I am acquainted with someone who did not grow up with my mom, and who did not have the same world-view, not being anywhere near the same age as my mom, what with my mom being quite a bit older, but with my mom having quite a bit of influence on this other person.
My mom, throughout her life, would often mention the Nazis, and Hitler, with real venom. This was no mere reductio ad Hitlerum just to get the upper hand in some conversation, but issued from almost visible, almost tangible hurt. This was evident.
Anyway, to this day this other person carries a fear of present day neo-Nazis as much as anyone who has escaped from a Nazi concentration camp and who lives in a neo-Nazi neighborhood, you know, as if Krystallnacht was going on right now… Hide!…
In hearing a car on the street, that person will want to take cover, saying that it is surely a Nazi tank that person hears. That person grew up when it could be related to that person also by my mom – who was quite a bit older – the atrocities of the concentration camps.
Don’t underestimate PTSD. For instance, a girl just committed suicide down in Florida, a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Parkland, Florida, where 17 died (now 18) and many others injured. Currents run deep. People can live as a present reality that which took place even in the distant past. For those who are not cowards to see present day reality for what it is it may be worth the effort to point out that there are still neo-Nazis today, and they are just as horrific and violent as any Nazi in the past. For instance, see:
JBS: Yaron Svoray & Simon Wiesenthal
Anyway, just to say, I’m quite certain that the only way this other person carries such PTSD is by friendship with my own mom.
This doesn’t necessarily say anything about the Jewishness of my mom. But, a pattern is developing.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 