Transcript
[Text: Sam Heller, the grandson of Holocaust survivor Regina Feldman, discusses his ever-unfolding relationship to the label of third-generation survivor. Sam considers his personal responsibility to ensure that people continue to learn about the Holocaust.]
Sam Heller: I'd always sort of shied away from this term, third generation survivor. I didn't really, you know, what did I survive? I grew up in cushy Canada. My life has been wonderful compared to anything that they experienced growing up. And it really hit me when I got in the room there, just speaking with other folks who have a connection. Grandparent. And I don't think it's something that I ever have grappled with and it's something that's sort of stuck with me. I don't know how to answer that right now. What I think my responsibility is to ensure that folks know this happened and to, you know, it's very cliche to ensure it never happens again. And not just to folks that I know, but anywhere. I think that there's a lot of... Lack of a better word, trauma to unpack, that is passed down that you can see in certain behaviours of people. I definitely think that, you know, amongst my friendship circle, people who had grandparents as survivors, I think there's sort of a different understanding about what that was like and what it was like to how they were as people. And then how did that affect, you know, their children, i.e., our parents. It's a very unique thing that I think how to grapple with it and how to answer that question is still unfolding, at least for me.
