The continuing effect of the Holocaust has been the subject of much study. This volume gives voice to a broad range of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors who describe the ways this legacy continues to impact their worldview and their work in the world. These are heart-felt and moving testimonies.
The editor imposes order but not an orthodoxy to these responses. The four themes under which these responses are collected are guideposts that help the reader understand the variety of responses. If there is one common theme, it is that these are individuals who have used their legacy to move positively into the world.
This is not the first such anthology, nor will it be the last. It is a reminder that the horrors of 70-plus years ago continue to reverberate in our world. It should also be a reminder that the other atrocities that have shaken the world in the last century continue to shape the lives of millions, and would that we had a way to hear their testimony as well.
These reflections are enlightening and engaging. I would recommend them more as the stuff for occasional contemplation than for a straight read through the book. — Rabbi Louis A. Rieser
Congregational Libraries Today - Rabbi Louis A. Rieser
Catholic News Service—Catholic readers will be taken into the collection God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes and deeply into themselves, finding spiritual nourishment in the continuing faith of descendants of Jewish survivors of theShoah and their determination to affirm their Jewishness and to dedicate their lives to helping others.
Catholic News Service - Eugene J. Fisher
Los Angeles Jewish Journal—Perhaps the most anguishing of the contributions are those that confront an uncomfortable truth—the passage of time is putting the recollection of the Holocaust at risk. Aviva Kempner, a documentary filmmaker, was the child of survivors but reports that "literature and cinema were my entry into Holocaust history," citing Leon Uris' "Exodus," John Hersey's “The Wall” and even “Casablanca” as examples. Similarly, Katrin Tenenbaum, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Sapienza University of Rome, confesses that “I have come to realize that the greater our distance from the actual events of the Holocaust, the more sorrow loses its focus, becoming in a way more diffused and, at the same time, more difficult to grasp.”
This, of course, is the raison d’etre ofGod, Faith & Identity , and the book succeeds memorably and powerfully in its self-appointed mission.
“We who are haunted by the past must now pass on our legacy of ghosts,” declares Rosensaft, a call to arms that should rouse all of us who, like him, are haunted by history.
Los Angeles Jewish Journal - Jonathan Kirsch
New York Jewish Week—The many accounts vary in their effectiveness; some are intensely moving, others less compelling. Rosensaft's affecting piece on his parents stands out; Ethan Bronner's (formerly of The New York Times and now at Bloomberg News) exhortation to reconcile with Poland engenders only an eye roll. But the sum of the book is greater than its parts and it's the composite that is the real story. Together, these many contributors provide the turn-around to their survivor parents’ experiences—the happy and successful lives that they live.
Their reflective musings reveal their pride—in their parents, their heritage and their history and the new history that they are creating. And that is the glory of this book. If each survivor is an ud mutzal me’aish (brand plucked from the fire), then those embers have recreated a blaze that defies the ashes. Instead of being deformed and stunted by the experiences of their forebears, these second and third generations are flourishing, changing the trajectory from misery to hope. And there is no greater memorial to that persecuted generation than the success of their children.Triumph indeed.
New York Jewish Week - Gloria Kestenbaum
The Jerusalem Post—There is a moving testimony by Dr. David Szenes, nephew of Hanna Szenes, who despite his tragic experiences in an Egyptian prisoner-of-war camp in Cairo, continues his fight against political oppression and limits on freedom of movement and expression. These and numerous other authentic Jewish lives, leave us with little doubt that the children of Holocaust survivors match their parents' contribution to the world's consciousness many times over, even if far too little has been known about it until now.
The Jerusalem Post - Alexander Zvielli
God, Faith & Identity From the Ashes , a collection of reflections of children and grandchildren of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, was inspired by an exchange between its editor and Pope Francis.
It offers Catholics a beautiful gift of intimate memories and personal reflections that together provide a profound meditation for the reader on God, mercy and the need to be "healing in the world."
Edited by World Jewish Congress general counsel Menachem Rosensaft, himself a child of Holocaust survivors,God, Faith & Identity From the Ashes brings together 90 short essays from a variety of Jews, of all walks of life, occupations and perspectives. They are all people whose parents or grandparents suffered the cataclysm of the Holocaust and grew up learning why they did not have the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins—even brothers and sisters—that other children had. For the reader, understanding the loss they suffered is perhaps best understood in terms of this happening to one's own family: If Europe's Jews were a family of 10, more than eight were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices.
Yet what makes this book so powerful for the reader is the underlying theme that God—present with the survivors and their descendants, and not Hitler and the Holocaust—has the last word. Rosensaft’s own essay reveals the string that runs through the entire work: God dwells in those who live their humanity by exercising mercy and compassion, not succumbing to despair in the face of evil, and find their personal triumph over evil by seeking to bind up and heal the wounds of people in this world.
