美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Survivor Cafe' Explores How To Preserve The Legacy Of Horrific Events

'Survivor¹ Cafe' Explores How To Preserve The Legacy² Of Horrific Events

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Elizabeth Rosner writes this in her new book, "Survivor Cafe." We are all obligated to remember. But the best way to do that when it comes to atrocities³ and other traumatic historical events is another question. Elizabeth Rosner's parents survived the Holocaust⁵, which means she is what's known as a second-generation survivor, though she's not totally comfortable with that term. Second-generation survivors⁶ of course are the people, most of them Jewish, whose parents survived the camps, deportations and ghettos of World War II.

Elizabeth Rosner is with us now. Thanks for being on the show.

ELIZABETH ROSNER: Thank you for having me.

MCEVERS: I want to start with the title of the book. What is a Survivor Cafe?

ROSNER: Until a couple of years ago, I had never heard anything like that phrase. But I was in Germany with my father in April 2015 to commemorate⁷ the 70th anniversary of the liberation from Buchenwald, where he was a prisoner as a teenager. And we were there along with the other remaining survivors as well as some of the liberators of the camp who were from the American Army.

And we were also with Germans. And some of those Germans were the grandchildren of Nazis⁸ and perpetrators. And they had organized this event, and they titled one of the items on our itinerary⁹ Survivor Cafe. And what that turned out to be was an organized gathering¹⁰ of survivors sitting at small, round, cafe-style tables in a public space that in this case was the National Theatre of Weimar.

MCEVERS: Right. The idea of course is bringing people together to have dialogue all these years and...

ROSNER: Right.

MCEVERS: ...Generations later. And there's - that's of course a wonderful idea. But the way you write about it in the book, it sounds like it was, I mean for lack of a better way to say it, awkward at times. I mean just - you're, like...

ROSNER: Yeah.

MCEVERS: The survivors are kind of on display. There's cameras everywhere. And when a conversation would start up, other people would gather around to listen and - is that how you felt?

ROSNER: Right, yeah. And the thing is that of course the people that were there had chosen to be there. They weren't there against their will.

MCEVERS: Sure.

ROSNER: You know, but there were two men in particular who were sitting at these tables, wearing their striped...

MCEVERS: Wow.

ROSNER: ...Pajama-like prison uniforms. They had saved them for 70 years. And then you couple that with cameras and microphones and media hovering¹¹ and the shuffling¹² feet of all these people kind of crowding around and not quite knowing what to do with themselves, wanting to connect with these people but also some of them I think quite frightened about, what should we say? What is appropriate?

MCEVERS: And that seems like the point and why you write about this - is that there isn't a right way to do this, right? Is that why you tell this story? Is the idea that on the one hand, the sentiments are right but it's possible that there may not be a perfect way to execute something like this because for each person it's so different, that somebody might want to wear their prison uniform?

ROSNER: Exactly. I think that each of us really is struggling. And I include myself in this even though I'm kind of a subsidiary member of this conversation, right? But...

MCEVERS: Right.

ROSNER: My whole inquiry¹³ was, how is it for the people who are literally¹⁴ still carrying the memories of that event, the past? And how is it for the people of my generation and subsequent generations who are witnesses to the process of remembering, not witnesses to the events themselves? And then how do we take on what I call the loved obligation to remember ourselves and this threshold moment where we are right now of the firsthand witnesses disappearing slowly, rapidly, one by one, all at once?

MCEVERS: Yeah.

ROSNER: And what do we do now collectively - not just individually but collectively?

MCEVERS: There is some research into the idea that trauma⁴ can be genetically¹⁵ passed down from generation to generation. You write about this in the book. Do you think this applies to you?

ROSNER: I do. And I think it applies to a lot of us whether or not we've named it in this way. What the research is beginning to demonstrate is that people who have lived through trauma have been changed by it in a cellular¹⁶ way. And in particular, the expression of their DNA¹⁷ has been modified, and that modification¹⁸ is starting to show up in subsequent generations. And the explanation among researchers is it has to be inherent. It's not something they learned by watching their parents or hearing traumatic stories from their parent. They were born with traumatic residue¹⁹ in their bodies.

