Growing Up With the Holocaust as a Writer

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, but when you grow up with Holocaust survivor parents it's always with you. My father, who survived Bergen-Belsen, was silent about what happened to him until his 80s, when I first interviewed him for my memoir about what it was like for me to grow up in the shadow of the Holocaust, My Germany .

My mother talked about her experiences more openly, but mostly in fragments. Even when I was a teenager, I was too stunned by the horrendous things she told me about...