Iris Tzafrir is an Israeli resident in the United States who writes and speaks about her family’s stories of surviving the Holocaust and about being the descendant of Shoah survivors. Compelled by her son’s school history project to speak publicly about her father’s memories of the Holocaust for the first time, she and her siblings finally decided to join their father in visiting the physical sites of the Holocaust, including the concentration camp where their father was detained. In this episode, Eugene asks Iris about the emotions carried by survivors and their descendants, the courage needed to confront traumatic pasts and the possibilities found in the process of retracing family history and reuniting with long-lost, separated relatives.

To read Iris Tzafrir’s article about her family’s story: https://onbeing.org/blog/touching-our-trembling-places-a-generational-story-for-yom-hashoah/

Watch a short video about Iris' family reunion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoPdB3lecVA

This episode was edited by Quinton Huang.

For updates, follow us on Instagram at @DividedFamiliesPodcast, and contact us at [email protected]

Chapter Markers:

0:00 Paul introduces the episode

2:30 Eugene introduces Iris Tzafrir

4:30 Iris introduces herself and her father

6:00 Iris’s son’s history project sparks a re-engagement with family history

12:15 Iris talks about a trip with her father and her siblings to places of significance to her father during World War II

16:10 Iris discusses her and her siblings’ emotional responses to visiting the physical sites of the Holocaust

17:45 Iris and Eugene discuss the decline of historical memory among youth about the Holocaust and concentration camps such as Auschwitz, and the role of education about genocides and tragedies in world history

21:18 Iris continues her account of visiting Holocaust sites and talks about how her father’s words at Birkenau made her think about the nature of the horror of the Holocaust and World War II

24:07 Iris talks about her father showing her and her siblings one of the barracks at Birkenau, like the one where he slept during the War

26:11 Iris reflects on the courage of her father in revisiting his traumatic past and sharing it with his children

28:15 Iris talks about how she and her siblings would debrief after visiting Holocaust sites

29:40 Iris discusses her newfound conviction in sharing and commemorating the memories of her family members

31:00 Iris talks about how her desire to piece together the stories of her relatives brought her to the tracing services of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and a surprising discovery

34:10 Iris explains how different relatives arrived in Israel unaware of each other’s presence, and how the trauma of the Holocaust delayed family reunion

36:23 Iris talks about the “immediate sense of kinship” after connecting with long-lost relatives in Israel, and telling her father about the survival of his sister

39:00 Iris discusses commemorating relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust, and correcting a family memorial

41:30 Eugene asks Iris about the title of her book “Touching our Trembling Places” and the significance behind the symbolism

45:30 Iris talks about the confusion of victimhood and “the strength of moving from being ashamed”

47:15 Eugene closes the discussion by reflecting on the healing power of “telling your story”