Overview
Finalist in Western Jewish Book Awards 2023 • The life of a Jewish infant in the middle of the Holocaust is constantly threatened. Deportation would mean certain death • Dr. Robert Krell, the well-known psychiatrist and founder of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center, has long described young Holocaust survivors as “elderly children.” Robert Krell has received both local, national and international recognition for his life-long work in Holocaust education, remembrance, human rights and social justice. When Krell was only two years old and living in warn-torn the Netherlands, the Christian Munnik family was entrusted with his care. There, he learned to recognize a mother, a father and a sister in the faces of those who once were no more than family acquaintances. After WWII he is reunited with his parents who miraculously survived. Both parents and child have to deal with massive unspoken trauma. They choose to keep it at bay, deciding that never talking about it would help them forget and eventually heal. Until Krell realizes that forgetting is not a cure but a threat. Forgetting could make the tragedies they all lived happen again. Forgetting would mean erasing the lives of 6 million people from history. Sounds from Silence is an extended reflection on the effects of being a child Holocaust survivor and a child of Holocaust survivors. Krell explores the circumstances that marked his whole life: the frustration of an abandoned child, the understanding that can only be acquired in adulthood, the regret of a mother who had to let go of his son to save his life. The fight of a self-defined “elderly Jew with stories to tell” against Holocaust deniers and skeptics.
Full Product Details
Author: Robert Krell
Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers
Imprint: Amsterdam Publishers
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.581kg
ISBN: 9789493231467
ISBN 10: 9493231461
Pages: 396
Publication Date: 30 July 2021
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.
Reviews
This is the book we've all been waiting for. From the very beginning (or at least my beginning awareness, decades ago) of your lifetime of groundbreaking work, I have been struck with the uniqueness of your approach. There are many good scholars, you among them, but such enormous hearts as yours are quite rare! I am grateful for the way you have listened to survivors, for the accessible way you've shared what survivors have confided to you, and for the hearts you have opened, yours, theirs and ours. —Ann Weiss, director, producer, film maker, teacher, photojournalist, author of The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau Thank you for one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. My admiration for your accomplishments, for the most worthy causes in the world, have reached unfathomable depths in my soul. Since we met in grade school, I knew you were smart and personable but had no idea from whence you came. Your book transcends everything my mind could ever imagine. You have shared your knowledge, thoughts, emotions and soul. You have fulfilled your destiny and I believe, that was why you were saved and placed on this earth. —Lucie Hanson Dallamore, BSW, MSW Almost 40 years ago you were a visionary pioneer in assisting me to start the child survivor group movement in Los Angeles, Vancouver, and then worldwide. Through your honesty and sharing about your own separations, fears, and losses in hiding during the Holocaust, you enabled many child Holocaust survivors who were traumatized then to come forward from the darkness about their own experiences. You showed the way to transform grief into compassion, and to contribute to Tikkun Olam - repairing the world. —Sarah Moskovitz, Professor of Developmental Psychology, California State University Northridge, Founder of the Los Angeles Child Survivors group, author of Love Despite Hate: Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Their Adult Lives A beautiful book! What a carefully detailed account of a life that, after a traumatic early life, was filled with success and joy. I admire your memory. How indeed did you retain all the important events and your feelings accompanying them? And the content! Not an everyday story even for a hidden child: your love for the Munniks and their love for you. —Anna Ornstein, MD, psychoanalyst, Auschwitz survivor, author of My Mother's Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a Young Girl
This is the book we've all been waiting for. From the very beginning (or at least my beginning awareness, decades ago) of your lifetime of groundbreaking work, I have been struck with the uniqueness of your approach. There are many good scholars, you among them, but such enormous hearts as yours are quite rare! I am grateful for the way you have listened to survivors, for the accessible way you've shared what survivors have confided to you, and for the hearts you have opened, yours, theirs and ours. - Ann Weiss, director, producer, film maker, teacher, photojournalist, Author of The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau Thank you for one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. My admiration for your accomplishments, for the most worthy causes in the world, have reached unfathomable depths in my soul. Since we met in grade school, I knew you were smart and personable but had no idea from whence you came. Your book transcends everything my mind could ever imagine. You have shared your knowledge, thoughts, emotions and soul. You have fulfilled your destiny and I believe, that was why you were saved and placed on this earth. - Lucie Hanson Dallamore, BSW, MSW Almost 40 years ago you were a visionary pioneer in assisting me to start the child survivor group movement in Los Angeles, Vancouver, and then worldwide. Through your honesty and sharing about your own separations, fears, and losses in hiding during the Holocaust, you enabled many child Holocaust survivors who were traumatized then to come forward from the darkness about their own experiences. You showed the way to transform grief into compassion, and to contribute to Tikkun Olam - repairing the world. - Sarah Moskovitz, Professor of Developmental Psychology, California State University Northridge, Founder of the Los Angeles Child Survivors group, Author of Love Despite Hate: Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Their Adult Lives A beautiful book! What a carefully detailed account of a life that, after a traumatic early life, was filled with success and joy. I admire your memory. How indeed did you retain all the important events and your feelings accompanying them? And the content! Not an everyday story even for a hidden child: your love for the Munniks and their love for you. - Anna Ornstein, MD, psychoanalyst, Auschwitz survivor. Author of My Mother's Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a Young Girl
Author Information
Dr. Robert Krell was born in Holland and survived the Holocaust in hiding. In 1951, his family moved to Vancouver, Canada. Robert became professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, often treating Holocaust survivor families and Dutch survivors of Japanese concentration camps. He established a Holocaust Education program for high schools in 1976, an audio-visual documentation program recording survivor testimony in 1978, and helped found child Holocaust survivor groups in 1982. He was founding President of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre which teaches 20,000 students annually. Robert has authored and co-edited ten books plus numerous book chapters and articles. He continues to write and speak on Holocaust related concerns. For his life-long work in Holocaust education, remembrance and human rights, his recognitions include the Elie Wiesel Holocaust Remembrance Medal and the Order of Canada. Robert is married to Marilyn and they have three children and nine grandchildren.
