Shadows of the Holocaust

A memorial statue in Hanko, Finland, commemorating the thousands of emigrants who left the country to start a new life in the United States The definition of immigration is "a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence or a plant or animal that becomes established in an area where it was previously unknown." But the concept can encompass much more and much less than that. Immigrating ...

My mother's childhood home Most Germany homes are handed down from one generation to the next. My mother's childhood home in Stockstadt had been in her family for 200 years. But after the Holocaust, Nazis stole some Jewish homes; others became available for rent. In the Kreis-Gross Gerau area, one family who rents a former Jewish home has lived uneasily in it since 1978. "We wondered what happened to the ...

In another blog entry, I wrote that the second generation has the scars without the wounds of Nazi Germany. But, in his book Child Survivors of the Holocaust, Dr. Paul Valent claims that the second generation has the scars and the wounds. "Second generation children are dominated by the shadow of the Holocaust without ever understanding the original context," he writes."They were in some ways more vulnerable than child survivors ...

The lives of all the Germans I know have been defined by the Holocaust and its legacy. Some more than others. I have another friend in her 60s whose family has lived in my mother's town, Stockstadt, for generations. This friend feels terribly alienated because her mother made a choice after she had her only child: She decided she wouldn't have any more children because she wouldn't want to send ...

The first time I met the head of the German Society to Preserve Jewish Culture in 2000, I told him that my grandparents had 'died' in the Holocaust. "They didn't die," he said. "They were killed. It is a very big difference." Then he told me his history: "My father and grandfather were strong Nazis. I have tried to understand what made them partners in murder. The more I search ...

"The war and the Nazi period are like a relative to me," a German friend born in 1960 tells me. "For me, it's very alive. We were the first generation to read Anne Frank. We cannot think of German history without thinking about the Jews. "But our parents couldn't talk about the past. When we bring up the subject, many said, 'Stop talking about it. It's over. We have a ...

The German Office for the notification of next of kin of casualties of the German Wehrmacht in Berlin When visiting Germany, I have discovered that Germans speak openly about their country's dark past — but most don't talk about their personal involvement. Children have little information about their parents' contributions to Nazi Germany. When I asked my German friends why they don't know about their parents' role in the past, ...

2/1/10 Chapman, Fern Schumer IS IT NIGHT OR DAY? Most Holocaust stories for children focus on the inhumanity that took place in European countries; fewer deal with the severe hardships experienced by children sent to America and their struggles to assimilate into a foreign culture. Based on the experiences of the author’s mother as part of the One Thousand Children project, this empathetic historical novel rings with authenticity. Edith Westerfeld ...

Is It Night or Day? Chapman, Fern Schumer (author). Mar. 2010. 192p. Farrar, hardcover, $16.99 (9780374177447). Grades 6-10. REVIEW. First published February 1, 2010 (Booklist). Chapman based this spare historical novel on her mother’s experience of coming to America to escape Nazi persecution. At age 12, Edith is sent by her German Jewish parents to relatives on Chicago’s South Side in 1937. Oppressed by her aunt, who makes Edith work ...

German commemorative stamps of some of the Berlin synagogues destroyed on Krystallnacht. On November 9, 1963, East Germany issued this stamp of a burning synagogue and the yellow star all Jews were required to wear under Nazi rule to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Krstallnacht.