Pope Francis’ personal thanks for a sermon Rosensaft delivered at his synagogue on God’s presence in the Holocaust—later a core essay in the book—inspired him to invite Jewish descendants of survivors to contribute their own essays.
As the Pope wrote to Rosensaft: "When you, with humility, are telling us where God was in that moment, I felt within me that you had transcended all possible explanations.… You came to discover a certain logic, and it is from there that you were speaking to us … the logic of that 'gentle breeze’ (I know that is a very poor translation of the rich Hebrew expression) that constitutes the only possible hermeneutic interpretation. Thank you from my heart."
In his own essay, Rosensaft asks: “What if God was very much there during the Holocaust, but not with the killers, with the forces that inflicted the Holocaust on humankind? What if he was in fact alongside and within the victims, those who perished and those who survived?”
The answer can be seen in the example of Rosensaft’s mother, who kept 149 abandoned Jewish children alive through much sacrifice in the horrific conditions of Bergen-Belsen until their liberation in April 1945, and his father, who kept hope alive for other Jews by leading Yom Kippur prayers in an Auschwitz death block. In one particular account, the reader feels the emotion of a survivor who is given a chance from an Allied soldier to execute vengeance on his tormentor but then exercises mercy, refuses to take another life and casts the gun away.
The answer can be seen in the survivors, who built new lives out of their trauma and the ashes of their families, in countries all over the world. It can be seen in their children, who, having reflected on their parents’ pain and legacy, describe how they try to accomplish some form oftikkun olam (“healing the world”), identifying with the weak and marginalized.
Of course, each contributor varies in his thoughts on what this looks like. Some work as rabbis and counselors; others work for human rights, whether it be with Aboriginals in Australia or Palestinians in Israel; some build bridges for Polish-Jewish reconciliation; another works to preserve Yiddish culture, language and song.
Caveats: There are a few contributors who feel that their experiences compel them to advocate for redefining marriage—a conclusion at odds with Catholic teaching. The same goes for Princeton philosopher Peter Singer, whose own views against human life both before and after birth are self-defeating as a descendant of Holocaust survivors. One Jewish paraplegic and disabilities-rights activist makes that very point in his own reflection, pointing out that Hitler’s path to destroy the Jewish people went first through his systematic murder of disabled persons.
The contributors also do not have the same relationship with God: Some have no faith; others have deep faith; and many occupy different points along that path, reminding readers in visceral fashion what the name “Israel” means: “struggle with God.” And the reader can understand why the authors feel this way, as well as reflect that the good and loving Father understands better than we the wounded heart.
God, Faith & Identity From the Ashes should be read patiently—perhaps two to three stories at a sitting—so that the reader can really have time to absorb and reflect on what it means for him or her.
For the Catholic, one can recall that the Jewish people are Christ’s blood relations and remember Jesus’ words: “What you did to the least of these my brothers you did unto me.” We can see Jesus Christ entering the gas chambers alongside each of his Jewish relatives, and we can see their betrayal in the massiveindifferencethat Pope Francis has been warning us—again and again—to renounce. Through these reflections, we can see in the unnamed Oskar Schindlers, and in many of the survivors and their descendants, the active people of mercy and healing we Catholics need to become.
This book is a beautiful gift from Menachem Rosensaft and the descendants of Holocaust survivors, who have invited us to make their legacy part of our own. This legacy can help us prepare to be the Christians Pope Francis—and Christ himself—wants us to become: people always seeking opportunities to exercise mercy and compassion to everyone we meet, particularly to the weak and vulnerable.
After reading this book in time for the Year of Mercy, the reader should take to heart this charge from a survivor: “I have told you this story not to weaken you. But to strengthen you. Now it is up to you!”
Peter Jesserer Smith is the Register's Washington correspondent.
National Catholic Register - PETER JESSERER SMITH
Haaretz—Though Rosensaft says he had no particular agenda when assembling this tome, he did not expect the overwhelmingly forward-looking, positive approach he received. If you think Perel's essay is unusual, guess again. Each contributor offers a unique and surprising take on the 2G or 3G legacy, with almost no redundancy among them.
Haaretz - Marisa Fox-Bevilacqua
Newsweek—A generation will soon come of age having never heard firsthand testimony from a living Holocaust survivor. The aging ranks of those persecuted by the Nazis during World War II are not yet fully diminished, but one day soon they will be.
"We are at a transitional moment, when the survivors are fading from the scene and there's a real question of what Holocaust remembrance will be like going forward," says Menachem Rosensaft, general counsel for the World Jewish Congress—an organization that advocates for the rights of Jews and Jewish communities. Born in the Bergen Belsen displaced persons camp in 1948, he is the son of two Holocaust survivors. "And the real question to me was, 'What is it that we, children and grandchildren of survivors, are doing with this legacy?'"
