Survivors' kin: What obligation?

Robert Aigner was 17 years old when his parents first told him about the cattle cars that took his father to Auschwitz and the Jewish ghetto that imprisoned his mother in Budapest.

Since then, Mr. Aigner, a real estate manager, has written a novella with his sister about their parents' experience during the Holocaust, invited his mother and father to speak to his employees, and traveled to Poland to collect soil samples from the sites of former concentration camps for the new Holocaust Memorial in Portland, Ore.

Aigner is not convinced that any of his actions can change the course of the future. "In the global sense of not having [the Holocaust] happen again, I'm not sure we can control that," he says.

But the motivation for his Holocaust-related activities is crystal clear: "Telling their story is a great way to honor my parents' strength and character, and that is of great importance to me."

The passing of time has triggered an international effort to preserve the stories and the lessons of the Jewish genocide before it is too late. But for the children of survivors - many of whom are now in their 40s and 50s - the question of how the Holocaust will be remembered is complicated.

There is no standard response. Their parents left these children a legacy that seems to transcend the personal. How to treat it is an issue that many of this second generation are still sorting through.

For some, deep engagement in Holocaust or human rights outreach seems the best way to honor their parents and bring meaning to what they suffered.

Yet others, including some raised by mothers and fathers who were largely silent on the subject of the Holocaust, don't feel the same desire to speak out on the subject.

But does the second generation have a moral responsibility to tell their parents' stories?

Some feel a powerful impulsion to do so. Yet there are others who claim the right to separate themselves from the dark stories and images of the past.

Still others aren't sure how to react and struggle to know how to balance individual needs and public interest.

For Elaine Coughlin, president of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center (OHRC), there's no question that family history confers social obligation.

"The second generation has a responsibility to carry on and preserve their parents' stories," says Ms. Coughlin, whose organization communicates the lessons of the Holocaust to the public. "Education and awareness are critical to make sure this kind of event never happens again."

Her father was a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, but never spoke of his experiences while she was growing up.

It wasn't until 1978, when he spoke at the high school where she worked as an English teacher, that Coughlin heard about the horrors he suffered.

Now she wishes she had encouraged him to speak more often. "While he was alive, there was an unwritten tone not to bring it up," says Coughlin. "Now I wish I had. I do this in memory of my father."

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