2016, Los Angeles, Letter from a 2G

Dear WFJHS&D:

Though I’d always been deeply interested in my mother’s past as a hidden survivor in Paris, I’d never given much thought to the Holocaust’s enduring effects on my generation or myself until I attended the 2016 conference in Los Angeles. I was surprised, though shouldn’t have been, how emotionally difficult it was at first to participate in the group conversations. Any time I even thought of making the smallest comment, my body seized on me, so buried had this dark chapter in my people’s lives become. Denial, however, is not a strategy for long term healing, and imperils as well the faithful transmission of historical memory. For these reasons and more, I was deeply moved and inspired by the conference’s mission and hope to participate again soon now that I can no longer pretend this is not a vital part of who I am.

Warmly,

Paul Mandelbaum

Culver City, CA