ABSTRACT
Born between the 1890s and 1930s, individuals belonging to the first generation of Holocaust survivors comprise more than forty birth cohorts. If it were not for the war massacres, they would have belonged to two, or even three, separate generations. Many Jewish parents of children born in the aftermath of the war were older as a result of the circumstances of the war. In some cases, survivors had lost their children during the war and their postwar children belonged to their second families of procreation. Typical demographic characteristics of these families were a significant age gap between spouses; small family size (one or two children); and a lack of extended family members—since most relatives had either perished in the Shoah or were living abroad.
