From one Generation to the Next

The Golden Age, during which Jews experienced peace, serenity, and prosperity in Poland, ended in 1939 with the Nazi invasion. Of the millions of Jews who had lived in large cities and in shtetls of Poland and the neighboring Soviet Republic of Ukraine, only about 10% would survive the Shoah. The Nazi regime, abetted by Ukrainian Nationalists, were efficient in murdering Jews using mobile killing units, incarceration in concentration and extermination camps, and in the many ghettos that had been established.

This memoir portrays the history of a small number of survivors of a family that had witnessed the horrors of the Shoah. Before the war, some attempted to help Jews immigrate to their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel. After the invasion of Poland, some family members found ways of eluding the Nazis, or formed small, organized contingents who fought against the merciless oppressors, which allowed them feelings of agency and hope.

Those who survived and flourished in their new homes in Canada, was facilitated by the close bonds that formed among the families of survivors. These survivors directly or indirectly transmitted the lessons of the Shoah to their children and grandchildren, who also learned about the collective, historical trauma that had been experienced by Jews across generations. Second and third generation descendants of survivors are aware that the increased antisemitism currently witnessed in Western countries are reminiscent of events before the Shoah, and may be harbingers of this Golden Age coming to an end.