I have a confession to make.
None of my immediate family were (directly) impacted by the Holocaust.
All of my grandparents were born in the United States, before World War II. My great-grandparents were the immigrant generation, arriving just past the turn of the century. So when the Holocaust began, everyone was already here. I have some distant relatives who were (and are still) in Europe, so I assume they must have some survival story, but I don't know it.
And, weirdly, I feel a strange guilt about this.
The Holocaust, and being descended from survivors, is a huge, central part of the contemporary Jewish narrative (especially contemporary antisemitism). And while I don't feel alienated from it -- indeed, there's an obvious "there but for the grace of God" association -- sometimes I feel like I'm somehow cheating when I refer to it, as if it isn't truly "mine".
And worse still, I sometimes feel as if my very existence is a trap waiting to be sprung by Holocaust deniers. "The Holocaust never happened!" "Yes, it did." "Oh? Tell me you clever Jew: where was your family during this supposed 'Holocaust'", "Well, they were in America, but ..." "Aha!"
I'm not saying this is rational. But it is something I've felt for a long time. I wonder if other Jews with family backgrounds similar to mine feel the same way?
My ancestors also weren't impacted by the Holocaust though my great grandparents immigrated due to Russian and Polish progroms. The centering of the Holocaust narrative is something as a kid I felt slightly alienated by (probably because it was framed as a defining characteristic I did not share) and as an adult appreciate Tablet's critiques of. The guilt, personally not so much but I doubt it's a particularly novel feeling given how many Jews have non-german backgrounds but I can't say as to having seen it talked about much.
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