SECOND GENERATION OF REFUGEES BLOG, BY RICK LANDMAN

I've come to believe that "Nurture" (culture) is just as important in influencing our lives as our free will and "Nature"(DNA). When I started a group for children of Holocaust Survivors I noticed how many similar traits, quirks, and perceptions were shared by the members. It is not that hard to understand how what affected our parents influences us. So whether it was slavery, extermination, ethnic cleansing, or even things like alcoholism, which create what we now call Post Traumatic Stress can be "inherited" for the next generation will have to deal with it.

Whenever I hear of horrific stories of ot people having to flee and take refuge, my mind turns to how my parents (as teenagers) and grandparents must have felt when they took their journey. Maybe that is why I was there to protest for Soviet Jewry and volunteered as an attorney to help LGBT refugees from former Soviet bloc countries, Africa and the Middle East. Immigration takes on a different view when you can still picture the first Americans in your family who landed in America. Somehow as the generations pass, many people want to pull up the gangplank and let the newer immigrants drown.

Some countries have done a better job than others in trying to reduce the pain and make the transition easier; while other countries just ignore their past and just let things fester. America did right by me and allowed me to assimilate and eventually take part as a full citizen. I was given a future and consider America my home country. Germany did the right thing by accepting responsibility for the reason for fleeing and provided my grandparents with restitution and even restored the German citizenship that they removed with the 1935 Nuremberg Laws to my generation.

There were times in American history when we took too long to apologize and make amends for our wrong-doings. It took a while, but an apology finally came for how we treated our American citizens of Japanese, German and Italian heritage during World War II. We are still dealing with the ramifications of our treatment of the Native Americans and those people forced to come to America are still feeling the impact of slavery.

I hope to live long enough to see when we can put an end to all the pain of past generations and people will not need to flee their homes anymore. The only way I know how to reach this is through real dialogue between people and it should start now.

1: Treating Refugees The Right Way

2: Each Generation Inherits the Troubles of the Past

3:Difference between Immigrants, Refugees, and Holocaust Survivors

4-German Jewish Culture in Washington Heights and the Catskills

5-Desire to Return to Live in the Homeplace of your Parents

6-German Restitution Policies

7-Experiences of Children of Refugees Worldwide




12 LESSONS THAT I LEARNED FROM THE HOLOCAUST

1. Thou shall not demonize or de-humanize whole groups of people.

2. Thou shall not judge all citizens by the leaders of their government.

3. Thou shall not judge all groups by their radical elements.

4. The Nazis copied the KKK's love for segregation and violence; and not vice versa.

5. Israel was to be a true democracy for all regardless of religion or sex as well as a homeland for all Jews, but not a supremacist theocracy.

6. Ghettos and segregation are bad for anyone.

7. Restitution and accountability are needed to stop the transfer of pain down through the generations.

8. There were centuries of German Jewish culture that needs to be remembered.

9. Thou shall speak out immediately when groups are being demonized, but do not cry "Wolf" with labels that shut down debate.

10. Ethnic Cleansing is morally wrong, even if it is ordained by your god.

11. All religions interpret their scriptures to satisfy their belief structures, and pick and choose parts they want to emphasize.

12. Even civilized countries can turn into killing machines if violence is used to scare the public and demagogues demonize minorities.

FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT THESE 12 LESSONS CLICK HERE