The children of survivors are important to the Holocaust story. The children are the future of the past. For a time, it seemed that no one would be left to create a future. That history has been so carefully, lovingly chronicled. It must be preserved. If it is preserved and told, the possibility exists that there will be no more war. That is always the hope of the survivors.
This is the shadow generation, the echo of the scream. The children of survivors live in two worlds. One is the shadow world of war past. The other is present peace. Past-war and post-war. In the children, those worlds come together and sometimes collide. Contradictions are often prevalent. “I want you to know everything about the past, especially my personal past, but I don’t want to tell you” is one of the more obvious examples.
In the world of war past, there is perpetual mourning. Also fear and suspicion. Suspicion is often rampant, as can readily be expected and understood. Many survivor parents are over-protective of their children, fearing the cruelty of the outside world. This fear and suspicion are easily transmitted to the child and may well become a personality trait that lasts a lifetime. Few peers share this combined world of past and present. That absence of comprehension sometimes creates a sense of isolation for the children, a feeling of being out of place. For the children of survivors, there is a sense of having and holding a terrifying, deadly secret. That only adds to the isolation. It cannot be expressed either to the parent or to the uncomprehending peers.
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