Trauma and Healing through Postgenerational Holodomor Survivor Research.

The Holodomor of 1932–1933 resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians from starvation, execution and deportation to labour camps. Survivors were further divided and displaced by World War II, when a large proportion of the peasantry endured forced labour in Germany. Those who avoided repatriation to the Soviet Union at the end of the War formed diaspora communities in parts of the West, where a small number gave testimony to their experiences during the famine. Others, however, lived in silence for a number of psychological and political reasons, unable to give a voice to their memories. The postgenerations grew up with these silences and a growing understanding that there was more to be told. Many have undertaken academic research as an avenue to deconstruct and contextualise their familial memories, in order to contribute to processes of repairing the damage of the past. Their works bear the markings of intergenerational trauma and a 'pathology of recognition' (Oliver 2001) that drives the postgenerations' quest for recognition from the perpetrator nation and the public. This paper examines intergenerational trauma in the academic research of diasporic postgenerations and the efficacy of academia as a space for symbolically unpacking and repairing the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]