After having interviewed first generation refugees and survivors for the last 18 years, I am very excited to announce that we have started to interview second and third generations for the ‘Next Generations Voices’ initiative. While some family members of the second and third generation appear at the end of the testimonies of their parents and grand-parents, and the first generation sometimes discusses how they communicated their experiences to the younger generation, the engagement of the next generations with the ‘inherited history’ of the previous generation has so far not been recorded in great detail. With a diminishing number of refugees and survivors, it seemed high time, to record the experiences and the ‘post-memory’ of the next generations, some of whom have actively engaged with their family history for a number of years and some of whom have just started to explore their heritage.
The first interview of our new initiative features the actor Ed Skrein who reflects on the impact of having had grandparents who had come to the UK as refugees.
– Dr Bea Lewkowicz