche il presente, il suo presente, si fa domande alle quali non ottiene risposta, è travolta da reazioni inspiegabili da parte dei genitori, sente su di sè tutti gli effetti di una cicatrice destinata a non riemarginarsi mai. E questo la spinge a viaggiare per il mondo intero, dagli Stati Uniti all'Europa, passando per Israele, alla ricerca di altri figli dell'Olocausto come lei, per condividere e confrontare il loro vissuto.
Un percorso doloroso ma illuminante. E per noi un libro da leggere, non per non dimenticare ciò che Auschwitz è stato, ma anche per capire che Auschwitz, per coloro che l'hanno vissuto e per i loro discendenti, non è finito il 27 gennaio 1945.
E' questa la sensazione che si prova leggendo le storie dei personaggi che popolano le pagine di "Figli dell'Olocausto", quel disturbante senso di "non detto" che cova e cova per anni, portando con sè sofferenza, rancore e male di vivere e poi, di colpo, traborda come un fiume in piena il quale non aspettava altro che liberarsi del suo fardello. Questo di Helen Epstein, ebrea figlia di due ex deportati nei campi di sterminio nazisti, è uno straordinario lavoro a cavallo tra la biografia, il reportage e il saggio: una preziosa e curiosa testimonianza, che indaga uno dei temi forse meno esplorati dello sterminio del popolo ebraico, ovvero la trasmissione del trauma dai sopravvissuti ai figli, i cosidetti testimoni di seconda generazione. L'autrice scava nei ricordi dei genitori e ci mostra quanto i loro incubi influenzino anche il presente, il suo presente, si fa domande alle quali non ottiene risposta, è travolta da reazioni inspiegabili da parte dei genitori, sente su di sè tutti gli effetti di una cicatrice destinata a non riemarginarsi mai. E questo la spinge a viaggiare per il mondo intero, dagli Stati Uniti all'Europa, passando per Israele, alla ricerca di altri figli dell'Olocausto come lei, per condividere e confrontare il loro vissuto.
Un percorso doloroso ma illuminante. E per noi un libro da leggere, non per non dimenticare ciò che Auschwitz è stato, ma anche per capire che Auschwitz, per coloro che l'hanno vissuto e per i loro discendenti, non è finito il 27 gennaio 1945.
June 12, 2020
The research and stories Helen Epstein did to compile this book was exceptional. They're illuminating and important. She shares stories that we rarely hear—the stories of Holocaust survivors children. The horrors of the Holocaust's lasting impact will be eye-opening. This book was published in 1979. Even though that was 41 year ago, don't let that stop you from picking up this book if you're interested in this topic. There is a lot readers can take away.
August 23, 2024
An insightful, beautifully written book about what it is like to descend from survivors. I saw myself in so many of these stories.
Read
May 21, 2021IT was a good read
July 4, 2021
I give this book a 5 star rating. Ms. Epstein wrote an original work in 1979, at the age of 32. What a brave accomplishment, since this was a taboo subject or at least a novel idea. To say that the children of the survivors of the Holocaust were affected by their parents issues flew in the face of common beliefs of the time. No one spoke of this; it would have been considered impossible, given that the survivors barely expressed their feelings. The latter part of the 1970's was the end of the period of silence. The children were coming of age, psychologically separating from their parents. These offspring realized that something was amiss; parents were not sharing their life stories from the period of the second world war, yet they were silently suffering. The second generation (2G'ers) began asking more questions, seeking a community for sharing, and working with psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers. The 2G'ers worked with therapists; however, many of these professionals shied away from the subject of the Holocaust.
Gradually, through the 1980's, '90's, and into the 21st century, the survivors and their children opened up their souls to share and educate about the longstanding effects of trauma. Since the book was written in 1979, PTSD had not yet been acknowledged by the medical establishment. Ms. Epstein omitted many categories of survivors, but as previously mentioned, this was a new field of study. I have not read her other books yet.
