"The Shoah runs through our veins": The relevance of the Holocaust for Jewish-Israeli young adults

This qualitative study, based on personal interviews, explored the relevance of the Holocaust on the personal, familial and social-political levels for 50 Jewish-Israeli young adults, with and without family connections to Holocaust survivors. Our results showed that this cohort expresses two main kinds of relevance - Partial Relevance and Paradoxical Relevance, regardless of family background. Citing four examples, we describe these two types of relevance, exploring the differences and nuances of each type of relevance that emerged from the interviews. We conclude that educators and mental/social health professionals who work on integrating the Holocaust past into the lives of young adults can benefit from understanding the different types of relevance in order to help them relate to the past without becoming overwhelmed by its consequences. By helping these young adults find the balance between the need to connect to the trauma and the fear of being overwhelmed by it, we can keep the significance of this horrific genocide alive, without creating a new generation of victims.