Second-Generation Testimony, Transmission of Trauma, and Postmemory

In discussions of second- and third-generation Holocaust literature and testimony, it is an accepted idea that the trauma of Holocaust survivors is often transmitted from the first to the second and later generations. This article analyzes the “problems” of survivors' children in order to see if they can be understood by reference to the trauma of the parents. This will be done on the basis of literary testimonies, namely, Eva Hoffman's After Such Knowledge: Memory, History, and the Legacy of the Holocaust and Carl Friedman's Nightfather.