Think about the generation immediately younger or older than you. What do you understand least about them — and what can you learn from them
Mom and Dad and my older sister were survivors from the WWII and the revolutions that happened afterwards in Eastern Europe. My parents had to escape because they were persecuted by the communists and seek refuge in western Europe, but my aunts and uncles stayed in Yugoslavia, so the same generation who were young when the WWII happened, had to endure another war when in they were old: the Balkans War. After having experienced the war being young, they saw their children being forced to depart to go to the fronts sometimes in opposite sides, fighting one against each other. All depended in which side of the internal border they were when all that horror began. A nightmare. They love each other and suddenly they found themselves fighting in opposite armies in the same battlefield. Thanks God all of them came back home unharmed after the terrible siege of Dubrovnik.
Two wars for the same generation is too much. And what impresses more about them is that they ended both situations more forgiving and tolerant. They gave permission to their children for mixed religion marriages, and their houses are big points of reunion of a variety of people who understand each other, because it’s love what is working out.
Thanks for sharing the story of your family. You’re right, two wars are too much and we can learn a lot from their love and acceptance in spite of their experiences.
I often wonder why they had to suffer so much and we were spared of everything