Unwanted Pregnancy of Holocaust Parents – As Reflected on Artist Life and Artwork

A “good-enough mother” (or parent) is one who adapts herself to her baby’s needs and can identify with them in their initial stage of absolute dependence, including pregnancy (Winnicott, 1965). Abortion survivors are people who have experienced the threat of being aborted, either from a direct physical attempt, or from living in an unwelcome prenatal environment in which abortion was consciously or unconsciously contemplated by one or both parents. The current article describes how an artist was torn between the sense of rejection by his mother, who wanted to have an abortion, and his Holocaust-survivor father’s determination to protect the pregnancy and be a “good-enough” parent.