EI Visiting Professor Eva Hoffman reflects on her personal connection to the Holocaust

On Holocaust Memorial Day, EI Visiting Professor Eva Hoffman explores the legacy and inherited memories of second generation Holocaust survivors, via an interview featured on the EXPeditions platform.

Watch the video here: https://www.joinexpeditions.com/exps/45   

Key points, summarised from the video by ExPeditions, are as follows:

• The second generation of Holocaust survivors are people who were born right after the Holocaust or who are the direct descendants of Holocaust survivors. It is a hinge generation whose position and perspective gives it a particular relationship to the event.

• The consequences of traumatic experiences are passed on to the second generation as a powerful affective and moral education. Separating memory from history is extremely complex.

• Passing on personal knowledge and history of the Holocaust is vital – especially as denial resurfaces – so that young people can access and can understand what happened.