Dungeon Master Forum

I've started on my degree which will take me a few years to complete, but I plan to eventually deliver my final project on the impact of war on families. I was wondering if anyone has any stories to relate (perhaps shared by parents) about growing up in a house with a war survivor, or lack of one. Or, perhaps have a parent or sibling who has been to war.. or even stories relating to this from a POW.. It's meant to be a focus of how it impacts the various relationships with the spouse and children. I'm looking for common threads in how kids were raised, or how relationships suffered or grew.. both positive and negative (if any of either exist) .. We often tend to focus on the survivors of the war, and those who died.. but rarely talk about this other side.

I know that my girlfriend in highschool had her uncle who was a veteran live with her, and he was a bit nuts.. kept full war motif in his room, and he'd suddenly begin to yell and go a bit nuts, only to calm down later..

My wife has spoken about her grandparents and how they had survived in the war, and how it was in the house with them afterwards.. it was this that got me started.. thinking about it.

anyway, theories and second hand accounts are also appreciated.. anything really.

Thanks

This is a very interesting subject and I imagine it will raise a lot of emotional issues which might be hard to handle. However, good luck with it.

It's possible that some of my mother's problems (schizophrenia, multiple personality) were in part contributed to by a particular incident she witnessed as a child after being evacuated from London. I don't know that it offers much content for your thesis, but I'm happy to pen something about if you're interested?

Wow, sounds good, that's an interesting topic (also close to my professional interests). Good luck with it!

Fortunately, all my immediate family survived WWII without any real danger in the rather calm "Protectorate" so no big stories for me to tell here (*) - the only stories cover the very ending of the war with the ruins of the German army being pursued through our area by the Soviets to the west. The "big stories" in our family only start with the communist coup in 1948 when s**t really started hitting the fan here...

(*) Except, of course, the very remote branches of the family that were Jewish and that were exterminated in the camps.

Gambit yes please! anything is good as a resource. It's as much our perceptions as anything. We are affected by the war even generations after I think. Also, all names will be protected, though we're all using aliases here (yes I know most of your real names anyway.. but you get the idea)..

oh and Jan, it doesn't need to be WWII.. any major conflict that had an impact on families

I can offer a little about my grandfather (WW2)... but they are views that came from conversations with my mother, and as such are second hand. He died before i was born so unfortunately this is all i have to go on. My parents died a few years ago, so i can get no further information. Not sure how much of a resource this would be, but i'll pm you the details if you like.

anything you want to share, either openly here or in PM is fine with me.. I'd like to get as broad a picture as I can.

ok, well I've got one story now.. and i still have about 4 years to collect more, but if anyone else wants to share ?

I've sent you a PM.