Lecturer recounts post-Holocaust experiences

Kayla Webley
2004-02-10
The Daily

To author Eva Hoffman, in her book, After Such Knowledge, she is not only retelling the stories of her family, she is reliving them.

Her book chronicles her experiences as a second-generation Holocaust survivor. Hoffman said she was born in 1945 in the ruins of post-war Poland.

"The war penetrated the very fabric of my childhood," she said.

The reading and book signing at Kane Hall last night was part of the University Book Store event series, co-sponsored by the Canadian studies department in the Jackson School of International Studies.

Her talk included readings from two distinctive passages from her book. The first section highlighted the darkness of her early years in a country torn apart by tragedy.

According to Hoffman, her childhood was tainted by "shadows cast by the past over the present."

According to Hoffman, the book itself was a challenge to write.

"It is a subject I was reluctant to address for a long time," she said.

Her decision to address the topic came after a visit to the town where her parents lived during the war, illustrated in Hoffman's second passage read from the book.

During her visit, Hoffman encountered many people who were more than willing to share about their struggle through the Holocaust.

"[They] use the word fate as they allude to their harsh lives," she said.

It was during this visit, according to Hoffman, that the past "ambushed" her again.

"I had the urge to know where my parents, sister and I came from," she said.

Though the readings highlighted the personal aspects of her book, the rest examined people's fixation with the Holocaust. She touched on the memories that come with transferred trauma from her parents.

During the preparation for her book, Hoffman had to decipher and compile all the bits and pieces collected from various childhood stories and memories.

"It was an era of returns," she said.

Hoffman said that, through this research, she was able to answer many questions she could never understand as a child, such as her father's speechlessness about the Holocaust. During her lecture, Hoffman told of a letter she discovered that was written by her father. The letter was addressed to the family who hid her family during the war.

According to Hoffman, it was through this letter she was able to further understand her father's pain and the traumatic events he experienced, such as burying his two brothers.

She talked of the importance of writing After Such Knowledge. She felt it was important to pass on the knowledge of her parents' experience to other parents.

"One cannot undo or cure the past," she said, "[the book] is a way to pass it on."

This is crucial for Hoffman, as she wants her family's stories to be embedded and understood in a larger context.

According to Hoffman, with this book, she hopes to shed some color to a situation tainted by so much gray.