Child Survivors of the Holocaust: The Youngest Remnant and the American Experience

Beth B. Cohen

Published by Rutgers University Press 2018

Child Survivors of the Holocaust

The Youngest Remnant and the American Experience

Beth B. Cohen

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813584997

Overview
Contents

About this book

2017 Wiener Library Ernst Fraenkel Prize (WLEFP) Finalist

The majority of European Jewish children alive in 1939 were murdered during the Holocaust. Of 1.5 million children, only an estimated 150,000 survived. In the aftermath of the Shoah, efforts by American Jews brought several thousand of these child survivors to the United States. In Child Survivors of the Holocaust, historian Beth B. Cohen weaves together survivor testimonies and archival documents to bring their story to light. She reveals that even as child survivors were resettled and “saved,” they struggled to adapt to new lives as members of adoptive families, previously unknown American Jewish kin networks, or their own survivor relatives. Nonetheless, the youngsters moved ahead. As Cohen demonstrates, the experiences both during and after the war shadowed their lives and relationships through adulthood, yet an identity as “survivors” eluded them for decades. Now, as the last living link to the Holocaust, the voices of Child Survivors are finally being heard.

Author / Editor information

BETH B. COHEN is on the faculty at California State University, Northridge, and she is the author of Case Closed: Holocaust Survivors in Postwar America (Rutgers University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).

Reviews

"Cohen's unique and original study is an important, empathetic story of child survivors, a group who profoundly influences the direction of Holocaust memory and education today."

— Avinoam Patt, author of Finding Home and Homeland: Jewish Youth and Zionism in the Aftermath of the Holocaust

"Cohen has made an important and original contribution to the historiography of children and war and Jewish children in the Holocaust and suggests a number of new areas that deserve further study."

— The American Historical Review

"A little-known, sometimes disturbing, but fascinating history about children, families and the Holocaust."

— Diane L. Wolf, professor of sociology, University of California-Davis

“Extremely well written and thoughtful, dealing respectfully and empathetically with the important and often neglected issue of child survivors…Cohen enables a range of voices to be heard."

— Fraenkel Prize Committee, Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide

"New Scholarly Books: Weekly Book List, May 25, 2018" by Nina C. Ayoub

— Chronicle of Higher Education

"The work deepen[s] existing survivor scholarship, will be useful for cross-national comparisons, and will add to Jewish history and American immigration history."

— Choice

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Acronyms Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Prologue Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Liberation: Battles after the War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
2. “Our Greatest Treasures”: America Responds Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
3. In America: War Orphans Find Home Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
4. No Happy Endings: Postwar Reconstituted Families Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
5. Growing Up in America: Lingering Memories and the US Context Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
6. Where Was God? Child Survivors and Jewish Identity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
7. “Finding a Voice for Our Silence”: Claiming Identity as Child Survivors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
Conclusion: The Road to Repair Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207

Language: English
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 230
Illustrations
- Other: 5
Keywords: child holocaust survivors; holocaust; holocaust survivors; holocaust children; concentration camp; oral history; beth cohen; postwar; post-ww2; war aftermath; survivors after war

eBook

Published: March 28, 2018
ISBN: 9780813584997