Intergenerational Transmission

[mccoyxyz]

From what I have read in the 2G literature (Second Generation, children of survivors), the children acquire very different attitudes from the actual camp survivor parents.
Children later discover in adult life that they were nowhere near as knowledgable as they thought. True, parents do a lot of eye rolling and "oy vey, for this I survived the camps!", when ticked at the kid. However, during their entire childhood they experience an average of ten sessions of about 15 minutes of real information. 2 1/2 hours in 18 years isn't a lot; farm boys get that much instruction from Dad during a typical week.
The fears of the parents tend to be very specific, ie fear the political atmosphere in their new country will turn towards It happening again. Which explains why so many are news junkies.
This specific fear doesn't transmit to the child, who is hip enough to Canadian or American nuance to know it's impossible.
What comes through is a generalized feeling, a fear, mistrust and cynicism toward the world in general.

In the karmic sense we're are all 2G. The original person that was us is dead; we're akin to the 2G child.
Reading this stuff I found the parallels interesting. Simply think of your past self as the "parent", it all falls into place.
There's an amazing amount of information available from these people. Simply Google "Second Generation Holocaust Survivors" and you'll see the problem is not shortage of information, but choosing among it.

[Laurasia]

That is rather interesting to think about McCoy. I have moticed that many reincarnated Holocaust victims do tend to exhibit the more generalized anxieties that are often found in 2nd generation children. I suppose it would stand to reason that therapies which work for them would be beneficial to reincarnated victims as well.

The fears of the parents tend to be very specific, ie fear the political atmosphere in their new country will turn towards It happening again....This specific fear doesn't transmit to the child, who is hip enough to Canadian or American nuance to know it's impossible.

Perhaps it is because I am a reincarnated Nazi & not a former victim, but I have held on to that particular anxiety myself...about "It" happening again. I wonder if other reincarnated Nazis have a similar anxiety? I know that many of us are concerned about making sure that it never happens again....because we remember how it came about the last time. How gradually it all came to be, the subtle transitions that allowed it to happen, etc.

Sincerely,
Laurasia

[mccoyxyz]

For what it's worth, you should lay that fear to rest. It took a long historical run up for It to happen.
Now the Industrial Revolution is generally considered as starting at 1840. Meaning approximately, different in different places.
The switch from artisanal manufacturing to factory caused a lot of social stresses; in fact, high school in my day dealt with that quite a lot. Today, who knows?
Now it didn't take some bright sparks long to blame the excesses of the Industrial Revolution on Jews.
Among those who were losing out, the small businesses disappearing and replaced by giant factories (akin to today's box store movement), this idea took some weight.
Now among actual factory workers themselves, this was considered so stupid as to be laughable. Yes, Jewish capitalists were ripping them off but no more so than other capitalists. This crowd had little interest in political antisemitism, preferring to put their faith in Communism.
(Now as a background, Jews had been hated before, but only in the religious sense; political antisemitism was a brand new concept.)
Serious pamphletting got going in the 1860's, but accomplished little until the Crash of 1873, which was blamed on - surprise - Jews.
(As another background item, the late 1800 histories of Germany and Austria were largely the same; with one exception, Austria had the ongoing debate between pan-Germans and Austrian nationalists.)
In both countries, political parties sprung up which specialized in antisemitism, were silent on other issues.
By about 1890, these specialist parties were obsolete, as all parties had incorporated antisemitic planks into their platforms. Jews chose parties on the basis of who was Least antisemitic -where were their heads at?
During WW1, shortages etc were blamed on - what else - Jewish profiteering.
The Treaty of Versailles 1919 sealed the doom of European Jewry. The British and Americans were favorable to being lenient and reasonable with Germany, to simply rebuild, along the lines that happened after WW2. The French were the holdout, insisting on conditions so draconian they led to economic collapse in the Weimar Republic.
And of course this economic collapse caused Adolf's star to rise. Had Germany experienced even moderate prosperity after WW1, his crowd would have been seen as the lunatic fringe.
Best wishes.

[Laurasia]

I understand what you are saying about a Holocaust based on antisemitism, but I am talking about such blind loyalty to & fanatacism in general with any minority group as a "target". Many men were lulled into a sense of blind fanatacism once, I just hope to make it less likely for it to ever happen again...no matter who the target is, Jewish or not.

Sincerely,
Laurasia

[msmir]

Sad thing it is happening all the time, larger scale ones did happen since in the mid-70's, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, then in the mid-90's you had Kosovo and Rwanda, and then currently Darfur. No one has learned anything it seems.

[mccoyxyz]

I totally agree that groups of people kill each other; have done so for centuries and will do so until the human race is extinct. (Now at the pace things are going, I give that a century, at best.)
My original theme was somewhat different. I was merely discussing 2G children in Canada and the USA. I was merely pointing out that they are acculturated enough to their country to know it's impossible there; though of course their parents haven't quite figured that out.
And so, while the parent has a very specific fear of It happening in the USA; the child has a more generalized angst.
Best wishes.

[Laurasia]

Given the right target(s)....I could still fear my government (the United States) at least trying some of the old tactics to sway people whatever way that they wanted them to go.

Like I said though, that's probably just from having been a Nazi in my last life & remembering how well they did just that.

Sincerely,
Laurasia