Sons of Survivors, Making Peace with Inherited Trauma

The authors of this dual memoir did not live through the trauma of the Holocaust; they inherited it. Whether survivor-parents revealed what they endured or erected barriers of silence, the horrors they experienced permeated the lives of their children.

Aron Hirt-Manheimer and Marty Yura grew up in the close-knit community of Yiddish-speaking refugees in America. After meeting in Los Angeles as high school students, the two became fast friends with much in common—including the fact that they were both conceived in the same displaced persons camp in US-occupied Germany.

This memoir traces their colorful growing-up adventures through fast-paced alternating passages. Though the Holocaust formed the backdrop of their lives, they didn’t talk much about it—until, as older adults, they embraced the imperative to bear witness. They set out to discover everything they could about what happened to their parents and other relatives in Poland during World War II.

For Aron, the most powerful revelations were contained in a nearly forgotten memoir written by his uncle fifty years earlier in Argentina. Marty’s breakthrough came after participating in a Zen Peacemakers immersion retreat on the killing fields of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Navigating through this haunted terrain together, the friends realized that the love they inherited from their parents transcends the trauma. Their joint memoir attests to a legacy of love against hate.

Aron Hirt-Manheimer came to the US with his parents when he was three, living first in Cleveland, then in Los Angeles. He received a BA in psychology from UCLA and an MA in Jewish education from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. For over thirty-five years Aron was editor of Reform Judaism magazine. He co-edited Against Silence: The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel. Wiesel described Aron as “a writer possessed of a rare blend of integrity, persuasiveness, and good literary sense.” Aron co-authored Jagendorf’s Foundry: A Memoir of the Romanian Holocaust, 1941–1944 and, with Arthur Hertzberg, Jews: The Essence and Character of a People. Aron lives in Connecticut with his wife of fifty-one years, Judy.

Marty Yura was born after his family arrived in New York. They lived in the Bronx until Marty was sixteen, when they moved to Los Angeles. After graduating from UCLA with a BA in psychology, Marty immigrated to Israel. There he served in the Israel Defense Forces as an officer and a field psychologist during the Yom Kippur War. After his military service, Marty returned to the US and received an MA in psychology at California State University-Los Angeles. During his career he was a management consultant, headed a computer-based learning company, and worked in financial services. In 2009 he and his wife founded Vista Yoga, where they teach yoga and meditation. Marty also teaches yoga at Emory Healthcare’s program for veterans with PTSD. He and his wife of forty years, Marti, live in Atlanta, Georgia.