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[Thread] I want to comment on this powerful message with my #Holocaust historian hat on.
Beyond the political, Arnold reveals something not new to historians but isuper interesting perhaps for the public: the domestic trauma that followed the Third Reich.
#Twitterstorians https://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/1348249481284874240
Beyond the political, Arnold reveals something not new to historians but isuper interesting perhaps for the public: the domestic trauma that followed the Third Reich.
#Twitterstorians https://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/1348249481284874240
He notes that his father (and many others in the neighborhood) would come home drunk occasionally, attack their wives, and frighten the children.
Arnold suggests this was a widespread phenomenon (and I agree).
Arnold suggests this was a widespread phenomenon (and I agree).
The impact of the Nazi period on families is an area that needs much more research. This is not to express sympathy for war criminals. However, large numbers of them probably had some form of PTSD.
We certainly have evidence of this from during the war.
We certainly have evidence of this from during the war.
It is easy to imagine that these men brought this trauma home with them to their (sometimes) innocent wives and (always) innocent children.
The impact of wartime trauma + the fear of exposure + the potential shame in their actions or defeat was acute.
The impact of wartime trauma + the fear of exposure + the potential shame in their actions or defeat was acute.
Arnold highlights this in his message. Nazi perpetrators spoke little at home about their crimes, but they did occasionally meet with each other at a local bar or Stammtisch (regulars table). Heavy drinking followed the pattern of heavy drinking during the war to cope.
A relative of one war criminal related to me how a family member was traumatized by their perpetrator father and grew up a broken person, eventually committing suicide.
Kudos to Arnold for highlighting these family and gender dynamics.
Kudos to Arnold for highlighting these family and gender dynamics.
Of course, the families of Holocaust survivors suffered immense psychological difficulties and ongoing trauma from their own experiences, to the extent that some speak of 2nd generation survivors. Nothing in this thread is meant to diminish that.
Much of the nature of these family dynamics appears at the periphery of the historical record as it is difficult to recover. But there has been some good work on this (and I welcome the addition to this thread of other sources and scholars).
Some sources
Some sources
Katharina von Kellenbach, Vanishing Acts: Perpetrators in Postwar Germany, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 17, Issue 2, FALL , Pages 305â329
