In the Shadows of the Holocaust and Communism

In this volume, Alena Heitlinger examines identity formation among a postwar generation of Czech and Slovak Jews who grew up under communism, coming of age during the de-Stalinization period of 1962-1968. Heitlinger’s main focus is on the differences and similarities within and between generations, and on the changing historical and political circumstances of Czechoslovak state socialism/communism that have shaped an individual’s consciousness and identity—as a Jew, an assimilated Czech, Slovak, or Czechoslovak and, where relevant, as an émigré or an immigrant. The book also addresses a larger set of questions about the formation of Jewish identity in the midst of political upheavals, secularization, assimilation, and modernity: Who is a Jew? The book concludes with an analysis of the post-communist generation and some speculations on the renewal and future of Czech and Slovak Jewry.