Shadows of the Shoah Jewish Identity and Belonging

by Seidler, Victor Jeleniewski

• ISBN13: 9781859733608
• ISBN10: 1859733603
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-01
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

How can we make sense of being born and growing up in the shadows of the Shoah without being able to speak about the unspeakable terror that killed so many in our families? As the second generation we were rarely to hear stories of love and loss or to participate in the mourning of so many who had been brutally murdered. Rather we were to grow up 'normally', and to learn to turn our backs on the past as we struggled towards future identities while imagining ourselves 'like everyone else'. Fearful of difference we were often ambivalent about Jewish identities that could threaten a sense of 'Englishness'. Exploring the painful dynamics of personal identity and belonging, Victor Jeleniewski Seidler shares the difficulties of memory. How is it possible ever really to belong and feel safe and yet remember what happened to Jewish families in Poland? How can one remember without feeling overwhelmed by the terror? Crossing boundaries in a journey to Poland enabled the author to rethink a relationship between Judaism and modernity, as well as to reflect on the painful histories between Poles and Jews. Questions about memory, identity and belonging touch the lives of many people who live in the shadows of historical trauma. Learning to think in new ways about the Shoah as a defining crisis within modernity, Seidler also helps us imagine an ethics for a postmodern time.

Author Biography

Victor Jeleniewski Seidler, Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(22)
Broken Histories	23	(18)
Jewish Identities	41	(14)
Memory and Mourning	55	(14)
Fear and Belonging	69	(18)
Living with the Shadows	87	(18)
Out of the Ruins of Memory	105	(20)
Even If We Were All Wise...	125	(16)
Creating Identities	141	(16)
Burdened by Memory	157	(12)
Appendix	169	(4)
Index	173