Abstract
This book is an expanded version of the earlier volume titled Zahor (2005), the Hebrew word for ‘remember’, which was originally published in 2005 by The Child Survivors’Association of Great Britain. The first book was intended as a memorial to the families who perished in the Shoah. Due to great public demand, it was later decided to produce an expanded version with added chapters, in order to reach a wider audience. The book is a collection of testimonies from 30 different contributors, compared to 26 in the original edition.
The Child Survivors Association of Great Britain was founded in September 1990. Initially the membership included a mixture of adult camp survivors and refugees, as well as child survivors, and met monthly. A psychotherapy group led by Earl Hopper was later established. As the association developed, it came to provide a surrogate family by networking with other child survivors, most of whose families had been murdered by the Nazis.
This book is a welcome addition to the library of Shoah literature. Unlike many other books on the subject, this one is special in that it is a testimony by children, all of whom were below the age of 16. One child was actually born in the Mathausen concentration camp. The children came from many different cultural and social backgrounds, with Judaism as the common denominator.
The survival of these children turned them into heroes. It is unthinkable that children should ever have experienced such terrible ordeals: abandonment, hunger and terror. These children had their childhood stolen from them and had to grow up overnight. Their development curve did not follow the norm, they did not grow up and mature in the normal way. Many reflected on their inability to grow up and mature, as if some core part of their self had become frozen. However most of them became successful adults, who built careers and families.
Many were able to survive because of acts of courage and kindness of bystanders, friends and neighbours, who risked both their lives and that of their own families in order to help Jewish people. They became known as ‘The Righteous Gentiles’ and are honoured at Yad Vashem, the Shoah Memorial in Jerusalem.
The fact was also revealed that their hell did not end at the liberation. In some cases, survivors were reunited with members of their families. However in many cases, the homecoming brought the realization that their entire family had perished. In other cases, the communities who had been their friends and neighbours before the war, did not want to accept them back. Alienation and ostracism were thus perpetuated. A culture of silence and denial ensued.
Each story is both familiar and extraordinary, powerful and deeply moving, a monument to human creativity and resilience. This book is absolutely gripping. I could not put it down, except to catch my breath. The book will be of absorbing interest to anyone whether professional or lay person, as well as being a duty towards the millions of innocent people, who were persecuted on racial grounds.
Group analysts will be moved by the stories of survival and adaptation in extremis, adding to the body of trauma research.
Let us remember!