Broken Birds examines the Holocaust, not as an event frozen in history, but as a looming force shaping the lives of future generations.

Like so many other survivors, my parents immigrated to America after World War II, attempting to regain a sense of normalcy in Suburban California. Despite new surroundings, they could not escape the psychological effects of their pasts. They raised my four siblings and me according to the laws they learned during the war—laws that are an ill fit for normal life. As we grew into adults and formed families of our own, we found ourselves at odds with the lessons our mother taught us—lessons to cling desperately to one another while viewing the world outside our home as a place filled with imminent danger.

Broken Birds is the memoir of my experiences as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, from the horrific events that shaped my parents to the collapse of a family whose identity was built around the atrocities they survived.

Broken Birds is the work of extensive study of both my own family history and the experiences of families like mine. I have spent the last few years of my life digging through old family documents and photographs and lining my parents’ stories up against the events of history. I also gained invaluable insight from the personal testimonies of other survivors, whose perspectives enabled me to better understand and explain the parents who raised me. Their stories, my parents’ stories, and the stories of all first and second generation survivors fuel this book.

Jeanette Katzir thebrokenbirds@aol.comå