The Holocaust in Three Generations: Families of Victims and Perpetrators of the Nazi Regime

Description

Through lengthy interviews and observation of family relationships, this book investigates how the histories of those involved in the Holocaust (as both victims and perpetrators) impact, socially and psychologically, on the lives of the second and third generation. Five case studies of survivors' families from Germany and Israel present different experiences of persecution, and demonstrate to what extent the past defines post-War family dynamics. Two case studies of non-Jewish German families where the grandparents' generation are suspected of having perpetrated Nazi crimes show how guilt, and the myth of themselves being victims, are pressed on to the succeeding generations.

Details the results of a study undertaken by Israelis and Germans in the two countries between 1992 and 1996, looking at how families of those persecuted by the Nazi dictatorship refer to their past, how their conversations about their family history and the Holocaust differ from those of the perpetrators of the regime and their accomplices, and the impact of the first generation's experience on the lives of later generations. * Book News Inc *