Breaking the Silence : Voices of the British Children of Refugees from Nazism

An in-depth analysis of the memories and experiences of the British second generation of refugees from Nazism before the Holocaust. This oral history project investigates the impact of their parents’ trauma, dislocation and pattern of silence on ordinary members of this second generation in this unique geographical context.

There has been extensive research into the impact of the Holocaust on the children of survivors who immigrated to the US and Israel. But very little work in this space has looked at children whose parents fled Nazi persecution before the Holocaust. Even less attention has been paid to those who ended up in Britain from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. What was the impact on this second generation? How have the lives of these ordinary people been shaped by their parents’ dislocation? Using a series of interviews with members of the second generation, Breaking the Silence is a qualitative, interdisciplinary exploration how their lives were shaped by their parents escape from persecution. It offers an insight into how the exile and fear of persecution of the parents and the deaths/murder of unknown relatives has left this generation both bereft of memories and haunted by the past.