Reuters—As the liberation of Auschwitz approaches its 70th anniversary next year, descendants of Holocaust survivors face a dilemma that will deepen as time passes—how to transmit "received memory" to future generations.God, Faith and Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors , 88 of them tell how they inherited the memory and how they hope to pass it on.
Reuters - Philip Pullella
American Library Association BookList—This new gathering of reflections informed by the Holocaust contains the statements of survivors' childrenand grandchildren, who have no direct experience of the cataclysm yet have thought about it deeply. To aperson, they're people of accomplishment—rabbis, lawyers, politicians, physicians, scholars, archivists,business persons, artists, actors, musicians, journalists, diplomats. Editor Rosensaft sorts their contributionsinto sections according to four principle themes—religious faith, Jewish identity, the importance ofremembering, and improving the world. Virtually every piece begins with what parents or grandparentsrevealed about their experiences (or didn't) to the writer, what the writer had to discover, and how thewriter has dealt with the knowledge in his or her work. The writers come from varying traditions ofJudaism; one even disagrees with the current concept of tikkun olam ("healing the world"—and the title ofthe fourth section). Although not all the essays are powerhouses, some definitely are (e.g., Rosensaft’scontribution), making the collection an excellent offering for anyone interested in the continuing heritageof the Holocaust.
Perhaps a century or two from now, if one wants to turn to one book that describes the impact of the Holocaust on succeeding generations, one would turn to this book.
Forward - Michael Berenbaum
"A critically important and compelling book, especially at a time when there are people out there who deny or question the Holocaust. These powerful reflections of the survivors' children and grandchildren are must reading for a new generation."Wolf Blitzer , anchor, CNN's The Situation Room
"A moving, unforgettable book on the generational impact of the Holocaust. My perspective on what it means to be human has been enriched immeasurably by reading it. Through contemporary voices, it also shows us how the Holocaust continues to impact us today."Susan Eisenhower , author; president, The Eisenhower Group, Inc.; chairman emeritus, The Eisenhower Institute
"Brilliant … shows that there were many more than six million victims of the Shoah. It also gives us a glimpse into how much the world lost…. Most importantly, it demonstrates the tenacity of the survivors and their enormous contributions to repairing a world broken by those who perpetrated the Holocaust and those who stood idly by. Reading this book will make you sad, angry and revitalized. A great addition to the literature of history's most brutal genocide."Alan M. Dershowitz , author, Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel's Just War Against Hamas
"A monumental and deeply moving achievement. It is essential reading for those interested in assuring that the memory of the Holocaust does not fade with the passing of the generation of victims."Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat , former Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Holocaust Issues in the Clinton Administration while also holding four senior positions, and an official in three other U.S. administrations
“The children and grandchildren of survivors of the Shoah have a scarred yet sacred memory. [This book] allows them to share that memory and its important lessons with the world in a tender and moving way.”Cardinal Timothy Dolan , archbishop of New York
“Belongs in every home and in every library, a unique contribution.… An affirmation of the sanctity of human life and the eternity of the Jewish People.”Rabbi Marvin Hier , founder and dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center
“In a world still ravaged by murderous hatred … this powerful new set of testimonies from children and grandchildren of survivors could not come at a more fateful time. A moving and necessary book.”Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks , chief rabbi emeritus, United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth
“This rich collection of thoughts and reflections … is yet another link in the chain of memory. They demonstrate the multi-faceted and diverse ways in which Holocaust survivors transmitted the 'legacy’ of their experience from generation to generation. It is an important collection, one that is of educational and spiritual value.”Deborah E. Lipstadt , Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Emory University
“It is rare that a book overwhelms emotionally while also teaching indelibly. [This] luminous collection of essays does both. These stories will both captivate and stay with you. I plan to share this with everyone who matters to me.”Abigail Pogrebin , author, Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk about Being Jewish
“God, Faith and Identity from the Ashes not only fills an important gap in modern Jewish history, but it also will serve as a guide to future generations of Jews and non-Jews who will struggle with these same issues.”Fred Zeidman , former chairman, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
“A major and articulate advocate of meaningful Holocaust remembrance has addressed a compelling facet of the vital legacy of survivors’ families.”Avner Shalev, chairman, Yad Vashem Directorate
“Writing with their hearts and minds, these [contributors] remember the horrors experienced by their parents and grandparents, and reflect on the understandings of God that animate their own lives. A truly interesting book!”Susannah Heschel , Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College
“Prepare yourself to be touched, amazed and inspired by one of the best volumes on the consequences of the Holocaust for a long time which may just change how we understand Jewish identity after the Holocaust—and not only for the descendants of the survivors themselves. A volume of remarkable poignancy and power, it redefines the second and third generations. These remarkable authors have collectively struggled to make sense of the senseless, turning the story around from despair to hope and becoming our new guides to the future.”Stephen D. Smith, PhD , executive director, USC Shoah Foundation; UNESCO chair on Genocide Education
