The absence of parental emotional availability and stress in the family may lead to increased support and closeness among siblings or, the opposite, increased tension, rivalry, and hostility. Moreover, while the imperative to protect parents from further pain is an overarching concern among children of survivors, siblings often take different, even opposing, roles in attempting to fulfill this emotional obligation. Such differences among adult siblings often lead to intense mutual resentments and even relationship cut-offs in Holocaust families. These relationship dynamics and what we choose to do to facilitate connections with the extended family for the third and fourth generations will be discussed.
