I agree with this.

Of course it's hard for anybody, including a Jew, to speak about what they saw or how they felt because no Jew can serve as speaker for what all Jews experienced anymore than single Armenian can speak about the earlier Armenian genocide or African can speak of various genocides in Africa (that happened shockingly within last couple of decades and many don't seem to know or care about them).

But what you say here is something I've also heard from quite a few other people, the importance of that small community. I think many people are aware of psychology how this works. It's unfortunate that some people try to create that "threatened-us versus them" mentality to encourage people to support wars and other heinous acts that are only of interest to people like rich power hungry politicians and businesses that make their best money during wars (e.g. manufacturers of military equipment). What brought Jews (and other minorities who faced a real powerful threat at the time) together, in my view, was a natural reaction to horrors around them and shared identity. In a way it was practical, necessary. That's what made it powerful.

But as it's been mentioned, sometimes this creates a lot of guilt for people who feel like they're leaving others behind. I'm focusing on psychology of it here, not politics or other aspects I'm not aware of. Two things can happen, either you constantly try to fake the threat in order to remain close together or you start to separate and feel guilt. I imagine separation is most difficult for a person who never felt proud or interested in their identity till they experienced horrors that made them aware of such identity. Now if they separate and live their own life with focus on other aspects of their identity, who are they? That's what a Jewish guy once said on his blog, and I paraphrase, "I must be Jewish first and everything else second, for if not, I don't know who I am."

Lastly I want to comment on you cautiously mentioning that stories of resilience overshadow stories of suicide and trauma. This is how I see this: When I was in school, all I read was about damages of war to things, to people. I think it's assumed that everybody thinks that way already, about people of that generation, about war vets. So the inspirational stories are trying to challenge that view.

It's like when you read about women being assaulted, raped. Stories of survivors who emerged stronger than ever are what is supposed to give hope to those struggling. We live in an age of human potential. So I think that's in keeping with that mindset. I've read quite horrific stories of what some women did as revenge, not to mention how many attempted suicide and ended up hurting themselves in many ways and never recovered from the assault. But nobody thought rape was good or harmless anymore than genocide or peppering a country with bombs. But I think people thirst for positivity and inspiration and role models.

Thanks for your views.