“An overwhelmingly affecting book!… The [contributors’] words bear consecrated witness … and testify to the enduring power of the Jewish and human spirit. Remarkably powerful.”Rabbi David Ellenson , chancellor, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion
“The faith in humankind, intellectual depth and remarkable eloquence of the contributors are a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit. Menachem Rosensaft’s magnificent book must become required reading for all who would contemplate the aftermath and consequences of hatred, bigotry and genocide.”Helena Bonham Carter , award-winning actress; member of UK Commission on the Holocaust; granddaughter of Spanish diplomat honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations
“Truly an enriching book—an insightful read brimming with lifechanging and timeless wisdom.”Richard Joel , president, Yeshiva University
“Unique and original in its depth and range. It’s worth the attention of Jews and non-Jews alike.”Rabbi Neil Gillman, PhD , professor emeritus of Jewish thought, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
“This great book … is a powerful compendium of responses to the Holocaust from members of the second and third generations. As Rosensaft understands, the experience carries forward into each succeeding generation, influencing how a family lives, with what messages and what world view.”Ruth Messinger , president, American Jewish World Service
“Will be read by generations of Jews and by generations of the survivors of other genocides to learn how one can arise from the ashes, how one embraces life and enhances life in the aftermath of destruction.”Michael Berenbaum , author; project director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1988–1993), and former director of its Research Institute
“An important book…. The range of [the contributors’] work in the world is amazing (an extraordinary compliment to the survivors). The range they offer of how to respond to life in light of the Shoah is no less amazing. You must read this.”Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg , director, President’s Commission on the Holocaust (1979–1980); former chairman, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
“A powerful and most important addition to the narrative of the Holocaust for this and future generations. Extraordinary and compelling essays describe how the legacy of family members’ Holocaust experiences have impacted, in fact shaped, the lives of the children and grandchildren of survivors. Each essay is unique, enlightening and captivating.”Harvey Schulweis , chairman, Board of Trustees, The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous
“Before the loss of my son Daniel, I never considered myself a Holocaust survivor, not even a child of a survivor. The brutal murder of Danny taught me that the Holocaust, and man’s inhumanity to man, did not end in May 1945. This incredible book has taught me another lesson: that I was actually there, that I took that horrible last journey with my grandparents, from Kielce to Treblinka, and with six million other brothers and sisters, not asking why, just witnessing and knowing, with the greatest certitude, that history and planet earth and cosmic consciousness will all be different from now on. Will they?”Judea Pearl , president, Daniel Pearl Foundation; co-editor, I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl
Praise from Pope Francis for Menachem Rosensaft’s essay reconciling God’s presence with the horrors of the Holocaust:
"When you, with humility, are telling us where God was in that moment, I felt within me that you had transcended all possible explanations and that, after a long pilgrimage—sometimes sad, tedious or dull—you came to discover a certain logic and it is from there that you were speaking to us; the logic of First Kings 19:12, the logic of that 'gentle breeze’ (I know that it is a very poor translation of the rich Hebrew expression) that constitutes the only possible hermeneutic interpretation.
“Thank you from my heart. And, please, do not forget to pray for me. May the Lord bless you."
—His Holiness Pope Francis
Today, on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the horrors of the Holocaust loom large in the world's collective memory. But for those who were personally affected, those horrors have never left. Born in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen, the son of two survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, law professor Menachem Rosensaft has devoted his life to the keeping the legacy of Holocaust survivors and their descendants alive.
Rosensaft has been curating these voices since 1965, when he edited a magazine of essays, poems and short stories bythe children of Holocaust survivors known as theBergen-Belsen Youth Magazine. Today, he teaches classes on the law of genocide at the law schools of Columbia and Cornell Universities. His newest project is the just-published bookGod, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors, a tapestry that weaves together the diverse stories of nearly 90 second- and third-generation survivors, all edited by Rosensaft.
Moment’s Rachel E. Gross talks to Rosensaft about how these voices offer hope for all survivors of genocides, and the importance of presenting themas models, not victims.
How did this book originate?
In2013, I gave a guest sermon at my synagogue on the Shabbat betweenRosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In the sermon,I tried to reconcile the presence of God with the horrors of the Shoah. That sermon waspublishedon the religion blog of theWashington Post and ended up being brought to the attention of Pope Francis. Then, amazingly enough, I received a beautiful e-mail from Pope Francis himself.
Stuart Matlins, the editor-in-chief of Jewish Lights Publishing, readboth the guest sermon and the Pope’s reactionto it, which hadreceived agreat dealofmedia coverage. He invited me for dinner, and askedif I would be interested in putting together a book ofcontemporary theological reactions to the Holocaust. I said it would be a great idea, but that we should broaden the theme to go beyond theological—to encompass cultural questions of identity and issues oftikkun olam as articulated bychildren and grandchildren ofHolocaust survivors. The overall idea would be to answer the question: How has thesurvivors’ legacy ofmemoryshaped who we are, and what we are doing with our lives?
