Arts and Humanities Commons^™

East Germany And Its Unheard Of Skeletons In The Closet- Generational Trauma And Sexualized Violence In The Gdr, Nadine Bravo

Thinking Matters Symposium

This presentation attempts to address the impact of generational trauma, sexualized violence and abuse in family systems and institutions, and its expression/suppression in the Totalitarian East German regime from an auto ethnographic perspective as a trauma survivor. I will highlight historical aspects as well as what it was like to grow up in East Germany under those conditions. Generational trauma and sexualized violence are not an East German phenomenon but a cross-cultural phenomenon, used as a tool of control and demoralization of a culture during war. Refugees and immigrants often are trauma survivors. By addressing trauma, identity healing and/or formation …