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From: Carla Wills-Brandon <>
Subject: Re: [GV] Treatment of DRs, Original GR Settlers, Including All Aspects - Not Just A Select Few
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:01:36 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <20060116193958.98974.qmail@web50708.mail.yahoo.com>
No need to be sorry - but your response is typical. Blaming? You may have misread my statement, as have most likely others on the list. It is for this reason I don't talk about this topic with the list often. This topic is not one that is discussed much either. And I'm sure my bringing it up from time to time has not made me very popular.
Trauma is often carried. If one generation endures trauma, the holocaust, slave labour camps, persecution, tragic DP experiences, racism, other acts of trauma, etc., there is a possibility that the original trauma will be acted out on the following generations, with physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
In Judaic circles, Second Generation phenomenon with regard to the Holocaust has been well researched. And, I recently prepared a 60 page legal brief for a legal team team on Secondary PTSD in many of the children of those who have fought in Iraq. This avenue of the secondary PTSD phenomenon continues to be well researched.
Many people do not like looking at this topic, because it is understandably uncomfortable. Since I work with trauma, understand my own trauma, research trauma and publish on trauma, I'm not uncomfortable with it. I do believe the trauma many GRs have encountered for being GR, and the feelings some of the following generations have then carried or been victimized by needs to be explored, not ignored.
Most individuals will want to ignore this aspect of GR history, as do most individuals in general. So, I only bring it up periodically.
There is no need to feel sorry for me. Today I do not blame my abuse on my GR heritage.
What I will say is that for years, my own personal history with abuse, kept me from appreciating my GR heritage. I could not appreciate my GR heritage until I understood how my father had been abused for being a GR.
Carla
Teri Helzer <> wrote:
Carla,
I am sorry you suffered from abuse and your family was disfunctional. However, it seems your are blaming your abuse on your GR heritage. You state:
My responsibility as an offspring is to embrace all of this, facts,
feelings related to the facts or to the reality of another GR
individual's experiences, to heal from damage inflicted upon me by my GR heritage so that I can forgive and then understand the situation setting up my
original experience with my own personal abuse. Once I do the above, I
can have a genuine appreciation for my heritage.
I personally know a WASP that suffered abuse in her disfunctional family. I am no means on par with your training, but the reading I have done would indicate that abuse is not a unique factor of any ethnic group or nationality.
Some families suffer various degrees of disfunctionality, and yes it is passed on down from the previous generation. I am sorry you seem to be blaming your family's disfunction of your GR heritage, but I suggest you look at the prior generations within your family.
Even on this mail list you are likely to find a disfunctional person or two, but family disfunctionality is not what the GR-Volga mail list is about.
Teri Helzer
Carla Wills-Brandon <> wrote:
Hey Guys,
I really do believe GRs in different geographic locations received different experiences in DR camps and communities. Based on my experience and research this isn't a cookie cutter situation.
I currently have a patient who as a young DP was sexually assaulted in a camp located along the German/Holland border. So, yes, there were those who received no negativity, while at the other extreme, the treatment was horrific. At 71, this particular patient is finally addressing this.
My father was very verbally abused as a youth with comments like "Hitler" "Nazi" and he was also physically abused for being a GR. His experiences as a youngster, outside his GR community, damaged him such that he then in turn, was incredibly abusive to me, my siblings and my mother. The abuse I won't go into publicly on this list because there seems to be little understanding of this psychological phenomenon and I tend to only "ruffle" feathers.
But, as a researcher into this area of the GR experience, I wish that those who did not have negative experiences would like Sally, not belittle those of us who did. I find this disheartening. The negative like the positive, is a part of our GR history. The positive experiences display one aspect of our culture while the negative shed light on the many hardships our people had to endure in Russia, Germany and the states. Carried feelings from abuse are often passed from one generation to the next and are an excellent indicator of the hardships suffered by the original generation.
My responsibility as an offspring is to embrace all of this, facts, feelings related to the facts or to the reality of another GR individual's experiences, to heal from damage inflicted upon me by my GR heritage so that I can forgive and then understand the situation setting up my original experience with my own personal abuse. Once I do the above, I can have a genuine appreciation for my heritage.
Carla
"S. Zitzer" wrote:
Suzanne,
How interesting to hear from a member of my cohort! I too was a
baby (8 months old) when Pearl Harbor was bombed. My father was
a U.S. Army officer, served during WWII, and then after the war
he was stationed in Germany. We went with him too, and we kids
went to "Dependents Schools" which were provided for the children
of American servicemen and had American teachers. I don't ever
remember experiencing the animosity you did -- we were all kids
in the "same boat" living scattered amongst the German people
but going by schoolbus to American schools. I was there for
grades 2 through 6 which was a total of 4 years (they moved
me up a grade in the middle of one year). I have fond
memories of our years in Germany. We were a close-knit
bunch of kids.
Sally Zitzer
Seattle, WA
On Sun, 15 Jan 2006, Suzanne wrote:
> When Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, I was just a baby. However, by=20
> the time I reached the 4th grade, there was still alot of animosity=20
> towards the German people, and anyone with a German surname (mine was=20
> Heinitz), got called all sorts of names in school. A couple of my=20
> classmates loved to call me "Hitler", or "German butcher". It was not a=
=20
> fun time. They wouldn't allow such things in school today.
> Suzanne
>
> Carla Wills-Brandon wrote:
>
>
> Hello Gang,
>
> I''m in London at the Slave Labour conference at the War Museum. I must=
=20
> say, I'm very disappointed, but not surprised. With all the lectures=20
> from academic types on slave labour, gulags, DPs and the holocaust,=20
> there has not been one word mentioned about our GR folk except the=20
> following from someone from some foundation:
>
> Anti-Semiticism was very common among Germans in America during WWII.=20
> There is a large population of Germans living in the greater plains=20
> states and a friend of mine is writing about anti-Semitic attitudes in=20
> North Dakota.
>
> I was saddened to hear such blanket mis-information, but not surprised.=
=20
> I present on Friday morning and will try to rectify this attitude.
>
> Carla
>
>
> Carla Wills-Brandon, Ph.D.
> Michael Brandon, Ph.D.
> (281) 338-2992
>
> www.carlawillsbrandon.com
>
> "We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a forth dime=
nsion of existence of which we have not dreamed." Big Book pg 25
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> o:-)
>
> "The German is like a willow. No matter which way you bend him, he will a=
lways take root again."
> - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Yahoo! Photos =96 Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover
> Photo Books. You design it and we=92ll bind it!
>
>
--2094074809-1548296338-1137433919=:18368--
Carla Wills-Brandon, Ph.D.
Michael Brandon, Ph.D.
(281) 338-2992
www.carlawillsbrandon.com
"We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a forth dimension of existence of which we have not dreamed." Big Book pg 25
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Photos Showcase holiday pictures in hardcover
Photo Books. You design it and well bind it!
Carla Wills-Brandon, Ph.D.
Michael Brandon, Ph.D.
(281) 338-2992
www.carlawillsbrandon.com
"We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a forth dimension of existence of which we have not dreamed." Big Book pg 25
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