My uncle was the family pianist but he was killed by the Nazis
NewsUS pianist Roger Peltzman has a one-man show opening tonight at the Marylebone Theatre:
Peltzman’s one-person show, Dedication, recounts his family’s tragic history fleeing the Nazis in war-torn Europe using drama, humor, powerful images and musical performances of everything from blues to Chopin. Drawn into the story of people he never knew, Peltzman develops a “relationship” with his uncle, Norbert Stern, a brilliant pianist who was murdered in Auschwitz at age 21. Learning that Holocaust trauma can be inherited, Peltzman recounts his coming to terms with second generation survivor trauma and the role of music in helping to manage wounds that will never fully heal. A singular tale from the Holocaust that is at once extraordinary and relatable.
I’m sure it’s a very meaningful and moving presentation, but “inherited trauma”? Seriously? I’m not buying it. This is not to question the feelings and emotions that the family surely has because of what happened to relatives during the Holocaust. No reasonable person would. But to suggest that the trauma of the original victims can somehow be inherited by a subsequent generation seems to me hyperbole at best and opportunism at worst. Given the wording of the writeup above, it seems clear which it is.