The book comprises 88 essays bymembers of thesecond or third generations, spread across 16 different countries. How did you select this wide range of contributors?
I wanted the book to be a representation of who we are collectively and individually: a mosaic of the children and grandchildren of survivors, rather than a book with some kind of agenda. We tried to make sure there would be both political and religious balance. The contributors are Zionist and non-Zionist, secular andobservant,nationalist and universalist,immersed in Jewish communal work and primarily focused on society as a whole. There are novelists, psychologists, rabbis, political activists, judges, editors and reporters. There are rabbis ranging from Orthodox,even haredi,to Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal.There are also avowed atheists.There are a number of women rabbis. The survivors who emerged from the Holocaust were incredibly diverse, and so were their children and grandchildren. I wanted the book to accurately reflect that.
For many years,the U.S. HolocaustMemorialMuseumand the USC Shoah Foundation have been collecting theoral histories of survivors. How does your goal in editing this bookdiffer?
The oral histories are personal accounts. They are the testimony of what took place. The book is trying to make sense of those accounts, 70 years later. What is important to bear in mind is that we who were born after the Holocaustare not survivors—in any sense of the term. We did not suffer. We were not imprisoned in camps. We were not deported. We did not see our families murdered. We wereneverhungry. We werenevertortured. We, for the most part, have lived comfortable lives with warm and loving families. Our connection to the Holocaust comes through our parents, our grandparents. We are their witnesses. Their memories, the stories they told us growing up, have become part of our consciousness.
Was that your personal experience?
Yes. My mother died in 1997. Our daughter Jodi, her granddaughter, had been very close to her. Six months after my mother died, when Jodi wasasophomoreat Johns Hopkins, I took her to Poland for the first time. We went to Birkenau, where her grandmother had been imprisoned. It was a very gray,drizzlyday. We walked in silence past the various barracks. Then Jodi turned to me and said, you know, it’s exactly the wayDassah(which is what she called my mother, Hadassah) described it. And I realized at that moment that there had been a transfer of memory. Jodi, who was born in 1978, 33 years after the Holocaust,hadrecognized the barracks of Birkenau through the stories she had heard from her grandmother. And to a greater or lesser extent, that’s the case for many of us.
What realizations struck you the most while editing these essays?
First was how individual they were. Each one really is a unique voice in and of itself. There is almost noredundancy. The other thing is that, across the board, the contributorswerealmost unfailingly forward-looking and positive. There is no giving into despair, no wallowing in self-pity of any kind. You get much more of a sense that they are looking at the survivors, at our parents and our grandparents, with awe. They see them as role models, as inspirations. The legacy that we receive from them is a source of strength, rather than a burden. That was remarkable.
What effect do you hope these survivors’ stories will have on readers?
It has now been 70 years since the end of the Holocaust and the liberation of the camps. When survivors emerged from these horrors, they emerged with absolutely nothing and no one. Their families had for the most partbeenkilled, they had lost their homes, they had no place to return to. And yet they did not give in to despair. They started new lives for themselves, created new families, and settled in new countries. Within one or two generations, their children and grandchildren have reached the top of their respective fields throughout the world.
What I hope is that these stories will inspire the victims and the descendants of survivors of other genocides and atrocities; thatthey can see that if this was possible for the children and grandchildren of the survivors of the Holocaust, then it is equally possible for them. Hopefully this will give them a sense that all isneverlost.
The Shoah is central to 20th-century history. Only a fool or a villain would deny that the decision and implementation of a plan to systematically exterminate all the Jews throughout Europe signified a historical rupture. The Shoah was something that no one, previously, could have imagined or conceived was possible, to paraphrase the German philosopher Jurgen Habermas.
History allows us to trace the circumstances and events that brought about the Shoah. But, still we wrestle with its meaning.
Maybe the Shoah has no intrinsic meaning. Or, perhaps, the Holocaust gives us reason to reject the existence of G-d. On the other hand, maybe G-d was there in the Holocaust, alongside the victims, both those who perished and those who survived. Could it be that the Shoah allows us to understand the establishment of the State of Israel as the Jewish people's resurrection? Or, does one take lessons from the catastrophe by becoming an advocate for minority rights and social welfare?
All these possibilities – and more – are expressed by the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors in the book God, Faith & Identity From The Ashes (Jewish Lights). In 88 essays, Second-and Third-Generation adult children of survivors reflect on G-d, ethnic definition, the transition of their parent's memories and what each individual is doing to repair and improve the world.
