Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors

By Helen Epstein

"I set out to find a group of people who, like me, were possessed by a history they had never lived."

The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Helen Epstein traveled from America to Europe to Israel, searching for one vital thin in common: their parent's persecution by the Nazis. She found:

   • Gabriela Korda, who was raised by her parents as a German Protestant in South America;
   • Albert Singerman, who fought in the jungles of Vietnam to prove that he, too, could survive a grueling ordeal;
   • Deborah Schwartz, a Southern beauty queen who—at the Miss America pageant, played the same Chopin piece that was played over Polish radio during Hitler's invasion.

Epstein interviewed hundreds of men and women coping with an extraordinary legacy. In each, she found shades of herself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Oct 1, 1988
• ISBN: 9780525507703

Helen Epstein

HELEN EPSTEIN writes frequently on public health for various publications including The New York Review of Books and The New York Times Magazine. She is a visiting research scholar at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University. She is the author of The Invisible Cure.

Reviews for Children of the Holocaust

[seoulful · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting stories of the children of Holocaust survivors. The author tries to find a common thread running through these children. Almost all of the children represented the only family for the survivors as all of the other relatives had been killed in the Holocaust. This created difficulties and high expectations on the part of the parents for the children. Holocaust survivors tended to stay in tight groups with other survivors and marry other survivors because of the shared experience that could not be imagined by anyone else. Many refused to speak of their experiences, creating anxiety in the children. Good sociological study presented in a readable format.