Meredith Boles

Professor Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1102-005
November 9, 2015
Unforgiving Nightmares
In the process of creating a Research Review, one of the steps is
to complete a Peer Response Draft. In this draft, I dialoged with two of
my quotes that really spoke to me. My inquiry is focused on what
childhood is like when youre a son/daughter of a Holocaust survivor. I
took my Peer Response Draft and I added more quotes and an
additional source. All of my sources are very emotional and personal
because this topic is very private and special for each child.
My first quote is, My parents often had nightmares. Either she
cried and woke my father up or else he started screaming and woke
her. In the middle of the night he screams: Germans! My father was a
very passive man and he never did anything with us children (Epstein,
115). I find this quote very important because it simply shows how
effective this childs parents dreams were on her. They happened
frequently enough for her to recognize a pattern, in which would wake
her every time. This really connects to my inquiry work in a way that it
is a very personal quote from a child that is actually living with the
horror that her parents are experiencing.

Another point that I think about when reading this quote is how
similar it is to my other quotes. They all seem to be very personal,
however, with my topic it would be very difficult to find a quote that
wouldnt be personal. I am focused on how it individually affects each
child so being emotional is necessary. This quote also made me wonder
if the parents arent the only ones that have nightmares. Do the
children ever have reoccurring nightmares? I hope to answer this
question as I continue researching about these emotional struggling
families.
My second quote is very powerful. It reads, How could people go
through an experience like that and not expect it to have a residual
effect on their children? I kept thinking it had to be brought out in the
open and that we had to do it ourselves. I kept thinking it was time for
Elie Wiesel to move over. That there was another generation coming up
behind him. I wanted to find and talk to those people (Epstein, 336).
This is obviously a quote from a very irritated parent. They seem to be
frustrated due to the fact that people dont understand the effects
unless youve experienced the fear they once did. This person seems
to be very bold and eager to take action following Elie Wiesel. Like my
previous quote, this one is also very personal to the individual. It shows
how stressful it can be as the parent of a child that is constantly
reminded of the past. Even though my inquiry question is focused
solely on the children, I still think it is important to get the parents

perspective to be able to overall understand the situation. Having

various perspectives on this topic will strengthen my paper overall as
well as thoroughly answering my inquiry question.

With my second source, there were four stages that were given
that are the ways that the child is affected by the trauma. They are:
Self. Impaired self-esteem with persistent identity problems, overidentification with parents victim/survivor status, a need to be superachievers to compensate for parents losses, carrying the burden of
being replacements for lost relatives(Kellermann). The second stage
is Cognition. Catastrophic expectancy, fear of another Holocaust,
preoccupation with death, stress upon exposure to stimuli which
symbolizes the Holocaust, vicarious sharing of traumatic Holocaust
experiences which dominates the inner world (Kellermann).
Affectivity. Annihilation anxiety, nightmares of persecution, frequent
dysphoric moods connected to a feeling of loss and mourning.
Unresolved conflicts around anger complicated by guilt. Increased
vulnerability to stressful events (Kellermann). The last stage is
Interpersonal functioning. Exaggerated family attachments and
dependency or exaggerated independence and difficulties in entering
into intimate relationships and in handling interpersonal conflicts
(Kellermann). I find these stages extremely descriptive and it allows

one to understand a fragment of what the child actually goes through.

The consequences that the trauma creates are horrifying.

Epstein, Helen. Children of the Holocaust: conversations with sons and

daughters of survivors. New York: Putnam, 1979. Print.
Kellermann, Natan P.F. Transmission of Holocaust Trauma. Jerusalme:
AMCHA. Web.

Peer Response: Kalli Kiburz

I understand that your inquiry is involving the medical
experimentation, however I was surprised that you couldnt find any
sources that are useful. You included a lot of quotes which I know will
benefit your paper, but I noticed that they were not quoted or cited
properly. Purdue Owl can show you how to make an in text citation
correctly. I also noticed that the font changed, so for your final paper I
would make sure that the basic components of the assignments are
consistent throughout your paper. I know you werent able to find
many sources to support your topic, since this is the case what do you
plan on doing to support your inquiry? I loved reading why you chose

the quotes that you did but I would like to read the actual quote so I
knew which one you were discussing. This will also keep your reader
involved with your research. I noticed you had a lot of quotes that
allowed you to have a lot of paragraphs, but is there anyway you could
combine a few that relate to each other? You have some awesome
information that could be placed differently to make your paper flow
more smoothly. As I read your peer response to my paper, I
appreciated how you said how my paper was very personal. Is there
any way that you can relate to your topic in a personal manner? This
would give your reader to remember your paper from others because
of your connection. Overall, I think you have some great points and
great research; I cant wait to read your final paper.