Book Review

Abstract

“Aside from her children, words were my mother’s most valued possessions” writes Naomi Shmuel in a poignant chapter titled “Between Grief and Celebration” (p. 199). These two, twinned, possessions—words and family—echo throughout this important collection, which explores the innumerable ways that the Holocaust, its experiences, and its aftermaths have been inscribed and translated. Drawing from and building on the field of Jewish intergenerational memories of the Holocaust, through the breadth of the chapters and contributors, Translated Memories: Transgenerational Perspectives on the Holocaust offers a significant new contribution. This book comes out of a 2015 workshop on literature and Holocaust memory, expanded here in scope, approach, and geographic coverage. The book is divided into five sections: “Language and Memory,” “Making Sense of the Parents’ Holocaust History,” “1.5 Generation,” “Objects and What to Make of Them,” and “Members of the Second and Third Generations in Quest of Their Identity.” In this way, a broad scope of writing about, and translating the memories of, the Holocaust is covered. We come to understand some of the differences—and the similarities—of the ways that people from different places, generations, and relationships to the Holocaust narrate and translate their memories. How, that is, knowledge about and interpretations of the Holocaust are translated. Multiple chapters contain autobiographical accounts, and deeply moving stories of personal connections that were built and developed over generationsthrough the sharing of histories. As numerous authors show, there has been a shift in the spoken languages used by Jewish survivors who experienced the war. It is important to investigate these languages and translations, to come to grips with the many ways the Holocaust can be articulated.