University of Otago PhD student Jack Brosnahan is delving into the effects of the Holocaust on generations of families in New Zealand.
Called "The Long Shadow of the Shoah: A Multigenerational Study of Jewish Memory and Identity", his research focuses on the experiences of Holocaust survivors who resettled in New Zealand and the impact it had on subsequent generations.
To begin with, he was looking at the lives of the survivors who migrated to New Zealand, either shortly before, during, or after World War 2.
"But also, where I’m adding to the historiography is by investigating the lives of their children and their grandchildren and how they have interacted with that Holocaust legacy and been shaped by it."
An archive at the Holocaust Centre in Wellington of 60 video interviews conducted with survivors in the 1990s helped provide accounts that went beyond factual understanding to offer deeper insights into their experience.
"They bring us face-to-face with the human element at the centre of this great tragedy."
It was estimated only about 15 survivors of the Holocaust were still alive in New Zealand, and most of them had not done interviews.
Mr Brosnahan had completed three interviews, and was planning to interview the children and grandchildren of the survivors, too.
It was too soon to draw any conclusions from his research, but he had observed the children and grandchildren had a diverse range of experiences. Some of them grew up with parents who never talked about the Holocaust, and they only learned about the history as adults.
For other families, the experiences were discussed frequently, "so there is a real range".
Mr Brosnahan said while there were many different responses to the experiences of survivors, and how that affected children and grandchildren, there was always an impact.
"There is an impact on anyone, I would say, very few people would say that they were not [impacted by the Holocaust].
"Even in the silences of their parents, they were impacted, I think."
