Chapter Introductions

  1. The American Experience of the Holocaust
  2. Through the Eyes of a Child
  3. Survival
  4. Inheritance
  5. Facing the Enemy
  6. Chosen

The American Experience of the Holocaust

The first chapter deals with the way in which information about the Holocaust slipped into American Jewish households and how parents tried to shield their children from the horrors.  It also reveals the level at which denial operated in this country in regard to the extremity of the situation overseas and the connection to anti-Semitism being experienced by those who lived here.  The experiences of survivors of the Holocaust have been presented in autobiographies, films and oral histories.  Because of the intensity of those stories, many people who were not personally involved felt it was not appropriate to make their own pain and fear public.  Those who write of their experiences in America were just children at the time of World War II.  They had little understanding of the secrecy adopted by their families and society as a whole.  Now, looking back on this mysterious time, they express resentment at being protected from the truth.  We have to wonder how that truth would have affected them and whether their parents unknowingly allowed them a short time when they could sustain innocence and just be children.  They could have a period free from the burdens that would be carried once the horrors were exposed and embodied.  Many people remember the first time they were exposed to the atrocities of the Holocaust in the form of school or movie theater documentaries.  Often it created a state of dissociation, so unbelievable were the visions.  Families still struggle with deciding when to impart this dark history and parents often put off the task until the children are old enough to comprehend that kind of darkness and suffering.  Still, it is inevitable that the innocence of childhood will be altered upon receipt of this information.  As difficult as it is in the present, the combination of fear and even a desire to distance from the Jewish identity for safety purposes, may have played a part in the secretive nature of the American experience of the Holocaust.  Several of the artists represented, although they lost no immediate family members, were so affected by the atrocities that they have found themselves creating entire series on the subject of the Holocaust.   Interestingly, these artists seem able to utilize more explicit visual symbolism than some of the children of survivors.  Perhaps the emotional distance earlier in life allowed the deep exploration through art which some children of survivors may feel to be psychologically threatening.  These Americans present to us their own undeniable products of pain and empathy in an attempt to be heard and to foster change in the world we live in today.

Through the Eyes of a Child

Chapter two allows us to see with a clear child's vision the depth of emotion experienced as the Holocaust progressed in Eastern Europe.  Poems and stories reflect on the bizarre fashion in which children were removed from their families, raised by others, sometimes in another faith, and then returned years later to the families they no longer remembered.  It questions the definition of family and brings to light the confusion and rootlessness that became the foundation set for these children.  And yet, they have grown up to be insightful, sensitive adults.  Some practice Christianity and Judaism in an attempt to stay loyal to both faiths that formed their identity.  All who have contributed to this collection have shown the resilience that children can embody.  Some create from their memories of a life in hiding, when freedom of speech and hunger took on new meaning.  Stories unfold about systematic losses and the parents' desire to provide safe havens for their children.  And most unfathomable, memories of life as a child in a concentration camp, where often the focus is on concerns for siblings, parents, and the basic bodily needs which were no longer provided for.  There exists an attitude of innocence combined with a dark wisdom about the truth.  These children became aware of the evil that many people today still do not comprehend.  They rose from a childhood steeped in ashes to deliver their memories, their hopes and their visions to us.

Survival

In this, perhaps the most chilling and poignant of all the chapters, stories and images come forth which attempt to portray a truth that humanity can barely comprehend.  There are not words or symbols enough to adequately portray the Holocaust experience.  For many years the whole subject was avoided in art, sometimes even considered inappropriate or disrespectful.  In that period of time there are those who have chosen to revise Holocaust history, deny its depth and breadth.  These representations of individual experiences draw the reader into a private world, one that is believable.  These works were selected because they touch the heart and open it to receive what might otherwise be overwhelming.  Each poem is like a photograph, taking in as many images of the environment, the internal state and in some cases the visceral bodily feelings of the subject.  The repeated symbols of railroad tracks, bones, weary feet, emaciation and even clothing devoid of people who had worn them resonate with the written imagery.  Themes surface which honor the bravery, loyalty and even hope of those who did not know if they would survive.  Values are passed from father to son, friend to friend, in a desperate attempt to leave something of importance behind.  The visual symbolism is very strong; utilizing irony such as concentration camp shirts made of hog's gut.  A torah scroll lies in the grips of a vise decorated with a swastika.  The swastika appears in many forms; paintings, sculptures and mixed media designs, its insidious message loud and clear.  Stories also form around the continuation of the haunting as survivors carry their memories into their new lives after the war.

