ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a pilot study based on the 40 videotaped interviews with child survivors from the Holocaust. It describes how memories from the Holocaust invade the present and affect one of the most sensitive phases of the life cycle—the period of reproduction. The chapter provides examples of how the Nazi deeds, which were intended to eliminate woman and children, to split families—that is, break down the continuity of generations—affected both those who were directly involved and those women and men who witnessed these deeds. It focuses on the interaction between, on the one hand, the self-image, close relationships, and massive traumas in connection with persecution under Nazism and, on the other hand, reactions to pregnancy and parenthood. The chapter discusses life experience of two women—Emilia and Anna, child survivors from the Holocaust. The child survivors seem to live in a vacuum between, on the one hand, parents they have lost, and, on the other, a complicated relationship to childbearing.
