Mourning and Longing from Generation to Generation

Violent sudden separation from their closest family members determined the extent of survivors’ individual traumas. Uncompleted mourning and the depression and somber states of mind it created were absorbed by their children from birth on. Children of survivors react to the lack of memories and absence of dead family members. As full adults, an increasing, overt search for better knowledge and understanding is expressed and shared. This seems to contribute to free families of Holocaust survivors of the shame and guilt, and enables a deeper understanding of the entire phenomenon, as it is passed from generation to generation.