Unbroken resilience
This memoir recounts a family's survival during the Shoah: escape, resistance, and rebuilding life in Canada. Professor Hanisman explores memory, inherited trauma, and the enduring lessons of the Holocaust in a time of rising antisemitism.
The Golden Age, during which Jews experienced peace, serenity, and prosperity in Poland, ended in 1939 with the Nazi invasion. Of the millions of Jews who had lived in large cities and in shtetls of Poland and the neighboring Soviet Republic of Ukraine, only about 10% would survive the Shoah. The Nazi regime, abetted by Ukrainian Nationalists, were efficient in murdering Jews using mobile killing units, incarceration in concentration and extermination camps, and in the many ghettos that had been established.
This memoir portrays the history of a small number of survivors of a family that had witnessed the horrors of the Shoah. Before the war, some attempted to help Jews immigrate to their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel. After the invasion of Poland, some family members found ways of eluding the Nazis, or formed small, organized contingents who fought against the merciless oppressors, which allowed them feelings of agency and hope.
Those who survived and flourished in their new homes in Canada, was facilitated by the close bonds that formed among the families of survivors. These survivors directly or indirectly transmitted the lessons of the Shoah to their children and grandchildren, who also learned about the collective, historical trauma that had been experienced by Jews across generations. Second and third generation descendants of survivors are aware that the increased antisemitism currently witnessed in Western countries are reminiscent of events before the Shoah, and may be harbingers of this Golden Age coming to an end.
TO BE LAUNCHED: 13 April 2026
Hymie Anisman received his PhD in 1972 (University of Waterloo), and has been a Professor at Carleton University, Ottawa, since that time. Professor Anisman was a Senior Ontario Mental Health Research Fellow (1999–2006), held a Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. The principle theme of his research has concerned the influence of stressors on neurochemical and neuroendocrine systems, and how these influence psychological (anxiety, depression) and immune-related disorders. His work has spanned animal models to assess stress-related pathology as well as studies in humans to assess stress, coping and appraisal processes. In this regard, he has assessed the impact of chronic strain emanating from discrimination and stigmatization on anxiety, depression, and PTSD among refugees from war-torn regions, and health consequences among Indigenous groups that suffered childhood traumatization, distress associated with abusive relationships, as well as the transmission of trauma effects across generations. Aside from examining diverse vulnerability factors that foster illnesses, his research has also focused on identifying factors that promote resilience in the face of trauma. Professor Anisman has published more than 400 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters, two edited books dealing with stress processes and psychoneuroimmunology, and five books concerning stress and health.
