Daughters of Absence: Transforming a Legacy of Loss

By Weisel, Mindy (Ed.)
Capital Books, Inc., 2002, Paperback, 216 pp., ISBN: 1931868018, $17.95

This successful anthology presents the voices of thirteen women.

Daughters of Holocaust survivors all - this book shows how these now middle-aged women not only have come to terms with the past that they inherited, but transformed that legacy of loss into a creative history that nurtures their work and their lives even while it continues to torment their souls.

Though all contributors to this anthology are Jews, their degree of religious observance varies widely. Their sense of Jewish identity is secure and yet the content of that identity - what it means to be a Jew - differs.

The thirteen come out of different disciplines, art and music, journalism and politics, film and comedy. These essays display diverse talents and the art form of their authors yet demonstrate how much they share in common not only because of the history they shared but also because of the trauma that is at the core of their personal experience.

As Weisel points out in her preface, the women - artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, a photographer, a musician, and an actress -have found a strong voice through their work, and their work has been both a life force and a lifesaver. A number of poignant black-and-white photographs of family members appear in this book of personal accounts of growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust.