Abstract
Jewish Families in Europe 1939-Present examines a crucial yet often marginalized aspect of the study of the Holocaust. As editor Joanna Michlic sets out in her introduction, The main goal of this work is to broaden our understanding of wartime and postwar histories and (self)-representation of mainly central east European Jewry through the lenses of Jewish parents, children, and youth, and to a lesser degree, through Jewish organizations and institutions. (p. xvi)
In addition to the introduction, the volume contains 12 essays contributed by scholars in fields ranging from history and literary studies to sociology and psychology, as well as an afterward by the writer and child survivor Henryk Grynberg. All focus primarily on the experiences of Jewish children in the Holocaust and its aftermath and the results are truly impressive.
After the introductory material, which includes a forward by Sylvia Barack Fishman and both a preface and introduction by Joanna Michlic, the work is divided into two broad sections. Part 1, “Parenthood and Childhood under Siege, 1939–1945,” includes six chapters about children and families during the war. Part 2, “After the War: Rebuilding Shattered Lives, Recollecting Wartime Experiences,” deals with the immediate postwar period, ongoing implications of the Holocaust on Jewish families and individuals, and testimonial sources. The book closes with Grynberg’s afterward, which touches upon his own writing as well as many of the essays in the collection. Although the divisions serve a necessary purpose in organizing the work thematically and chronologically, they also unintentionally mask some of the remarkable continuities that run through the work.
Michlic’s brief and systematic introduction lays out some of these crucial, unifying themes. She points out, for example, that attention to children’s testimonies requires rethinking certain basic assumptions about the Holocaust. “First, they [children’s testimonies] shatter the commonly accepted notion that the Holocaust ended in 1945” (p. xxiii). Beyond periodization, they intervene in our very notions of childhood. Michlic insists second that children are neither symbols nor martyrs, but must be seen as active agents; finally, she argues that children faced unique vulnerabilities. The essays that follow bear out these insights through their novel concentration on the lives of families and children during and after the Holocaust.
At times, the new perspective allows for the revelation of previously unexplored dynamics. In Joanna Sliwa’s article on children’s clandestine activities in the Kraków Ghetto, she describes how “young people emerge as active participants in the events, exercising agency, albeit in a limited way, along every step of the deception process” (p. 40). Jennifer Marlow’s examination of children in hiding outlines the complicated triangle of relationships between children, parents, and caregivers during the war and in its aftermath. For both of these scholars, focusing on the experiences of children yields important new findings.
Chapters by Kenneth Waltzer and Avinoam Patt explore a slightly older population. Examining the wartime and postwar experiences of Jewish youth draws attention to this group of young adults made homeless and alone by the war. Waltzer’s microstudy of the “boys of Buchenwald,” based on exhaustive use of the available sources, highlights existing “social clusters” that helped the boys to make decisions. Patt shows how Zionist youth groups were able to offer young survivors a “therapeutic and productive social unit” in the wake of the war. Continuity and strengthening of social ties emerge as central in both accounts.
Articles by Eva Fogelman and Uta Larkey apply the insights of psychology to child survivors and the children and grandchildren of survivors. Fogelman discusses the ways in which child survivors remained hidden and have only recently begun the process of healing. Larkey uses film, literature, and interviews to explore the impact of Holocaust memories on the third generation, which she terms “transmemory.” Together their work demonstrates the continuing repercussions of the Holocaust on Jewish individuals and families.
The focus on children and families lead some of the contributors to delve into previously unexplored sources and others to bring new questions to more familiar sources. Boaz Cohen and Gabriel Finder’s analysis of an early collection of children’s testimonies and Kinga Frojimovics’ examination of the fate of an institution for disabled Jewish children in Budapest bring to light new and important stories. Cohen and Finder introduce Benjamin Tenenbaum, whose postwar return to Poland from Palestine led inadvertently to the collection and publication of written testimonies from child survivors. Frojimovics tells the unlikely story of the survival not only of the National Institute for the Israelite Deaf-Mute but also of some of its doubly targeted young patients. In both of these cases, turning attention to children exposes new facets of the Holocaust and its aftermath.
In other cases, scholars returned to well-known sources with new questions. Dalia Ofer looks at published diaries to probe family relations in Polish ghettos. Her findings show not only the importance of prewar social status but also the ways in which ghettoization exacerbated tensions between how to act as an individual, a parent, a spouse, and a child. Noting that the family exists to provide protection to its members, Lenore Weitzman provides a close reading of family relations in a single memoir. This allows her to present the evolving “role sharing” and “role shifts” that could prove helpful. Approaching the sources from a new vantage point yielded important new results.
It is not possible to write about Jewish families in Europe during and after the Holocaust without extensive discussion of both sources and memory. Thus, each of the authors in this rich collection must address his or her source base and how memory has shaped it. A few of the contributors write explicitly about the use of sources. Both Michlic herself and Rita Horvath discuss historical approaches to children’s testimonies. Michlic’s exploration of the “world of the inarticulate” exposes how the unique vulnerabilities of childhood shaped their experiences during and after the war. Horvath argues that children’s testimonies and testimonies of trauma, both often dismissed as unreliable, are in fact necessary and legible historical sources. Henryk Grynberg’s afterward is also a meditation on sources, albeit in a more literary and personal manner.
Memory, along with history and representation, is one of the subtitles of the volume and flows through all of the essays. It is most evident in the essays that touch upon method and sources or that focus on the postwar period. Horvath’s interdisciplinary approach to reading testimonies draws on methods and insights from a number of complementary fields. As she explains, “Deep traumatic memories are memory imprints, in other words, ‘snapshots’ that have a high documentary value” (p. 192). Larkey’s concept of “transmemory” includes the notion that survivor grandparents may be more at ease passing on their difficult stories to their grandchildren than they were to their children. Here and elsewhere the essays are in dialog with memory studies more generally.
That all of these insights and findings fit into one modestly sized volume is a tribute to the editor. The essays are all short and readable and there is no wasted space. The only puzzling factor in what is otherwise an admirably organized volume regards the extremely broad title. Given that all of the essays touch upon aspects of the Holocaust and its aftermath, and most of them treat the experiences of children, it is odd that neither word appears in the title. Although the cover art clearly depicts two Jewish youth in the midst of the war, the title suggests a more diffuse collection. This is particularly odd given Michlic’s pioneering scholarship and leadership in this area. In addition to her published work, she is the founding director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute’s Project on Families, Children, and the Holocaust.
Fortunately, a quick look at the table of contents, or any of the essays, will alert readers to the innovative and focused nature of this volume. Scholars and students alike will benefit from the content and methods throughout the collection. Individual essays will be of immediate use to scholars working in the field of Holocaust studies for their research and classroom needs. Indeed, the entire volume could be assigned in a seminar. Taken as a whole, it illuminates an important and original approach, providing both informative essays and models for how to engage with the experiences of children and families during the Holocaust.