Memory, generation, and post-war identities : Jewish daughters of Holocaust survivors in the United States / by Elizabeth Ribet

This study examines the construction of cultural memory and identity as a process of post-war communal recuperation, drawing from literatures on cultural studies, history, gender and memory, and Jewish identities. Jewish daughters of Holocaust survivors construct identities responsive to histories of genocide, modified by gender imperatives and the family system, and located in the post-war U.S. These constructions challenge attempts to universalize a “master narrative” of the Holocaust and also draw attention to the limitations of interpreting “2nd generation” identity in clinical terms focused on “transmission of trauma.” The research draws from seventy-five semi-structured interviews with self-identified Jewish daughters of Holocaust survivors who were born or currently residing in the U.S. at the time of interview.