CHILDREN OF SHADOWS REVIEW AJN

Review of
"Children of the Shadows"

EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS

Children of the Shadows: Voices of the Second Generation
Editor: Kathy Grinblat
University of Western Australia Press, 210 pp.
$45 hardcover (ISBN 1876615060); $34.95 paperback (ISBN 1876615079).
Reviewer: Vic Alhadeff*
Children of the Shadows is a powerful Australian anthology of voices of the second generation -- the generation of children of Holocaust survivors. The genealogies of the writers emanate from Poland, Hungary, Germany, France, Israel, Czechoslovakia and the USA, yet the themes, messages and truths are so profoundly universal that they apply to all for whom the angst and anguish of the Holocaust are an abiding legacy. This is the source of the beauty of this book.

A rare jewel among the constantly-expanding realm of Holocaust literature, Children of the Shadows charts with depth and sensitivity areas previously unexplored, giving voice to an entire other sector of people directly affected by the Shoah –- a necessarily different set of experiences to those of the survivors, yet no less valid, no less suffused with pain and questioning. No less possessed of a need to be listened to, heard and understood.

And this is the source of its strength. An elegant volume comprising literary contributions from 27 members of the second generation, the totality is a compendium of power, an articulate cry from individuals who have had to navigate an afflicted path through the traumas and complexities associated with being the child of a survivor.

Each contributor presents a different perspective, each reflects on different impressions, drawing on a subconscious laden with layer upon layer of memories spoken and unspoken. And yet, as a collective, they speak with one voice -- a voice redolent with the instinctive need to reach out to a parent’s unreachable pain, a voice of dignity and self-respect, a voice of self-affirmation amid the silences, expectations, gestures, shrugs, smiles and shadows.

George Halasz, an adolescent psychiatrist who has studied the transmission of trauma between generations, and whose mother survived four camps, writes of walls of silence, of the contest between the generations, of developing “our other self that learns to play the family game” -- denial. Rita Nash, whose parents did speak to her, describes “the devastating effect such stories had on me”, creating within her “an urgent need for safety, warmth and light”. “A sense of being haunted pervaded much of my existence. I never felt truly safe.”

Luis Fleiszig, whose parents spoke of carrying him to safety as a child through minefields and barbed wire, describes being beset by “a phobia about being locked in”. “You don’t have to be asleep to be engulfed by a nightmare,” he adds. Renee Symonds admits that “I miss having a mother.
I miss her even when I sit opposite her, because she is missing.”
The past “mixes with the present always”, she points out. Arnold Zable
brings his tremendous literary talents to bear in conveying the
“undercurrent of tension” which “flowed through the house”;
the “darker edge to mother’s singing”; being awoken by her screams;
the nuances and the silences.

The final chapter is a humorous depiction of a suitor about to take Georges Rich’s mother on a date -- his mother having emerged from Auschwitz 15 years earlier. It is an appropriately uplifting denouement to the book.

Editor Kathy Grinblat, the daughter of Holocaust survivors Alex and Marika Weinberger, has done an admirable job in giving voice to what she refers to as “the generation that was never meant to have been born”. She salutes the courage and honesty of the contributors; it is a commendation which applies equally to her. Even though each story is unique, emerging from the shadows as they have, Grinblat and the 27 writers have spoken for the entire second generation.

* Vic Alhadeff is editor of the Sydney edition of the Australian Jewish News.

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	EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS Children of the Shadows: Voices of the Second Generation Editor: Kathy Grinblat University of Western Australia Press, 210 pp. $45 hardcover (ISBN 1876615060); $34.95 paperback (ISBN 1876615079). Reviewer: Vic Alhadeff* Children of the Shadows is a powerful Australian anthology of voices of the second generation -- the generation of children of Holocaust survivors. The genealogies of the writers emanate from Poland, Hungary, Germany, France, Israel, Czechoslovakia and the USA, yet the themes, messages and truths are so profoundly universal that they apply to all for whom the angst and anguish of the Holocaust are an abiding legacy. This is the source of the beauty of this book. A rare jewel among the constantly-expanding realm of Holocaust literature, Children of the Shadows charts with depth and sensitivity areas previously unexplored, giving voice to an entire other sector of people directly affected by the Shoah –- a necessarily different set of experiences to those of the survivors, yet no less valid, no less suffused with pain and questioning. No less possessed of a need to be listened to, heard and understood. And this is the source of its strength. An elegant volume comprising literary contributions from 27 members of the second generation, the totality is a compendium of power, an articulate cry from individuals who have had to navigate an afflicted path through the traumas and complexities associated with being the child of a survivor. Each contributor presents a different perspective, each reflects on different impressions, drawing on a subconscious laden with layer upon layer of memories spoken and unspoken. And yet, as a collective, they speak with one voice -- a voice redolent with the instinctive need to reach out to a parent’s unreachable pain, a voice of dignity and self-respect, a voice of self-affirmation amid the silences, expectations, gestures, shrugs, smiles and shadows. George Halasz, an adolescent psychiatrist who has studied the transmission of trauma between generations, and whose mother survived four camps, writes of walls of silence, of the contest between the generations, of developing “our other self that learns to play the family game” -- denial. Rita Nash, whose parents did speak to her, describes “the devastating effect such stories had on me”, creating within her “an urgent need for safety, warmth and light”. “A sense of being haunted pervaded much of my existence. I never felt truly safe.” Luis Fleiszig, whose parents spoke of carrying him to safety as a child through minefields and barbed wire, describes being beset by “a phobia about being locked in”. “You don’t have to be asleep to be engulfed by a nightmare,” he adds. Renee Symonds admits that “I miss having a mother. I miss her even when I sit opposite her, because she is missing.” The past “mixes with the present always”, she points out. Arnold Zable brings his tremendous literary talents to bear in conveying the “undercurrent of tension” which “flowed through the house”; the “darker edge to mother’s singing”; being awoken by her screams; the nuances and the silences. The final chapter is a humorous depiction of a suitor about to take Georges Rich’s mother on a date -- his mother having emerged from Auschwitz 15 years earlier. It is an appropriately uplifting denouement to the book. Editor Kathy Grinblat, the daughter of Holocaust survivors Alex and Marika Weinberger, has done an admirable job in giving voice to what she refers to as “the generation that was never meant to have been born”. She salutes the courage and honesty of the contributors; it is a commendation which applies equally to her. Even though each story is unique, emerging from the shadows as they have, Grinblat and the 27 writers have spoken for the entire second generation.
* Vic Alhadeff is editor of the Sydney edition of the Australian Jewish News.
Back to the Buy Books page of Jewish Australia dot com