ABSTRACT
The following is excerpted with minor corrections, from a letter written by a survivor, E. Z., in which he refers to the intergenerational community meetings, * one of the several therapeutic modalities offered by the Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and Their Children:
It just occurred to me that I should let you know how grateful I am that I … join[ed] your wonderful [Project] even if the occasion for meeting the group was a sad one, the memorial for J. L.
During the … meetings I attended I realized how important your work is in helping survivors and their family members to cope with one form or other of trauma. …
It gives me a great satisfaction to know that J. L. received in the last few months of his life, from you and your group, the moral and spiritual support which eluded him for such a long time while he tried to get it from [so] many [others]…. But as J. L. once said, so much is done and spent to memorialize the dead but there is no concern for the living suffering survivors. [From his experience with the Project he] learned that that is not entirely so….
As for me, I felt at the meeting almost as if I fell into a big family whose members, individually and collectively, give each other support and advice and share their problems and troubles and joys, with an occasional minor quarrel or criticism thrown in.
I do not wish to miss a meeting if I can help it because there is love in the group and concern for the next one. One cannot ask for much more….
