The Fate of Holocaust Memories: Transmission and Family Dialogues

By Chaya H. Roth

This newly revised 2013 edition of Roth’s book records the compassionately-told story of a father beaten to death in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and the subsequent flight of a mother and her daughters from Berlin to Belgium, France and Italy. The book also charts their escape to Palestine in 1945, assisted by soldiers of the Jewish Brigade. Parts II and III of the book ingeniously use interviews, diary entries and psychological analysis to reveal how each generation has passed on memories of the War and the Shoah to the next. Readers will be transported by the vivid historical account of fleeing the Nazis: scrambling on foot up the Alps, hiding in primitive stone cavas and living as shadows in empty apartments. Psychology students and enthusiasts will gain an invaluable perspective on the intergenerational transmission of traumatic memories. Roth asserts that Holocaust memories engender values, ideals, and beliefs, just as trauma can engender vitality and hope. Those learning about the Holocaust will find in this book both an intimate depiction of the trauma endured by Jews during World War II, and its ramifications in the present day. Finally, this work speaks to the remaining survivor generations who struggle with issues of Holocaust transmission, wondering about the value, necessity and manner in which Holocaust memories are handed down.