Someone wrote we should not call ourselves second generation children of Holocaust survivors. I disagree.
We Holocaust survivors’ children — who call ourselves second generation or 2G — are aware that except in history books, few epic tragedies seem to endure beyond the lives of the victims and perpetrators.
Elie Wiesel said he thought the survivors’ children were in a privileged position.
”I believe a person who listens to a witness becomes a witness,” he said in an interview.
Survivors’ children such as me have dedicated much of our lives to keeping our parents’ stories alive — by writing books, making films, even forming therapy groups. Calling ourselves second generation Holocaust survivors prolongs the need to remember the Shoah. Yes, we are not the survivors, but hopefully we who are alive because they survived the Shoah will use the term to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive from one generation to another.
This Yom Kippur, recite the Kel Maleh Rachamim for those who perished in the Shoah.
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg grew up in Kansas City and now resides in Edison, New Jersey. He has authored multiple books about the Holocaust.
