For This I Survived?: Children of Survivors Beyond the Trauma

Early studies in the sixties on Holocaust Survivors portrayed men and women who were so consumed and paralyzed by the ghosts of the past, they were unable to function. The literature also found that their children were greatly affected by the weight of their parents grief. However, interviews conducted with children of Survivors for a thesis in 2002, showed a different picture from the accepted psychology. These stories told of parents determined to give their children a 'normal' life and their children thank them for allowing them the freedom to move on. Now, nearly 20 years later, children are seniors and their stories are even more urgent. Today, there is a greater willingness to talk and share, overcoming the silences society inflicted on them growing up. The Holocaust was always a part of their lives and the stories differ from family to family but they all have once thing in common: it was courage and resilience. Then and now, the children appreciate what their parents had suffered. They have accepted who their parents were but they have, as stated in the subtitle, chosen to go beyond the trauma. And thus began the journey of this book. (For further info, go to blcooperman.com)