Understanding the Sound of Silence
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Alyth member Leonie Grayeff on the Second Generation Network, an organisation supporting and representing the children of survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution.In the 1950s and 1960s our family would have seemed like any other. We lived in a North London suburb where my brother and I went to school. My mother was a part-time teacher and a housewife and my father worked first as a university lecturer and later as a school teacher and writer.
But there was one huge difference between us and other families. There was the deafening sound of silence in our house whenever the subject of the past came up. The past was a void, a black hole that no-one was allowed to mention.
My brother Michael and I knew that the past contained unspeakable horrors; that the past was about the destruction of our family; the past was about death and annihilation. The past was about unspeakable deeds perpetrated upon those of the Jewish faith or of Jewish descent.
In short, the past in our family was about the holocaust, and it was only through circumstances that were barely more than by chance that my parents, members of the so-called First Generation, were successful in their attempts to escape from Nazi Germany.
Now, as the decades have passed by, sadly many members of the First Generation, including my father Felix Grayeff, are no longer with us, and it is left to us as representatives of the next generation, the Second Generation, to understand the terrible silence, to confront the past, and record and tell our family stories.
For some of us that is extremely difficult and, as members of the Second Generation, we feel isolated and alone with problems of our own to deal with. For me it was a great relief to discover that there is an organisation whose raison d’être is to provide a forum and offer support to members of the Second Generation. This is the Second Generation Network which is based at the Wiener Library in London and has regional groups around the UK.
The Second Generation Network is an active and dynamic organisation which holds regular meetings where members can, in a safe space, exchange experiences about their background, family history and any problems they may have, for example in caring for elderly members of the First Generation.
Those who belong to the Second Generation encompass a wide spectrum from the Orthodox to the a-religious. Personally, I am a member of the North Western Reform Synagogue in North London so I have not experienced any sort of inner conflict in establishing my Jewish identity. However there are some, particularly those whose parents were placed with non-Jewish families in the UK when they first escaped from Nazi Germany who have had virtually no connections with the Jewish community and they struggle to decide who they are.
The newsletter ‘Second Generation Voices’ gives those who belong to the Second Generation Network the opportunity to reflect on their situation and discuss questions which concern them. ‘Second Generation Voices’, which comes out three times a year, has now reached its forty-first issue and there is an ever growing flow of articles arriving from members of the Second Generation who are an articulate and thoughtful group.
If you would like to find out more about the Second Generation Network, contact me at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Alternatively you can write to me at the Second Generation Network c/o Wiener Library, 4 Devonshire Street, London W1W 5BH
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