MCEVERS: How do you think that's played out for you?

ROSNER: Well, you know, it's a mixed bag. I think that it has heightened my sense of hypervigilance in the world (laughter). I'm more likely to walk into a room and kind of notice where the exits are (laughter) or to be really super attuned²⁰ to people that might seem a little off, a little dangerous. I know some members of my generation literally always keep a suitcase packed...

MCEVERS: Wow.

ROSNER: ...As if they might be forced to flee at any moment. You know, for people whose parents survived war and exile, this evacuation witnessing that we're all doing by way of the news, witnessing people fleeing in a panic and grabbing whatever they can, this may be triggering some people's PTSD around, what would I do? What would I take with me if suddenly my country was invaded not by a storm but by an invading army?

MCEVERS: We talked about the Survivor Cafe model in Germany that you witnessed and kind of the question of, what's the right way to do this? I know that reparations is another way. People have - survivors can apply and get reparations from Germany. Of course that can re-traumatize people doing that application process.

But you know, now that you're finished with this book and this line of inquiry, like, what did you come up with? What do you feel like is the answer to that question? What is the right way to honor these survivors and their children, your generation?

ROSNER: I feel more strongly than ever that there is no right way and that what really matters is the effort and the intention behind the effort. So the Truth and Reconciliation²¹ Commission in South Africa is one right way, the training program in Japan for people that they call denshosha, who are becoming the designated transmitters of story. And they are literally memorizing the stories of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki so that the firsthand witnesses get to have their stories retained into the future when they're no longer here.

So all of these efforts matter, and there is no one right way. I think it's important that we all continue to name the individual names of victims. We continue to acknowledge that there are people who may never heal from their trauma and that we have to allow that to be true, too.

MCEVERS: Elizabeth Rosner, thank you so much.

ROSNER: Thank you, Kelly.

MCEVERS: Elizabeth Rosner's new book is called "Survivor Cafe."

1 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

2 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

3 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

5 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

6 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

7 commemorate   

vt.纪念，庆祝

参考例句：

• This building was built to commemorate the Fire of London.这栋大楼是为纪念“伦敦大火”而兴建的。
• We commemorate the founding of our nation with a public holiday.我们放假一日以庆祝国庆。

8 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 itinerary   

n.行程表，旅行路线；旅行计划

参考例句：

• The two sides have agreed on the itinerary of the visit.双方商定了访问日程。
• The next place on our itinerary was Silistra.我们行程的下一站是锡利斯特拉。

10 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

11 hovering   

鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• The helicopter was hovering about 100 metres above the pad. 直升机在离发射台一百米的上空盘旋。
• I'm hovering between the concert and the play tonight. 我犹豫不决今晚是听音乐会还是看戏。

12 shuffling   

adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• Don't go shuffling along as if you were dead. 别像个死人似地拖着脚走。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some one was shuffling by on the sidewalk. 外面的人行道上有人拖着脚走过。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

13 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

14 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

15 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

16 cellular   

adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的

参考例句：

• She has a cellular telephone in her car.她的汽车里有一部无线通讯电话机。
• Many people use cellular materials as sensitive elements in hygrometers.很多人用蜂窝状的材料作为测量温度的传感元件。

17 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

18 modification   

n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻

参考例句：

• The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的，它需要修改。
• The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。

19 residue   

n.残余，剩余，残渣

参考例句：

• Mary scraped the residue of food from the plates before putting them under water.玛丽在把盘子放入水之前先刮去上面的食物残渣。
• Pesticide persistence beyond the critical period for control leads to residue problems.农药一旦超过控制的临界期，就会导致残留问题。

20 attuned   

v.使协调( attune的过去式和过去分词 )；调音

参考例句：

• She wasn't yet attuned to her baby's needs. 她还没有熟悉她宝宝的需要。
• Women attuned to sensitive men found Vincent Lord attractive. 偏爱敏感男子的女人，觉得文森特·洛德具有魅力。 来自辞典例句

21 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。