Dimensions
156 x 234 x 26mm
Foreword by Caroline Jones.
Accurate numbers can never be known, but it is estimated that more than one million children under the age of sixteen perished during the Holocaust. For the children who survived, what they saw and heard, and what they lost, remains an indelible trauma that affects them each, differently, in profound and unspeakable ways.
In 1987 in Sydney, a number of child survivors formed a group so that they could meet in a safe environment to share their stories and begin to process their grief. Later, a member of the group, Nora M. Huppert, organised creative writing sessions for members.
For many, finding ways to remember was the beginning of a painful reintegration of their sense of self - a realisation that they were, in fact, child survivors of the Holocaust. In telling their stories, there was relief to be found in finally connecting their memories with context and meaning, and in having them validated. As contributors read over their stories and discussed the illustrations, they found themselves remembering more and more details, and the stories grew and grew into a broad picture of life before, during and after the Second World War, from Paris to Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vilno, and Shanghai.
In this indescribably moving collection, the 32 members of the group share the stories of their unfathomable experiences of loss, and of their ultimate endurance.
