Ilana Lindenblatt

It was there when my grandmother wouldn't leave any food on the table and combined all the remaining liquids into one glass and drank them. It was there when my grandfather told me he didn't believe in God, because what kind of God would allow a war like that to happen? In those moments, I glimpsed into the window of their suffering and saw a universe of pain with no floor or ceiling.

It was there when my grandmother wouldn't leave any food on the table and combined all the remaining liquids into one glass and drank them. It was there when my grandfather told me he didn't believe in God, because what kind of God would allow a war like that to happen? In those moments, I glimpsed into the window of their suffering and saw a universe of pain with no floor or ceiling.

Some survivors, like Mr. Lindenblatt, made it their mission to make sure the world knew what happened to them. My family lived at the opposite end of the spectrum, which is no moral failing of theirs, but it probably is why I spent so long not even knowing to identify myself as from a survivor family.

Some survivors, like Mr. Lindenblatt, made it their mission to make sure the world knew what happened to them. My family lived at the opposite end of the spectrum, which is no moral failing of theirs, but it probably is why I spent so long not even knowing to identify myself as from a survivor family.

This is apparently a common point of view, though it is a bad one, according to people who know better. My family being murdered during and as a result of the Holocaust makes the people in my family who made it out survivors. Often, while I was writing this article, I would hear about people who don't identify as survivors because they hid in barns or forests for weeks.

This is apparently a common point of view, though it is a bad one, according to people who know better. My family being murdered during and as a result of the Holocaust makes the people in my family who made it out survivors. Often, while I was writing this article, I would hear about people who don't identify as survivors because they hid in barns or forests for weeks.

"'You ate from a pig's trough?' someone said to me while I was writing this story. "'You're a survivor.'" "'So what now?' "'My grandparents are gone. So are all their friends.'" What is the obligation of the people who came after, those who survived the survivors, who carry the story, who carry the residual trauma and haunted memories of their families?

"'You ate from a pig's trough?' someone said to me while I was writing this story. "'You're a survivor.'" "'So what now?' "'My grandparents are gone. So are all their friends.'" What is the obligation of the people who came after, those who survived the survivors, who carry the story, who carry the residual trauma and haunted memories of their families?

The people I grew up among were either what's known as 2G, the generation born to Holocaust survivors, or 3G, their grandchildren. Ilana is 2G on both sides. I'm 3G on my mother's side. My father's parents were born in America. As survivors dwindle, it's left to us to process what happened, what the legacy of the Holocaust should be, or grapple with what it is. And we do. Or some of us do.

The people I grew up among were either what's known as 2G, the generation born to Holocaust survivors, or 3G, their grandchildren. Ilana is 2G on both sides. I'm 3G on my mother's side. My father's parents were born in America. As survivors dwindle, it's left to us to process what happened, what the legacy of the Holocaust should be, or grapple with what it is. And we do. Or some of us do.

Whereas a few notable survivors were somehow able to give us searing accounts of their experience immediately afterward. Elie Wiesel, Viktor Frankl, Primo Levi. It was left to the 2G to truly understand the impact of those stories. Now the Holocaust's legacy lies in haunted 3G hands. Read Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated.

Whereas a few notable survivors were somehow able to give us searing accounts of their experience immediately afterward. Elie Wiesel, Viktor Frankl, Primo Levi. It was left to the 2G to truly understand the impact of those stories. Now the Holocaust's legacy lies in haunted 3G hands. Read Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated.

Watch Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg's limited series The Patient, where a kidnapped psychiatrist dreams of Viktor Frankl in a concentration camp barracks. See Joshua Harmon's riveting play Prayer for the French Republic, which grapples with the rise in anti-Semitism in France today, two generations after the Holocaust.

Watch Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg's limited series The Patient, where a kidnapped psychiatrist dreams of Viktor Frankl in a concentration camp barracks. See Joshua Harmon's riveting play Prayer for the French Republic, which grapples with the rise in anti-Semitism in France today, two generations after the Holocaust.

Visit the website for If You Heard What I Heard, a video series in which 3G grandchildren recount their grandparents' stories of the Holocaust.

Visit the website for If You Heard What I Heard, a video series in which 3G grandchildren recount their grandparents' stories of the Holocaust.

See the throngs of 3G protesters who condemn what they see as the weaponization of the Holocaust to justify the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza, but also the thousands of 3G who have moved newly toward a Zionism that they didn't identify with before October 7, 2023.

See the throngs of 3G protesters who condemn what they see as the weaponization of the Holocaust to justify the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza, but also the thousands of 3G who have moved newly toward a Zionism that they didn't identify with before October 7, 2023.

See how even those of us who vowed to not let the Holocaust dictate how our lives went were just playing chicken with it. Once again, I ask, how did I end up writing this story? And then there are about a hundred iterations of Anne Frank's diary, including what I would categorize as fan fiction, from children's books to literary fiction.

See how even those of us who vowed to not let the Holocaust dictate how our lives went were just playing chicken with it. Once again, I ask, how did I end up writing this story? And then there are about a hundred iterations of Anne Frank's diary, including what I would categorize as fan fiction, from children's books to literary fiction.