They Were Also Survivors: Lives and Memories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust

This is a history of the lives and minds of child survivors of the Holocaust. Born between 1935 and 1944, they had few pre-war or even wartime memories, leading adults to initially consider them "lucky ones." Yet, others' post-war period marked the beginning of their war: material survival challenges; being viewed as "war-damaged" individuals requiring emotional and psychological "repair"; potentially being fought over as "resources" by various parties, or abandoned due to family poverty or policy restrictions; family foster care, institutional care, and even educational research all served as double-edged swords for them; as children, they had many vague, trauma-infused memory flashbacks, and as they grew older, they increasingly realized they didn't know who their parents truly were, or "unexpectedly" discovered they were "foreign" Jews who had experienced concentration camps, a revelation like a bolt from the blue; as times changed and the public began to genuinely focus on the Holocaust, these adult survivors gradually had the opportunity to delve into their own stories, gain group identity, and accept interviews, but the outside world often valued their identity as eyewitnesses, with less concern for their post-war lives...

The author tracked the lives of a hundred Jewish child survivors from emerging from the ruins of war until their old age. Through extensive interviews and archives, the author meticulously outlines the subtle, profound, and tumultuous historical period and collective psychological journey described above, posing thought-provoking questions such as "How can one understand their life if they don't know their origins?" and "What does it mean to live with a childhood filled with brokenness and loss after experiencing such a childhood?"