Telling Stories in the Families of Holocaust Survivors

They survived the concentration camps and started new lives after the war. Some wanted to “erase” their memories, others spoke about them constantly. Many survivors didn’t tell their offspring about their pasts, fearing that they would pass their trauma on to them, and refused to discuss their Jewish identity. They believed that by keeping silent they would protect their children from further problems that hung over them in the communist period. It was only in the 1990s that this subject was gradually aired within families. Věra Roubalová will discuss the experiences of the second and third generation of survivors, who to this day are dealing with how their predecessors’ tragic fates have shaped them.