In the book’s introduction, editor Menachem Z. Rosensaft, founder of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, writes that the genesis of this collection came as a result of a guest sermon he delivered in New York’s prestigious Park Avenue Synagogue. There, Rosensaft declared G-d was "in fact present during the Holocaust within those women and men who, even at Auschwitz and Treblinka, sought to save the lives of their fellow prisoners or somehow to alleviate their suffering." Rosensaft’s sermon had reach. It was published in the Washington Post ’s religious blog. And, it apparently reached Pope Francis, who responded to Rosensaft personally by email. The head of Jewish Lights read the sermon and the pope’s response. He proposed a book consisting of reflections by a broad range of prominent children and grandchildren of survivors on the impact their parents (or grandparents) had on their lives.
One might think Rosensaft’s theodicy would set some sort of tone for the book. Not so. Contrast Rosensaft with Rabbi Moshe Waldoks’ essay. “Over the last 70 years,” writes Rabbi Waldoks, “no Jewish ideology, of either the left or the right, has emerged that has not relied on the Shoah as its basis and justification. Ultimately, the Shoah has become a projection of our own inclinations and political tendencies. The fact, however, is the Shoah has no intrinsic meaning.” The Holocaust as an event that ties Jews together as victims? Yes. But, as an event that adds anything new to the question of evil in this world, no.
For bioethicist and author of “Animal Liberation,” Peter Singer, whose parents got out of Austria and made it to Australia, the Shoah led him to reject a belief in G-d. The usual answer to a problem of human evil like the Holocaust is to argue that G-d gave us free will, writes Singer. Free will is overrated. Why didn’t G-d fashion us to find cruelty and the sufferings of others so repugnant that we, as a species, would stop such evil? It is possible, Singer allows, that his parent’s fate did steer him to work in the field of ethics.
For many of the Second Generation, represented in the book, who made aliyah, Israel restored a sense of identity and pride to a people shattered during the war. Avi Dichter, who served in the IDF’s most elite commando unit Sayeret Matkal writes, “I did not want to believe that millions of slaughtered Jews had been powerless to prevent their fate. I had never encountered powerlessness in my life.” And, Rabbi Benny Lau goes further when he writes, “The establishment of the State of Israel is the Jewish people’s resurrection.
In contrast, director of the Leo Baeck Institute, Carol Kahn Strauss, sees social welfare, minority rights and advocacy for women and children as the most relevant manifestations of her Jewish identity.
Novelist Thane Rosenbaum notes that many children of Holocaust survivors ended up in the healing professions. He also clarifies “the children were not actually there (during the Shoah); they are merely the artifacts of the aftermath, witnesses not to the event itself but to the absurdity of an afterlife at all.”
Absurd? But, an afterlife is what many survivors built. They didn’t speak of the past. They looked forward. They married and had children. And, their children, certainly the Second and Third Generation represented in this book, have led lives of meaning and purpose.
Jewish Herald Voice - Aaron Howard
Almost ninety children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors—theologians, scholars, spiritual leaders, authors, artists, political and community leaders and media personalities—from sixteen countries on six continents reflect on how the memories transmitted to them have affected their lives. Profoundly personal stories explore faith, identity and legacy in the aftermath of the Holocaust as well as our role in ensuring that future genocides and similar atrocities never happen again.
There have been many books and studies about children of Holocaust survivors—the so-called second and third generations—with a psycho-social focus. This book is different. It is intended to reflect what they believe, who they are and how that informs what they have done and are doing with their lives.
From major religious or intellectual explorations to shorter commentaries on experiences, quandaries and cultural, political and personal affirmations, contributors respond to this question: how have your parents' and grandparents’ experiences and examples helped shape your identity and your attitudes toward God, faith, Judaism, the Jewish people and the world as a whole?
For people of all faiths and backgrounds, these powerful and deeply moving statements will have a profound effect on the way our and future generations understand and shape their understanding of the Holocaust.
Praise from Pope Francis for Menachem Rosensaft’s essay reconciling God’s presence with the horrors of the Holocaust:
"When you, with humility, are telling us where God was in that moment, I felt within me that you had transcended all possible explanations and that, after a long pilgrimage—sometimes sad, tedious or dull—you came to discover a certain logic and it is from there that you were speaking to us; the logic of First Kings 19:12, the logic of that 'gentle breeze’ (I know that it is a very poor translation of the rich Hebrew expression) that constitutes the only possible hermeneutic interpretation.
“Thank you from my heart. And, please, do not forget to pray for me. May the Lord bless you."
—His Holiness Pope Francis
Menachem Z. Rosensaft, who was born in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen, is general counsel of the World Jewish Congress, and teaches about the law of genocide and war crimes trials at the law schools of Columbia and Cornell Universities. Appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, he is founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, senior vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants and a past president of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, who survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald, has been the preeminent voice of conscience and Holocaust memory throughout the seven decades since the end of World War II. In 1984, Professor Wiesel delivered the keynote address at the First International Conference of Children of Holocaust Survivors in New York City, and he has graciously allowed us to publish excerpts from that address as his charge to the post-Holocaust generations as we explore who we are, what we believe and what we stand for in the pages of this book.