Inheritance

The title reflects the effects of the Holocaust on the families of those who lived through this experience. There is a resounding cry from children of survivors who have carried their own fears, confusion and anger about their past.  Some felt the need to protect their parents from anything negative, thus finding themselves isolated with their terror and sadness.   Some speak of wanting to learn more about the secrets while also fearing what details might prove too difficult to bear.   With each new bit of information came a permanent, inextricable vision created in horrific imagery.  Without the details, parents and other ancestors remained cut off from these children.   Some reveal their own frightful imagination, seemingly inherited through stories or unexplained questions.  The Holocaust represented suffering on such a grand scale that often children of survivors did not feel their problems compared with the life and death travails their parents had endured.  They mourn never having had grandparents or other extended family and the images of ghosts make many appearances in the art and writing.  All seem to feel the need to impart this information that was often kept secret for so long.  Several describe returning to the site of the horrors and the incredulity of a world that goes on where their parents' world was destroyed.  Adolescent poets display the transmission of the experience through the generations with words and thoughts far beyond their years.  It is clear from the creative works in this chapter that the Holocaust did not end with D day.  Its effects continue to unfold in the families of those who live in its shadow.

Facing the Enemy

Much has been written recently about the mentality of those who went along with the precepts of the Holocaust.  For many years movies revolved around themes of WWII where the American soldiers won the war.  Not much was mentioned about the feelings of the victims toward their persecutors.  Perhaps the pain was too deep in those who were trying to establish new lives and not draw attention to themselves.  A generation later, questions are still being asked about the enemy.  There seems to be a desire to understand  motivation, and some poems were born of programs where children of Nazis and children of survivors spend a weekend together to work through these intense feelings.  Several of the poems that are included express the desire to understand, to connect, and struggle with whether or not forgiveness is appropriate. Included is the perspective of a German son who also struggles with incredible sadness combined with the eternal questions of his own family and nation. Visual imagery includes the machinery of the Holocaust constructed in sculptural form.  Poetry dips into past and present images of Germany as German Jews return for visits and must reconcile themselves to the land of their ancestry, the land that also determined to end that lineage forever.  In these pieces there are melancholy memories of a time when family was united, when culture and study were a part of everyday life.  Intermingled are reminders, like blades cutting through old photographs, of systematically being denied that life until life itself became denied.  There is sadness and anger and also a desire to understand and put these long unresolved feelings to rest.  There is a need to believe that this will not recur, that people are still people and not monsters.

Chosen

The term "the Chosen People" has been an emotionally loaded one for centuries.  This chapter looks at what it is to be chosen, in the biblical sense as well as chosen to be annihilated.    There are questions of God in the face of the Holocaust.  Did God see?  If so, what does that imply about the continuation of faith and the practice of Judaism?  For many, the Holocaust experience taught them what was truly meaningful to their lives.  Poems speak of creating music in the death camps, of the value of friendship and sharing of meager provisions.   Survivors tell us to remember people as individuals - for who they were before they died so brutally.  Defining oneself as a Jew after the Holocaust is questioned.  Secular Jews look at the ancient sects that continue in their practices as they did for centuries and wonder at their commitment and faith.  And finally, the concept of heroism is explored.  Heroes thrived in the form of the righteous who hid Jews at their own risk.  Mothers died to protect their children.   Prisoners who were near death themselves cared for others and expressed their humanity.  All who lived through this great darkness proved themselves to be heroic in their efforts to survive and to pass on the faith and traditions of Judaism.