"With the persecuted in a late, insuppressible, radiating bond" : the second generation after the Holocaust

This is analysis of the autobiographical testimonies by writers of the second generation after the Holocaust who have decided to speak out about the trauma inherited from their close relatives, survivors of the Holocaust. Ewa Kuryluk, Magdalena Tulli, Agata Tuszyńska, Henryk Dasko, Roman Gren, Bronisław Świderski, as well the interviewees of Joanna Wiszniewicz and Mikołaj Grynberg represent that generation, born during the first postwar decade. They have now come forth to bear late witness to the trauma in a gesture which looks like an attempt to absolve the parent generation from the charge of having allowed their psychological scars to weigh down their children. Virtually all of the ‘second generation witnesses’ have to deal with a set of problems caused by their parents’ determination to conceal their Jewish identity. This strategy puts a strain on the parent-child relationship in all circumstances. Initially it is born out of fear that the child might be stigmatized, and, after the secret is out, the person affected by it has to cope with all kinds of anxieties about his or her identity and eventually to accept the Jewish identity and its consequences for one’s life.