"Loving those painful parents is a collection of memoirs written by five Israeli women. They all fit the definition - which did not exist during their childhood - of 'second-generation Holocaust survivors.' Together, the five women recount their childhood experiences in the homes of parents who 'came from there' - a concise yet loaded term used in Israel since the 1960s denoting Holocaust survivors who built their homes in Israel. The book attemps to explore the life experiences of their daughters, who hadn't 'been there,' but whose 'parents' traumas are inside them. Edited by Dr. Esther Pelled, who also initiated its writing, these five narratives offer a deepening observation into the lives of second-generation Holocaust survivor women in Israel, and an opportunity for comparison and inclusion. Indeed, the book's editor examines what these women have in common: without being asked, they all wrote about their relationships with their mothers. All the mothers were described as women with limited emotional capacity and a mixed attitude toward their daughters; of physical care on the one hand and almost complete ignorance of their daughters' emotional needs on the other. The next common feature is the deep empathy those young girls felt for their mothers. And so, the role reversal of mother and daughter is found to be a constant variable in this book, thusly named Loving those painful parents. Five memoirs, five different yet strikingly similar life stories. This, we hope, provides an opportunity for many readers to find themselves between the lines, to find words for their own experiences, and the internal freedom to tell their own stories"--Back cover.
Introduction / Esther Pelled -- Coffee and danish / Ronit Feingold -- Original image / Hanna Herzig -- Eat. Rest. Get in Bed. / Shula Tulman -- It's in my blood / Ester Peled -- A diamond in the rough / Miri Nathan -- Conclusion: possible generalizations / Esther Nathan.
