INHERITED WOUNDS AND ECHOES OF SURVIVAL: METAPHORS OF INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA AND POST-MEMORY IN I WAS A CHILD OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS AND MENDEL’S DAUGHTER

Abstract

A metaphor compares two entities so that profound links are made between objects, concepts, or
people. Metaphors are cognitive mechanisms of human thought, conduits for complex meanings,
obscure historical elements, and traditions handed down from generation to generation. Metaphors
sustained through mnemonic processes, channel personal, historical, and cultural knowledge.
Memory metaphors include a wide range of metaphors in collective memory that exist beyond
temporal and generational boundaries. To represent intergenerational trauma and post-memory, this
paper examines metaphors in Bernice Eisenstein’s I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors and Martin
Lemelman’s Mendel’s Daughter. It analyses how both graphic novels represent the enduring effects
of the Holocaust across generations through the use of trauma theory, including Marianne Hirsch’s
post-memory concept and Cathy Caruth’s ideas of traumatic memory. Using visual and narrative
metaphors of testimony, addiction, fragmentation, cultural symbols, and shadows, Eisenstein and
Lemelman explain the difficulties of the second generation with inherited trauma. Eisenstein
emphasizes the consuming nature of inherited trauma with abstract imagery, reflecting the internalized
impact of her parents’ suffering. At the same time, Lemelman’s documentary style focuses on
testimony and cultural memory, portraying trauma transmission as responsibility and preservation.
This parallel analysis illustrates the range of post-memory experiences and expressions and shows
graphic novels as a medium especially well-suited for remembering, losing, and being. Each of these
works helps us to understand trauma transmission and embodiment across generations.