Rottman Family Lecture Series In Each and Every Generation: Survivors and Their Descendants with Dr. David Slucki

It is perhaps obvious today to say that the Holocaust left a lasting impact on survivors and their descendants, that they have experienced trauma, isolation, and struggled with what it means to carry the Holocaust legacy. But it wasn’t always so obvious. In this talk, I examine the long-term impact of the Holocaust on survivors, and their children and grandchildren and how the ways we think about these impacts have changed over time and generations. In looking at the stories and scholarship on survivors and their descendants, I investigate how each of these generations has integrated knowledge of the Holocaust into their lives, on an individual, familial, and communal level. Scholars across a range of fields, particularly history, psychology, and literary studies, have long debated how or whether trauma is transmitted, how the Holocaust changed what it means to be Jewish, or what the Jewish family might look like in the wake of the destruction of Jewish families. But there has never been a settled answer and we still continue to grapple with how the Holocaust has changed our lives and what is the best way to remember it and understand its impact.