The memoir has great personal meaning to me. I am the oldest child of Holocaust survivors. My parents and grandparents were survivors, but they were not in the concentration camps. Their stories were not considered or recognized until later, towards the opening and into the 21st century. I am also a Goodreads author and have written two memoirs about my family, which include their stories and the impact on my development. My own research, done in the "noughts" and "teens" of the 21st century, is corroborated by Epstein's empirical investigations.
Gradually, through the 1980's, '90's, and into the 21st century, the survivors and their children opened up their souls to share and educate about the longstanding effects of trauma. Since the book was written in 1979, PTSD had not yet been acknowledged by the medical establishment. Ms. Epstein omitted many categories of survivors, but as previously mentioned, this was a new field of study. I have not read her other books yet.
The memoir has great personal meaning to me. I am the oldest child of Holocaust survivors. My parents and grandparents were survivors, but they were not in the concentration camps. Their stories were not considered or recognized until later, towards the opening and into the 21st century. I am also a Goodreads author and have written two memoirs about my family, which include their stories and the impact on my development. My own research, done in the "noughts" and "teens" of the 21st century, is corroborated by Epstein's empirical investigations.
August 27, 2019
First published in 1979, when the silence about the Holocaust had finally broken, Epstein's "conversations" have remained a significant contribution to understanding the intergenerational impact of the survivors' trauma. Reading the text, I had a firm sense that Epstein, herself the daughter of survivors, was searching for her own "peer group", a community that shared her own experience growing up with "[h]undreds of people liv[ing] through [her], lives that had been cut short in the war." The result of their parents' horror at the hands of the Nazis had "deprived [the children] of carelessness".
Written with intimacy and respect for those she interviewed, Epstein found the links between those of the "Second Generation", but also points out the different manifestations of the tension, guilt, protectiveness, and anger that often characterised their lives as children, teenagers, and as adults themselves. Her interviewees often remarked that their conversations with her offered them their first opportunities to open up about what they had perhaps never fully understood about themselves and their relationships with their survivor parents. "The love and ambitions of whole families were resurrected in memory and imposed as hopes on the children", who often struggled with these implicit and often verbalised expectations.
Epstein interviewed adults in America, Canada, Israel, those who had been born in DP camps, Hungary, Warsaw, South Africa, Czechoslovakia, those who led fulfilling, stable lives and those who had struggled to make sense of their places in the world. But, in all of her conversations, the dramatic impact of their parents' survival is palpable. She "kept thinking it was time for Elie Wiesel to move over. That there was another generation coming up behind him" that she "wanted and needed to talk to."
Written with intimacy and respect for those she interviewed, Epstein found the links between those of the "Second Generation", but also points out the different manifestations of the tension, guilt, protectiveness, and anger that often characterised their lives as children, teenagers, and as adults themselves. Her interviewees often remarked that their conversations with her offered them their first opportunities to open up about what they had perhaps never fully understood about themselves and their relationships with their survivor parents. "The love and ambitions of whole families were resurrected in memory and imposed as hopes on the children", who often struggled with these implicit and often verbalised expectations.
Epstein interviewed adults in America, Canada, Israel, those who had been born in DP camps, Hungary, Warsaw, South Africa, Czechoslovakia, those who led fulfilling, stable lives and those who had struggled to make sense of their places in the world. But, in all of her conversations, the dramatic impact of their parents' survival is palpable. She "kept thinking it was time for Elie Wiesel to move over. That there was another generation coming up behind him" that she "wanted and needed to talk to."
November 10, 2022
This was a highly informative book on the children of survivors of the Holocaust. In all the books I've read & specials I've watched, it never even occurred to me to wonder how these children grew up, what their experiences were, what their relationships with their parents had been like, the pressures they felt, and so much more.
The writer did a wonderful job not only telling of her own life but an amazing job of capturing her interviewees words, mannerisms, facial expressions, and everything else that goes into feeling what another person is retelling.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject and even to those who don't. The past repeats not only when we forget it but when we stop feeling it.
The writer did a wonderful job not only telling of her own life but an amazing job of capturing her interviewees words, mannerisms, facial expressions, and everything else that goes into feeling what another person is retelling.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject and even to those who don't. The past repeats not only when we forget it but when we stop feeling it.
