ABSTRACT
Because of the tumultuous history of the Hitler period, the impact of the Stalin revelations, and rise of anti-semitism in the Soviet Union, compounded by the tense Cold War confrontation and entrenched anti-communism in the West, the children and grandchildren of those intimately caught up in those processes were also marked, scarred even, by these additional factors. Those parents/grandparents who became communists and actively fought fascism were seen as heroes, but also, by some, as traitors or misguided believers in a seriously flawed system. Interestingly, in this context, all of Robert Kuczynski's six children would marry non-Jews and remain strictly secular, clearly demonstrating that any consciousness of Jewish culture or sense of a racial belonging had become secondary, if relevant at all. None of them celebrated Jewish festivities. The parents' communist convictions certainly impacted on the way all the children developed socially and politically, with various degrees of emulation.
