By Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
EDISON, New Jersey — We Holocaust survivors’ children — who call ourselves second generation or 2G — are aware that except in history books, few epic tragedies seem to endure beyond the lives of the victims and perpetrators.
Elie Wiesel, said he thought the survivors’ children were in a privileged position. ”I believe a person who listens to a witness becomes a witness,” he said in an interview.
Survivors’ children such as I, have dedicated much of our lives to keeping their parents’ stories alive — by writing books, making films, even forming therapy groups. Calling ourselves 2nd generation Holocaust prolongs the need to remember the Shoah. Yes, we are not the survivors, but hopefully we who are alive because they survived the Shoah, will use the term to keep the memory of the HOLOCAUST alive. from one generation to another.
Most of the Holocaust survivors who I grew up with have passed away. They were all so important to me and they conveyed a special feeling that no others could. To the second and third generation I offer this comfort before saying yizkor on Shavuoth.
I have been an orphan too long. My dad died almost 40 years ago, my mother 30. Recently I discovered that in addition to the death of most of my family in the Holocaust, I also had two half siblings. I also discovered family in Israel from the Holocaust and just visited them in Israel during the current war. I could not stop crying with emotion. Never give up searching. My story is similar to many of yours.
I ask that G-d comfort us today as we remember parents and other loved ones. For those who possess Holocaust guilt I pray you will listen to me. Most of us were too young to understand the misery experienced by our parents, we could not empathize nor did most of us ask the questions we could have. We simply were afraid of hurting our parents and could not bear seeing them suffer.
I have spent a lifetime trying to find out what I simply could have asked them about our family. I am certain many of you have the same experience. I beg you, your parents and mine lived for us. They sacrificed everything for us. Remember the good you experienced with them.
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Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth-El in Edison, New Jersey and is the author of Theological and Halachich Reflections on the Holocaust, among other books.