April 6, 2009
"Helen Epstein is a daughter of Holocaust survivors. A writer, professor, journalist, she searched from America to Europe to Israel gathering hundreds of stories from men and women who shared her trauma. Although these children of the Holocaust were raised in freedom and security, only the most profound courage could turn their legacy of searing tragedy into a lesson of hope, understanding and endurance.
Sometimes tragic, sometimes triumphant, stories of sons and daughters of survivors."
Sometimes tragic, sometimes triumphant, stories of sons and daughters of survivors."
April 16, 2018
This book has been on my "to be read" shelves for years; in all that time it's been nagging at me to read it.
I found myself fearful of encountering myself and the pitiful remnants of my family. I was right to be fearful - there were sections that, to me, felt like a knife to the heart.
What I did not expect was the positivity throughout. Quite enheartening, that.
I found myself fearful of encountering myself and the pitiful remnants of my family. I was right to be fearful - there were sections that, to me, felt like a knife to the heart.
What I did not expect was the positivity throughout. Quite enheartening, that.
October 30, 2023
Ho cominciato a leggere questo libro in tempi non sospetti. Avrei voluto scrivere ‘di Pace’, ma sarebbe stato sbagliato, ché il popolo ebraico mai ne ha avuta e dunque era chiaro che mai ne avrebbe data. Però questo mio dire guarda troppo indietro e qui non serve.
Diciamo allora che ‘i tempi non sospetti’ sono i miei, appassionata di Storia e della Shoah in particolare da sempre, da quando ho compreso che la mia nascita fu un caso accettato.
Non ci fu nessun eroismo in questa mia nascita, forse ci fu del calcolo, non come l’avere figli significava per i sopravvissuti dei campi, ritenuto una rivincita nei confronti di Hitler in persona. Sono fermamente convinta che se avesse vinto la guerra io non sarei nata, figlia di due disabili, ecco perché tutto ciò che riguarda l’Olocausto mi tocca da vicino, forse troppo, lo ammetto.
Dunque in tempi non sospetti comincio a leggere questo libro e c’è sempre la stessa domanda da affrontare subito: come ha potuto un dio misericordioso e caritatevole permettere l’uccisione sistematica di milioni di uomini, di donne e bambini? come ha potuto permettere il 7 ottobre del 2023?
Ho risposte semplici come me a queste domande: 1) dio non esiste; 2) e se esistesse EVIDENTEMENTE non è così misericordioso e caritatevole.
Troppo facile, no? Ma noi terrestri saremmo famosi nella galassia intera per la capacità di costruire motivazioni e soprattutto giustificazioni alle più orribili nefandezze.
Mettiamola così allora: l’uomo è un essere malvagio e mi turba ascoltare che è a immagine e somiglianza di dio e su questo tutti saremmo d’accordo, ma è una risposta semplice, purtroppo ancora troppo semplice. Divago.
Il libro. Datato 1979 mi sembra così tanto lontano e al tempo stesso troppo vicino. Devo sforzarmi di ricordare i mille punti salienti che ho letto, di come i figli dei sopravvissuti abbiano cercato di ‘essere’ come i propri genitori li volevano: felici.
Come si fa a essere felici quando fin dal ventre amniotico ti nutri di dolore? Subito dopo la guerra tutti rimasero, ebrei e non ebrei, in piena anomia emotiva, tutto dovette essere ricostruito, cose e persone, la Pace, le famiglie, Israele.
Qui mi taccio, sono periodi bui.
Nel libro troverete le testimonianze personali raccolte dall’autrice di molti figli dell’Olocausto, compresa la propria, sia di coloro tornati nel Paese di provenienza, sia di coloro che andarono in Israele, dove pensavano di poter essere ebrei liberi di essere ebrei. Hanno forse la mia età adesso, no, sono più grandi, io nata tardi, ma sono i genitori di quei ragazzi morti o in ostaggio o…sopravvissuti il 7 ottobre 2023. Scrivo la data per esteso a mia memoria e scelgo il Silenzio: sono qui, ora, e osservo.