Jewish Media Review - Dov Peretz Elkins
I grew up in a Jewish home in a predominately Jewish town in a predominately Jewish suburb. I spent two hours every Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday at Hebrew School, and attended High Holiday services with my family at our local Conservative synagogue. I was Jewish, of course, just as everyone around me seemed to be, but I could sense early on that the world of Judaism in which I existed was just a bit different from everyone else's.
None of my friends, after all, had great aunts and uncles and grandparents with inky numbers scrawled on their forearms. I understood it from a young age as something that set my family apart—set me apart—and somehow marked us, too. We were a family of Holocaust survivors, and that was the lens through which, unbeknownst to me at first, every Biblical account I read and every prayer I learned was filtered. From a young age, my faith was bound to my family's legacy; their stories my ritual text, their sorrows my liturgy.
In my early teens I devoured books like Number the Stars and The Devil’s Arithmetic, unwittingly subjecting myself to nightmares about roundups and check-ins. I obsessed over the particulars of Anne Frank’s hiding quarters and wondered how people knew what to grab from their homes as they were being forcefully ushered out. My adolescent peers, I was certain, were not weighed down with the same crushing existential questions.
It was on a trip to Germany in 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp that I became distinctly aware of another set of emotions surrounding this part of my life: anger, and something I was surprised to find resembled jealousy. Also on the trip, which was sponsored by the local German government, were dozens of former inmates of the camp, plus a handful of children and grandchildren of survivors. My own grandparents, who met at the Displaced Persons camp at Bergen Belsen, had died when I was four years old, and my sister, my cousins, and I, then a senior in high school, seemed to be the only teenagers on the trip who weren’t sharing the powerful experience with their grandparents.
I realized then that I had missed out on years of questions, stories, and, more acutely, years of a real relationship with my grandparents. All I had were my pieced-together memories, grainy home movie footage, and second-hand accounts of their experiences during the Holocaust. The lore I had been consumed by when I was younger had been largely cobbled together from what I knew about them at the time, snippets of stories of my grandmother surviving because of her skill as a seamstress, of cousins and uncles looking out for each other during the war and after. It wasn’t fair, my 17-year-old self angrily thought. There were so many more things I needed to know.
It was on that trip that I learned about my grandparents from the people they had met at the DP camp, who would become lifelong friends after they all immigrated to the United States. I heard stories—and saw photographs—of a theater troupe my grandparents were a part of, and I ate meals in the same dining hall they would have eaten in after liberation. In that strange, unsettling place, I felt closer to them than I ever had.
When I got to college that fall, I enrolled in a course about Holocaust memory and memorials. I had never studied the Holocaust in an academic setting, and I wasn’t entirely sure how we were supposed to approach the topic with the same distance we afforded computer science or psychology. One of the first things I learned, thanks to the notes my professor repeatedly scribbled in the margins of my essays, was that the word 'survivor’ wasn’t capitalized. That semester I discovered Paul Celan, Theodor Adorno, and Primo Levi, and immersed myself in discursive concepts like "laughter after" and the challenges of representation and memorialization. After nearly two decades of a rather isolating fixation on the Holocaust and its aftermath, I realized I was far from alone.
I’m no longer the young girl plotting escape routes from my parent’s house in case the Gestapo arrived one day, though I now understand where those impulses come from—and how to channel them in a productive direction. My life is the sum of many experiences, my own and those that preceded me, and I am very much a product of my family’s legacy, in the best possible way.
I think my grandparents would be pretty proud.
This essay appears in God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors, edited by Menachem Z. Rosensaft, 2014. Reprinted with permission from Jewish Lights Publishing.
