Trauma

I was heartened to find that a recent issue of Cleveland Magazine included a well-written KSU Magazine article detailing the work of a traumatologist concerned about the Middle East. Decisions on public policy might take into account trauma--and its multigenerational legacy--whether due to natural disaster, war, crime, or other factors. I lived for seventeen brief years with my father, a Holocaust survivor. I absorbed a wide range of emotions from him--including the ability to joke in multiple languages. Though he was traumatized and saw images of hell I cannot imagine--and lost through genocide his wife Silvia, mother Sura Rojsa, father Jacob, daughter Eugenia ("Jenny"), sister (Cilla), nieces and nephews under the age of ten (Maxy, Gitla, Bella, Meyer, Abram, Isak) and older (Moritz, Ben, Milly)...and his brother (Leo) who disappeared somewhere after the war...and countless cousins in Germany, Poland, and France whom I cannot name...my father had a creative mind, a fine singing voice, and intelligence that could not fully flower in the U.S. due to trauma and language limits. But he provided for us and kept us clothed and fed. He had studied medicine in Germany before the war and moved into textile study and business due to an eye injury.

The story of my father's life is yet to be written, but my sister has begun (from her perspective):

http://www.raskinfo.com/lodz.html