During and after the Holocaust love and affection were
almost destroyed for my grandparent's generation. It
was as if expressing emotions after the horror they had
been through would somehow reduce the enormity of the
tragedy. If one could express love again, how bad could it
have really been? Just as perhaps they had once said they
had loved their parents and siblings; feelings like these
could not be replaced even with a child or grandchild of
their own.
Forced abandonment of the known; war-caused
relocations due to traumatic and historical events; changing
of names from one language to another, had lasting effects
on my parents and grandparents. It is my purpose to
discuss the influences that these events have had on the
'next' generations and to begin a unified healing process.
Many of us who are alive today have been affected
by the Holocaust, Jewish or not, and we continue to
discuss the Holocaust as if it had begun only recently. Yet,
unbelievably, we are nearing the centennial anniversary of
the Nazi's initial rise to power.
It is my fervent desire to attempt to break the pervasive
silence that was the norm rather than the exception in post-
World War II America, Europe and the world, and hope this
discussion may have positive consequences for helping to
unify the global village of today.