Tablet - Stephanie Butnick
For the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution, the suffering and survival of their parents or grandparents, and the annihilation of virtually their entire families, have in large part shaped their perspectives on God, faith and Jewish identity. While the collective legacy of Holocaust survivors and refugees belongs to the entire Jewish people, as well as to all humankind, this extremely personal and often idiosyncratic legacy was transmitted first and foremost by the survivors to their own children and grandchildren. There is no one form of this legacy. This unique new book explores how the voices of the Second and Third Generations will affect future generations' understanding of the Holocaust and shape Jewish identity in years to come. "Over the course of the past seventy years, many sons, daughters, and grandchildren of survivors and of refugees from pre-war Nazi persecution have absorbed and integrated our parents' and grandparents' memories, spirit and perseverance into our collective consciousness," writes Menachem Z. Rosensaft, the editor of GOD, FAITH & IDENTITY FROM THE ASHES: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (Jewish Lights Publishing) and Senior Vice President of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants. "Our task now is to convey this birthright to our children and grandchildren, to the Jewish community as a whole, and to the world." There have been many books and studies about children of survivors—the so-called Second and Third Generations—with a psychosocial focus. God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes is different. It is intended to reflect what they believe, who they are and how that informs what they are doing with their lives. In this book, eighty-eight children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors—theologians, scholars, spiritual leaders, authors, artists, political and community leaders and media personalities—from sixteen countries on six continents reflect on how the memories transmitted to them have affected their lives. Profoundly personal stories explore faith, identity and legacy in the aftermath of the Holocaust as well as the role of people today in ensuring that future genocides and similar atrocities never happen again. Among the contributors to the book are a United States Senator; a former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom; a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada; a former Israeli Minister of Internal Security and Shin Bet director; and the publisher-editor of the most influential news weekly in Germany. The book's section on faith after the Shoah includes essays by Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal Rabbis, as well as outspoken atheists. A full list of the contributors to God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes is on page 5. While many of the essays in the book address or reflect more than one theme, they are organized into four broad largely self-explanatory yet often overlapping categories: "God and Faith—How do we, how can we, whose families were brutally murdered during the Shoah, relate to God, and are there unique dimensions to our understanding of and attitudes toward Jewish or universal religious and/or spiritual values? "Identity—How do we define ourselves, collectively or individually, in light of and in relation to our parents' or grandparents’ experiences and memories, and does this inheritance set us apart from others whose families did not go through the Holocaust? "A Legacy of Memory—How has memory been transmitted to us from our parents or grandparents, how are we integrating those memories into our own consciousness, and what are we doing to share this precious inheritance with the Jewish people and the world? “Tikkun Olam : Changing the World for the Better—What are we doing and what should we be doing to prevent future genocides and similar atrocities, to fight persecution, discrimination and injustice, or to repair and improve even a small corner of our world?" God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, better bookstores nationwide, or from Jewish Lights Publishing at www.jewishlights.com, Telephone:800-962-4544.
For the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution, the suffering and survival of their parents or grandparents, and the annihilation of virtually their entire families, have in large part shaped their perspectives on God, faith and Jewish identity. While the collective legacy of Holocaust survivors and refugees belongs to the entire Jewish people, as well as to all humankind, this extremely personal and often idiosyncratic legacy was transmitted first and foremost by the survivors to their own children and grandchildren. Thereis no one form of this legacy. This unique new book explores how the voices of the Second and Third Generations will affect future generations' understanding of the Holocaust and shape Jewish identity in years to come. "Over the course of the past seventy years, many sons, daughters, and grandchildren of survivors and of refugees from pre-war Nazi persecution have absorbed and integrated our parents’ and grandparents’ memories, spirit and perseverance into our collective consciousness," writes Menachem Z. Rosensaft, the editor of GOD, FAITH & IDENTITY FROM THE ASHES: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors(Jewish Lights Publishing) and Senior Vice President of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants. “Our task now is to convey this birthright toour children and grandchildren, to the Jewish community as a whole, and to the world.” There have been many books and studies about children of survivors—the so-called Second and Third Generations—with a psychosocial focus. God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes is different. It is intended to reflect what they believe, who they are and how that informs what they are doing with their lives. In this book, eighty-eight children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors—theologians, scholars, spiritual leaders, authors, artists, political and community leaders and media personalities— from sixteen countries on six continents reflect on how the memories transmitted to them have affected their lives. Profoundly personal stories explore faith, identity and legacy in the aftermath of the Holocaust as well as the role of people today in ensuring that future genocides and similar atrocities never happen again. Among the contributors to the book are a United States Senator; a former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom; a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada; a former Israeli Minister of Internal Security and Shin Bet director; and the publisher-editor of the most influential news weekly in Germany. The book’s section on faith after the Shoah includes essays by Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist andRenewal Rabbis, as well as outspoken atheists. A full list of the contributors to God, Faith& Identity from the Ashes is on page 5. While many of the essays in the book address or reflect more than one theme, they are organized into four broad largely self-explanatory yet often overlapping categories: “God and Faith—How do we, how can we, whose families were brutally murdered during the Shoah, relate to God, and are there unique dimensions to our understanding of and attitudes toward Jewish or universal religious and/or spiritual values?“Identity—How do we define ourselves, collectively or individually, in light of and in relation to our parents’ or grandparents’ experiences and memories, and does this inheritance set us apart from others whose families did not go through the Holocaust? “A Legacy of Memory—How hasmemory been transmitted to us from our parents or grandparents, how are we integrating those memories into our own consciousness, and what are we doing to share this precious inheritance with the Jewish people and the world? “Tikkun Olam: Changing the World for the Better—What are we doing and what should we be doing to prevent future genocides and similar atrocities, to fight persecution, discrimination and injustice, or to repair and improve even a small corner of our world?” God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, better bookstores nationwide, or from Jewish Lights Publishing at www.jewishlights.com, Telephone:800-962-4544.
Together - Menachem Z. Rosensaft
12/01/2014