Diciamo allora che ‘i tempi non sospetti’ sono i miei, appassionata di Storia e della Shoah in particolare da sempre, da quando ho compreso che la mia nascita fu un caso accettato.
Non ci fu nessun eroismo in questa mia nascita, forse ci fu del calcolo, non come l’avere figli significava per i sopravvissuti dei campi, ritenuto una rivincita nei confronti di Hitler in persona. Sono fermamente convinta che se avesse vinto la guerra io non sarei nata, figlia di due disabili, ecco perché tutto ciò che riguarda l’Olocausto mi tocca da vicino, forse troppo, lo ammetto.
Dunque in tempi non sospetti comincio a leggere questo libro e c’è sempre la stessa domanda da affrontare subito: come ha potuto un dio misericordioso e caritatevole permettere l’uccisione sistematica di milioni di uomini, di donne e bambini? come ha potuto permettere il 7 ottobre del 2023?
Ho risposte semplici come me a queste domande: 1) dio non esiste; 2) e se esistesse EVIDENTEMENTE non è così misericordioso e caritatevole.
Troppo facile, no? Ma noi terrestri saremmo famosi nella galassia intera per la capacità di costruire motivazioni e soprattutto giustificazioni alle più orribili nefandezze.
Mettiamola così allora: l’uomo è un essere malvagio e mi turba ascoltare che è a immagine e somiglianza di dio e su questo tutti saremmo d’accordo, ma è una risposta semplice, purtroppo ancora troppo semplice. Divago.
Il libro. Datato 1979 mi sembra così tanto lontano e al tempo stesso troppo vicino. Devo sforzarmi di ricordare i mille punti salienti che ho letto, di come i figli dei sopravvissuti abbiano cercato di ‘essere’ come i propri genitori li volevano: felici.
Come si fa a essere felici quando fin dal ventre amniotico ti nutri di dolore? Subito dopo la guerra tutti rimasero, ebrei e non ebrei, in piena anomia emotiva, tutto dovette essere ricostruito, cose e persone, la Pace, le famiglie, Israele.
Qui mi taccio, sono periodi bui.
Nel libro troverete le testimonianze personali raccolte dall’autrice di molti figli dell’Olocausto, compresa la propria, sia di coloro tornati nel Paese di provenienza, sia di coloro che andarono in Israele, dove pensavano di poter essere ebrei liberi di essere ebrei. Hanno forse la mia età adesso, no, sono più grandi, io nata tardi, ma sono i genitori di quei ragazzi morti o in ostaggio o…sopravvissuti il 7 ottobre 2023. Scrivo la data per esteso a mia memoria e scelgo il Silenzio: sono qui, ora, e osservo.
May 18, 2017
I've read a number of books about the Holocaust, but this was very different. It explored the psychological impact of the suffering of the survivors on their children. Epstein interviewed many adult children and found a number of similarities between them. She also discussed several studies that have been done about these children. There were also quite a few interesting facts about survivors regarding the displaced person's camps and how difficult it was to emigrate to the U.S., Canada, Australia, and South America. These persecuted people continued to suffer many indignities perpetrated by governments who were not very willing to help them in their time of extreme desperation to find a safe and secure place to live.
October 20, 2025
I found this book to be truly exceptional. The subject is fascinating and is a story that needs telling. In addition to a profound study of the subject of children of Holocaust survivors, author Helen Epstein, through her extraordinary literary skills, brings each story to life in vivid detail with engaging imagery.
I highly recommend this book to any an all.
I highly recommend this book to any an all.
July 15, 2017
While interesting, this book read more like a research paper. i learned that most survivors didn't want to talk about their lives in the camps, so this was mainly about the children and how they felt while growing up.
February 27, 2023
Highlights early research and exploration of generational trauma. Epstein is a child of Holocaust camp survivors, and she interviewed many other children and discovered remarkable similarities not only in their upbringing, but in how they handle and react to life
January 10, 2018
An excellent book. Emotional and applicable today.
January 20, 2018
amazing! a heard book to read, but still amazing.
