{"id":144,"date":"2026-09-16T17:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/grysman\/?page_id=144"},"modified":"2026-09-18T18:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:42:18","slug":"discover-the-book","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/grysman\/discover-the-book\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Inheriting a Holocaust Legacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Memory, Trama, and Meaning Across Three Generations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Azriel Grysman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Purchase the Book<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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— About the book<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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How are the memories of a traumatic past transmitted from one generation to the next?<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Azriel Grysman, professor of cognitive psychology and memory \u2013 and the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor \u2013 explores these questions through the experiences of his own family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on research in memory, trauma, and intergenerational storytelling, Grysman examines the lives and memories of three Holocaust survivors: his grandfather, great-uncle, and great-aunt. He explores how each survivor understood and narrated their experiences, which stories they chose to share, and what remained unspoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through interviews with the survivors\u2019 children and grandchildren, Grysman then traces how memories migrate across generations. He shows how later family members come to understand themselves in relation to a past they did not directly experience, how stories are transformed as they are retold, and how descendants grapple with both the knowledge they inherit and the gaps they cannot fill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blending psychological insight with personal and family history, this book offers an exploration of memory as a complex and ever-evolving process of making meaning from lived experiences. Grysman sheds light not only on one family\u2019s experience of the Holocaust, but also on the ways people use the past to understand who they are.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What emerges is a model of memory as a constant conversation between cells and stories, between our brain machinery and our relationships with close others. Memory is at the same time a representation of the past and a sense of who we are as we carry that past with us.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n