How does one honor the legacy of parents who survived the Holocaust while at the same time recognizing the ripples of the inherited trauma they experienced? Growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust, the adult children of survivors are striving to find ways to keep their parents’ stories alive. Using their unique intergenerational lens, authors of the recent award-winning anthology, The Ones Who Remember: Second Generation Voices of the Holocaust, will reveal the variety of ways in which their parents' history of survival seeped into their souls and affected their lives as children and adults.  

The goal of this course is to explore  the challenges that resulted from this trauma and the gifts that came forth – gifts of resilience, tolerance, fortitude, and compassion. Each week our instructors will explore and share reflections around themes of their lived experience.  

Ruth Wade is a retired training and development executive, a speaker and docent at the Florida Holocaust Museum, and leadership committee chair of Tampa Bay Generations After. Wade assists her father, a Holocaust survivor, with his Holocaust presentations at schools and his book Sevek and the Holocaust: The Boy Who Refused to Die. Joy Wolfe Ensor, PhD is a retired psychologist whose clinical, teaching, and leadership activities over 45 years centered on the social determinants of health and the multigenerational legacy of trauma. She is active in the Michigan Psychological Association, of which she is a Fellow and past president. Rita Benn, PhD is a clinical psychologist and was University of Michigan faculty for 20+ years where she taught integrative medicine and published numerous academic papers and chapters. As a founder of Michigan Collaborative for Mindfulness in Education (MC4ME), she trains educators and professionals in mindfulness meditation practice. All three women are Founding Committee members of the Irene Butter Fund for Holocaust and Human Rights Education.