Stories Survive: "Pass the Trauma, Please" Book Talk

Todd Diamond's new book Pass the Trau­ma, Please is a com­e­dy-dra­ma Holo­caust mem­oir where scan­dalous secrets about a father’s sur­vival as an orphan and a sol­dier who fought for Israeli inde­pen­dence come to light over an unfor­get­table Sun­day night Chi­nese din­ner. 

But it’s not just sto­ries that were passed down from a sur­vivor to his chil­dren: Genet­i­cal­ly Inher­it­ed Holo­caust Trau­ma hitch­es a ride, result­ing in his son’s dys­func­tion­al rela­tion­ships and dubi­ous behav­iors. 

Like oth­er books about the Holo­caust, Pass the Trau­ma, Please address­es loss. But you’ll also find drug smug­gling, attempts to reverse a cir­cum­ci­sion, broth­els, kib­butz ambush­es, divorce, death camp vis­its, deca­dent nights at Stu­dio 54, and tales of lost vir­gin­i­ty.

This orig­i­nal, provoca­tive, and irrev­er­ent mem­oir presents us with a unique sec­ond-gen­er­a­tion Holo­caust sur­vivor view­point that is wor­thy of a film script. It helps us fath­om the unfath­omable and even man­ages to make us laugh along the way. This is not your typ­i­cal Holo­caust sto­ry in any way, shape, or form, and there­in lies its strength.