Although the two cannot in any way be compared in their scope and severity, I do sometimes find myself overwhelmed by the similarities between Nazi Germany's treatment of people of Jewish descent, and our own government's handling of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. In both countries those in power faced virtually no hurdles in their drive to roundup and sequester innocent people, who were singled out purely on the basis of their genes.
Those feelings of analogy have once again been brought to the surface due to recent news items regarding Holocaust victims here in Germany. One of those concerns an Israeli charity, which plans to launch a class action lawsuit against Germany on behalf of thousands of children of Holocaust survivors who need psychological treatment.
The charity, called The Fisher Fund, claims that survivors' children have been traumatized by their parent's experiences which had them growing up in largely dysfunctional homes. Now, they suffer from depression, anxiety and other psychological problems.
Attorney Gideon Fisher set the Fisher Fund up seven years ago in Israel. His parents Mali and Yosef were Holocaust survivors. The fund helps where other organizations are not able to, and it also grants scholarships. While Fisher himself has become successful, other children of survivors have not been so lucky.
According to a spokesperson for Amcha, an Israeli organization that provides psychological treatment to Holocaust victims and their children, the second generation grew up "under the shadow of impending catastrophe and constant mourning," which scarred them deeply.
In many cases the problems have been so severe that those affected could not study or hold steady employment. Since about one third of Holocaust survivors in Israel are living in poverty, most family members have not been able to provide the necessary funding for psychological aid.
And so, The Fisher Fund has been holding unofficial meetings with German government officials to try to raise money for the treatment of these second-generation Holocaust victims. So far the talks seem to have elicited a positive response from Germany, but if this turns out not to be the case, the charity says it will go ahead with a class action suit on behalf of thousands of potential plaintiffs. The fund claims that the amount needed would amount to about 10 to 20 million euros per year.
This topic has become part of the already sometimes heated debate about Holocaust reparations, which is most readily apparent in various German online forums. Young Germans tend to be of the opinion that they should not be made to pay for the mistakes of their grandparents. Other writers believe that payment is justified and necessary.
There's a good amount of animosity between the two groups, with much silent shouting going on within the black ink. There's also much comparison to slavery in the Americas and the killing of Native Americans at the hands of European immigrants, to name just a few examples. The question always arises about how far back retribution must be made.
But strangely, in all the pages and pages of opinions I've read, no one has made comparisons to or even mentioned the camps that our fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, sisters and/or ourselves, were herded into a mere half-century plus ago. Have we, unlike other groups, been so silent that this not-so-long-ago outrage was allowed to be forgotten in most parts of the world? Or, not even known or taught about in the first place?
As time goes on, the danger of completely forgetting the grave injustices suffered by the Japanese Americans and of course the Japanese Canadians during WWII becomes bigger. First-hand witnesses are becoming scarcer by the day and there will soon be no one left to tell the JA story.
It seems to me that many JAs have often rather tried to forget the problems those years in the camps caused instead of working them out or asking for help. And yet, haven't the children of camp internees also been scarred by the experiences of their parents? And so I've wondered, while reading about the efforts of The Fisher Group, and the controversy it has rekindled: Are their aspirations something we too should be trying to emulate?
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