Keepers of Memory: The Holocaust and Transgenerational Identity

(Paperback)

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Description

Keepers of Memory answers the question of how descendants of Holocaust survivors remember the Holocaust, the event that preceded their birth but has shaped their lives. Through personal stories and in-depth interviews, Rich examines the complicated relationship between history, truth, and memory. Keepers of Memory explores topics that include how stories of survival become stories of either empowerment or trauma for the descending generations, career choice as a form of commemoration, religion, and family life. Ultimately, this work paints a compelling picture of the promises and pitfalls of memory and points to implications for memory and commemoration in the coming generations.

Reviews

With each passing of another survivor of the Holocaust, a void is left in our collective memory. Rich (Rowan Univ.), a sociologist and scholar of the Holocaust, seeks to overcome this loss by providing readers with a vivid account of generational memory in her new study, Keepers of Memory. In this thought-provoking work, she seeks to explain how parents and grandparents conveyed the horrors of the Holocaust to their children and grandchildren in order to maintain a link between past and present. Given that memory is fragile and that memories fade over time, the author rightly believes that it is imperative to save those recollections that are conveyed to second- and third-generation survivors to remind future generations of the horrors of the past. Rich designates this as post memory, namely, memory separated by generational distance from the events recalled. Maintaining those post-memory accounts is crucial in order to communicate experiences and memories between survivors and their descendants. Keepers of Memory is an important source for understanding how our collective memories sustain our firsthand knowledge of the Holocaust. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.

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Jennifer Rich has opened up an entire new area of scholarly inquiry into the problem of transmitting memory over the generations as the Holocaust recedes into history. Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi have described the Holocaust as a war against memory. Rich has provided us with a means of responding to that assault. This is indeed a profoundly important book. -- David Patterson, Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas
Keepers of Memory grapples with how the Holocaust has shaped the lives of children and grandchildren of survivors. Eschewing facile answers, Jennifer Rich provides a compelling analysis of why some descendants narrate the transmission of their memories as ones defined largely by trauma, while others emphasize empowerment and hope. -- Judith Gerson, Rutgers University
Jennifer Rich' excellent study reminds readers of the rich and diverse complexity involved in studying the impact of the Holocaust on the children and grandchildren of Shoah survivors. Trauma, yes. But also feelings of empowerment and a commitment to teach about and pass on memory of the Shoah and its impact on identity. Rich, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, carefully distinguishes what unites and what separates the second and third generations. She has given readers a gift of insight into how memory interacts with facts tin seeking a coherent narrative. -- Alan Berger, Raddock Eminent Scholar, chair of holocaust studies and director of the Center for Values and Violence After Auschwitz, Florida Atlantic University

Author Bio

Jennifer Rich is director of the Rowan Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and assistant professor of sociology at Rowan University in New Jersey.