July 23, 2021
I feel like everybody should read this book. It helps you get a good understanding of how trauma can affect people throw the generations.
May 20, 2022
I loved this book! So many books have been written about the Holocaust, Helen Epstein's book puts it in a different perspective.
June 25, 2022
Very interesting stories
August 13, 2024
Extremely interesting book from 1979. This is when The oldest children of the survivors we're around 34 years old. I'd love to read a follow up on their children.
June 14, 2025
It was so sad that not only the people that survived the Holocaust but their descendants had to deal with such torture and pain.
August 14, 2025
Written in the 70’s her interviews with children are portrayed clearly. Similarities and differences survivors and friends they make.
August 15, 2025
An interesting book about children who were born to Holocaust survivors and how many had similar experiences in their behaviors, upbringings, etc.
November 12, 2023
4.5 stars ⭐ Readable, interesting. Complements the works of Bessel van der Kolk and Gabor Maté.
July 17, 2017
This book leapt out at me as I passed it on the shelves at my local library. Although, I do not specifically think of myself as a child of a holocaust survivor, my recent discovery of my mother's hidden Jewish heritage and my grandparents efforts to conceal it in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands made the concepts discussed in this book eerily familiar. The author well describes this vague yet powerful unease:
Helen Epstein, herself a child of Jewish Czech survivors, recounts her own personal journey of self-acceptance and realization as she documents the world's discovery in the 1960s and 70s of how the holocaust had affected the generation subsequent to those who specifically suffered the Nazi persecution. Although it can sometimes be hard to distinguish her own account from those of the children-survivors she interviewed, I found it fascinating the way she parallels her objective exploration of the survivors' psychology with her own uncovering and coming to terms with her reaction to her parents' experiences. I was also somewhat surprised to find how these subsequent survivors feelings of vague fear and frustration mirrored many of my own.
As the remaining survivors of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau, Sobibor and so many other horrible places pass away, we will continue to live with the legacy of pain and suffering of so many millions. This book is one of the original works outlining this legacy.
For years it lay in an iron box buried so deep inside me that I was never sure just what it was. I knew I carried slippery, combustible things more secret than sex and more dangerous than any shadow or ghost. Ghosts had shape and name. What lay inside my iron box had none. Whatever lived inside me was so potent that words crumbled before they could describe...
My parents did not understand...how I had stored their remarks, their glances, their silences inside me, how I had deposited them in my iron box like pennies in a piggy bank. They were unconscious of how much a child gleans from the absence of explanation as much as from words...
Helen Epstein, herself a child of Jewish Czech survivors, recounts her own personal journey of self-acceptance and realization as she documents the world's discovery in the 1960s and 70s of how the holocaust had affected the generation subsequent to those who specifically suffered the Nazi persecution. Although it can sometimes be hard to distinguish her own account from those of the children-survivors she interviewed, I found it fascinating the way she parallels her objective exploration of the survivors' psychology with her own uncovering and coming to terms with her reaction to her parents' experiences. I was also somewhat surprised to find how these subsequent survivors feelings of vague fear and frustration mirrored many of my own.
As the remaining survivors of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau, Sobibor and so many other horrible places pass away, we will continue to live with the legacy of pain and suffering of so many millions. This book is one of the original works outlining this legacy.
April 9, 2025
I first read Children of the Holocaust soon after it came out, forty-some years ago. Something about the current plight of the Palestinians in Gaza awakened vague memories of Helen Epstein's account of her three years in Israel. So I sought out the book again and reread it. It is probably the best memoir I have ever read.
Helen Epstein's parents were survivors of the Holocaust, and throughout her life, she felt as if she were carrying a heavy iron box in her stomach. What exactly was in there? Her parents, having escaped the Nazis and the communists in Czechoslovakia, wanted their children to have happy, secure lives, so they emigrated from Prague to New York City. Helen, the firstborn and an obedient child, felt an obligation to not cause her parents any more pain, their having suffered more than most people in the world. That, in the simplest terms, was the burden in the iron box.
