Holocaust Child Survivors Reflect on Their Past and its Implications for the Present and Future

When the youngest of Holocaust survivors get together 62 years after liberation, the lucid and vague memories, kinesthetic feelings and raw emotions they share with each other present a unique opportunity for them to feel less isolated, and more understood. This historically traumatized group, ignored psychologically for many years, has in recent years been afforded a platform to expose their plight, to gain support, and to develop an identity that integrates their lives.

My first exposure to the psychological dynamics of Holocaust child survivors was in 1976 when I started leading groups for the “Second Generation” of Holocaust survivors. Several prospective group members approached me with trepidation about whether they belonged in a group for children of Holocaust survivors. On the one hand, they had Holocaust survivor parents; on the other hand, they too were victims of Nazi German persecution. I included them in the group, which ultimately became an intergenerational group (Fogelman, 1988).

Most striking among the Holocaust child survivors was the silence between them and the adult survivor population. Even their own parents and extended survivor family and friends did not include them in conversation about “The War.” It was as if Holocaust child survivors did not remember, see, feel, smell, or touch. No one ever asked them about their