Preserving Family History

05.01.2026

I - 1 - We should preserve family history. But how do we do that?

We should preserve family history. But how do we do that? I will present the principles and prerequisites for researching family history: History is present within us — it is an experience within us and has a significant influence on our actions. It is the source of the driving forces within us. And this is […]

05.01.2026

I - 2 The individual is at the center of history

The individual is at the center of history – Every individual has their own story, but the memories of those who were persecuted and survived totalitarian regimes are often—if at all—told from the perspective into which people were forced. In the photo, we see the French master shoemaker André Mazingue in forced labor at the […]

05.01.2026

I - 3 - The Age of Extreme

The Age of Extreme Reconstructing a family history during the age of extremes in 20th-century Europe brings out the extremes within us as we conduct our research. We must relive the extremes of the past at our desks, at the actual sites where events took place, and in our dreams at night. Every story, in […]

05.01.2026

I - 4 - numbness

“Psychological numbness”– this was the observation made by William G. Niederland, a psychiatrist and medical expert for the victims, regarding the Germans’ attitude toward the victims in the postwar period, when the issue of compensation for the harm suffered during imprisonment in concentration camps was being heard in German social courts; and I took note […]

05.01.2026

I - 5 - friends

when we conduct research in a zone of denial, we need friends – Only a few have managed to free themselves from the influence of extremes—which seek to eliminate freedom – by raising their voices. Among them were the theorist Hannah Arendt, as well as artists such as Claude Lanzmann, psychiatrists such as Henry Crystal […]

05.01.2026

I - 6 - the shift from myth to reality

The Shift from Myth to Reality – the decision to explore your own family history is, therefore, a difficult one. It can change your life. You reach a point of no return, and that is the moment when you grasp reality; From now on, you want to know. You want to get out of the […]

05.01.2026

I - 7 - Language and Complicity

Language and Complicity – Families are held together by narratives imbued with myth. This prevents them from falling apart as a result of discussions about ethical issues. The murderer, for example, is still a hero. The family is situated within a coordinate system outside of any ethical or legal framework, in which forced labor and […]

05.01.2026

I - 8 - The experience is embedded in our cells

Experience is embedded in our cells— Experimental artist and filmmaker Chantal Akerman filmed passersby waiting for a bus in Russia. In doing so, she uncovered a double secret. “Knowledge lies in every one of my cells,” Akerman said, “even though my mother never told me about life in Auschwitz.” In the East, Akerman not only […]

05.01.2026

I - 9 - Hope

Hope – The Russian poet Ossip Mandelstam, who was a critic of the Russian Revolution, was persecuted by Stalin, and deported to Siberia, wrote about his fellow poets and intellectuals in the Soviet Union who embraced Stalinism as a career opportunity or a dream: “Stalin doesn’t need to cut off heads. They fly away on […]

05.01.2026

I - 10 - Living in the denial - perpetrator families

Living in the denial – perpetrator families As a child in a space of repression, one does develop a sense that one is being lied to, but one still has no access to reality or to the truth. The lie can exist as a lie in and of itself as long as it remains unrefuted. […]

05.01.2026

I - 11 - Life in a Space of Denial among Repressed Families -

Life in a Space of Denial among Repressed Families – However, this problem of denial can also arise in the opposite scenario—namely, when ancestors were not perpetrators but victims of a repressive regime, and the state stands in continuity with that repressive past. We can observe this today in the Russian Federation. In this negative […]

05.01.2026

I - 12 - the evidence of the crime

The Evidence of the Crime If the Americans had not photographed the concentration camps in Germany in 1945, our memory of the reality of that time would be very limited. Along with photographs of the perpetrators, these images serve as authentic testimonies to the crimes. They are evidence. They have been shown time and again […]

05.01.2026

I - 13 - fighting the Holocaust Denial

Holocaust Denial – When J. said my father didn’t believe it, that meant she didn’t have to believe it either. In 1995, the American historian and Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt was sued by the British writer David Irving, who posed as a historian and published countless works in which he claimed that the Holocaust had […]

05.01.2026

I - 14 - conformity in the family

Conformity Within the Family – I saw the U.S. historian Deborah Libstadt in Berlin at the launch of her book *History on Trial* and found her remarks on coping with psychological stress particularly interesting. An experienced lawyer advised her to shake off the events of the trial, just as one takes off dirty shoes at […]

05.01.2026

I - 15 - Making the invisible visible

Making the invisible visible – Reconstructing family history is a task that requires intensive study and a great deal of self-discipline. If you make a mistake, it’s not just your own research that is thrown off course. This problem, which is inherent in research, becomes a pitfall for the researcher when faced with critical others. […]

05.01.2026

I - 16 - Guilt and Shame

As you explore and learn more about reality, feelings of guilt and shame, despair and grief well up inside you and crash down on you—like a wall of water building up on the ocean and crashing down on you. Researching and preserving family history also means taking on the task of sensing collective emotions and coming […]

05.01.2026

I - 17 - living in a lie - shaped by the system

Living in a Lie – shaped by the system – I looked at the photograph and said, “It’s unbelievable that the Nazi ideology of a ‘people’s community’ was based on the idea that its progress and happiness were built on the misfortune and ruin of others!” She immediately shot back, “From today’s perspective, you can […]

05.01.2026

I - 18 - born guilty

Born Guilty – In our liberal democracy, we have adopted liberal forms of social interaction and deeply embedded them in our institutions, yet the family conflict continues to rage in private life. When reading Peter Sichrovski’s book “Born Guilty”—in which he interviewed children of Nazis in the 1980s—it is striking how little has changed to […]

05.01.2026

I - 19 - The Birth of the Genocide Convention - Raphael Lemkin

The Birth of the Genocide Convention – Raphael Lemkin, the Initiator of a Global Movement to Condemn Genocide It was the lawyer and activist Rafael Lemkin who, by drafting and securing the adoption of the Genocide Convention at the United Nations, made it clear to the world that the extermination of groups of people must […]

05.01.2026

I - 20 - Total Control

Total Control – A state can behave toward its people just like an abuser in a family. The “coercive controller” takes complete control over the lives of others. In January 2026, the Iranian regime killed over 30,000 protesters in Iran. They killed their own people and turned the country—which belongs to everyone—into a slaughterhouse in […]

05.01.2026

I - 21 - history does not repeat itself -

History Does Not Repeat Itself – After 1945, the swastika—the symbol of the German Nazi state’s reign of terror in Europe—disappeared, but the history of murder and humiliation, of corruption and collaboration, the history of everyday acts of cruelty toward others, of emotional coldness and hatred toward family members and neighbors, the history of enrichment […]