When she got to be about thirty years old, she started wondering how other children of survivors had handled the emotions surrounding their parents' persecution. There was almost no literature on the subject in 1977, so she set out to find and interview survivors. The outcomes of the lives of the survivors' children varied widely, but Epstein found certain similarities to her own story.
So, this memoir is Helen Epstein's own, but also includes the stories of several others of her peers, each of which has its own compelling interest. I am glad I picked this book up again.
Helen Epstein's parents were survivors of the Holocaust, and throughout her life, she felt as if she were carrying a heavy iron box in her stomach. What exactly was in there? Her parents, having escaped the Nazis and the communists in Czechoslovakia, wanted their children to have happy, secure lives, so they emigrated from Prague to New York City. Helen, the firstborn and an obedient child, felt an obligation to not cause her parents any more pain, their having suffered more than most people in the world. That, in the simplest terms, was the burden in the iron box.
When she got to be about thirty years old, she started wondering how other children of survivors had handled the emotions surrounding their parents' persecution. There was almost no literature on the subject in 1977, so she set out to find and interview survivors. The outcomes of the lives of the survivors' children varied widely, but Epstein found certain similarities to her own story.
So, this memoir is Helen Epstein's own, but also includes the stories of several others of her peers, each of which has its own compelling interest. I am glad I picked this book up again.
February 8, 2017
A powerful story -- especially the first half when the effects of the trauma first come into view..
I was disappointed by the chapters following the decision to leave Israel.
The story at this point requires a distinction between suffering as a shared human experience and the legacy of suffering as part of family history. My impression was that the book responds to this need by presenting more and more extreme instances of maladjustment.
I understand that the composition of the book dictates such a focus -- but the lack weakens the narrative.
The book remains powerful.
I was disappointed by the chapters following the decision to leave Israel.
The story at this point requires a distinction between suffering as a shared human experience and the legacy of suffering as part of family history. My impression was that the book responds to this need by presenting more and more extreme instances of maladjustment.
I understand that the composition of the book dictates such a focus -- but the lack weakens the narrative.
The book remains powerful.
August 6, 2014
A very good first person narrative of the child of Holocaust survivors, and the interviews that she conducted with the children of fellow survivors. Epstein not only presents the pressure she grew up under, high expectations from her parents as an example, she discovers that her and her parents' behavior were similar to the that of others in her peer group. Epstein's focus is on Holocaust survivors, but she not ignore the impact of surviving horrors has on others (she uses other genocide survivors and Hiroshima survivors as examples in brief comments). Epstein also takes us on her own journey to Israel as she hopes to find her own identity.
Eventually Epstein does establish her own voice, and the manner that she reaches this selfrealization is a minor surprise. Do not read this book expecting grim or heroic stories about surviving the Holocaust. What you will receive instead is a study in the effects that experience had on on people when they had children, and what they passed down to their children.
Eventually Epstein does establish her own voice, and the manner that she reaches this selfrealization is a minor surprise. Do not read this book expecting grim or heroic stories about surviving the Holocaust. What you will receive instead is a study in the effects that experience had on on people when they had children, and what they passed down to their children.
April 25, 2021
This is a collection of conversations with the children of Holocaust survivors. A lot of people left Europe when the war ended. They left their history, the left their struggle, they moved somewhere else to start over. In a lot of cases, they changed their names when they immigrated and pretended nothing ever happened. A lot of children grew up never knowing their history, why they didn't have a lot of family members, or learning anything about their religion or culture. It is so so tragic to think of all the interpersonal connections that never got to happen because of the Holocaust and the aftermath. This was a good book, and, I think, very important for everyone to read.
September 4, 2011
The lack of decent moral behavior of the holocaust surviors and their children left me disgusted. So many of the survivors turned to sex and alcohol to deal with life. Many had not been practicing Jews before WWII and neither they nor their children lived particularly uplifting lives. The focus of most of the surviors was to make money and their children was to spend the money. Debauchery would describe many of their lives. The book was poorly writteen and it was often difficult to distinquish if the writer was talking about a personal experience or someone she was interviewing.
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