ABSTRACT
A culture may be defined as a particular society or civilization, especially one considered in relation to its ideas, its art, or its way of life (Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary). The Holocaust affected an entire culture, including the following generations. For children of survivors, no matter where they live, there is no escape. There is no memory of a time when the Holocaust did not exist in their awareness. Their “remembrance” of the Holocaust is constructed out of stories—those that were spoken aloud, told and retold, as well as those that were silently borne across a bridge of generations (Auerhahn & Laub, 1998; Axelrod, Schnipper, & Rau, 1978; Barocas & Barocas, 1973; Kestenberg, 1972; Klein, 1971; Laub & Auerhahn, 1993; Läufer, 1973; Lipkowitz, 1973; Rakoff, 1966; Sonnenberg, 1974). Brenner (2002) reports how certain children “enter a psychological time tunnel” and weave their parents’ past into their own developmental experience (p. xiii). The children who become burdened by memories that are not their own (Auerhahn & Prelinger, 1983; Fresco, 1984) often echo the drama existing in their parents’ inner world by enacting it in their current life (Kogan, 1995, 1998, 742002; Krell, 1979; Laub & Auerhahn, 1984; Phillips, 1978; Volkan, Ast, & Greer, 2002). These violent enactments may be the result of death wishes, which lead them to expose themselves to situations of external danger.
