A detailed manual based on the ten-session series “Our Parents, Ourselves, Our Changing Lives” that I conducted in Boro Park is now available on my website to anyone who plans to run a similar group. The manual details the content of the session, the learning objectives, and reading material for the group facilitator and for group members, as well as hand-outs for the participants and evaluation forms to be filled out at the end of each meeting.
The Discussion Group for Children of Holocaust survivors was a moving and vitalizing experience that allowed many individuals who had not until then discussed their experiences as children of survivors to come together and reflect upon some of these issues among others who share this legacy.
While families of survivors were very different from one another, and children of survivors are very different from each other in many ways, there are common experiences, and common psychological themes that are shared by many. The focus of the discussion group was on reviewing these “second generation” issues and reflecting upon the ways in which some of the themes learned from early interactions with survivor parents influence our current relationships with others. The group discussed how to identify and enhance the special resiliencies characteristic of children of survivors and how to minimize the vulnerabilities associated with , with the goal of enhancing current relationships with siblings, spouses, adult children and grandchildren as well as increasing feelings of personal well-being.
Irit Felsen
Thank you for your good work- Olga Fisher
My late Father, Eduard Fischer, survived Terezin and Auschwitz.
Thank you for your willingness to share your work on this site. I had the great privilege of meeting you two years ago when you spoke to the Fraternal Order of Bendin-Sosnowicer at the Museum of the City of NY. My brother and I are both 2G members of FOBS. We found your presentation so enlightening, and your research validated so much of what we have experienced. I look forward to reading new postings on your website from lots of angles, its contents, its significance for the study of the impact on 2G work, as well as your personal involvement in this subject.
Sandy Pensak