Wordsanctuary Revisited

Musings of a writer-teacher-counselor.

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Location: Cleveland, Ohio, United States

I am inquisitive and have worked in writing, editing, and teaching. I am a citizen of the USA and also concerned about the world. This is an addendum to my original blog, Wordsanctuary. That's at www.wordsanctuary.blogspot.com Please check out my column at www.insidehighered.com, "A Kinder Campus." Click on Career Advice to find it. Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

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

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Our father was a hero. His goal was to survive in order to tell others what had happened to him. Although he never wrote the book that he had intended, two of his daughters are doing all they can to document the truth. We are here as proof of his courage, love of family, intelligence, dedication to his heritage and luck.

I see many of these wonderful qualities in the grandsons that he never lived to meet and his one granddaughter that he so lovingly played with when she stayed at his home.

Our father lost his first family, but the second is strong and will remember him forever.

April 18, 2008 at 11:51 AM  

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