Gertrud Kauderer’s father, a master gardener in their small town in southern Germany, was “an idealistic Nazi,” who joined the nationalistic party in 1928, long before Hitler’s seizure of power.
Years after her birth in 1937, she remembers hearing family members talking about how they “didn’t like what was being done to the Jews,” but the details weren’t talked about openly. It wasn’t until years later that she was able to make a connection with Hitler, who the family had supported because the economy had been a shambles.
“Hitler came into power, he was voted for, because people thought that things had gone so wrong that they needed a savior, and Hitler came and wanted to save them from their misery,” said Kauderer, a holistic healer and massage therapist who is visiting this country for four weeks.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that she began questioning the nuclear weapons that were being deployed near her hometown. She says that one of her grown daughters “opened my eyes” to the cost of militarization, and she made the connection with her family’s support of Hitler and questioned her “luxurious” lifestyle.
Kauderer, who helped found an organization to help the children of Nazis and the children of Holocaust survivors meet, will speak at Greenfield Community College on Monday from 1 to 2:30 p.m in Room C201.
Her talk on “Transcendence and the Trump Election: Getting Beyond Dualistic Thinking to Access the Opportunities in this Time of Great Change,” draws on her own experience and work as a pacifist.
“I often asked myself, ‘Didn’t they know?’” she says of her family’s role in Nazi Germany. “There are things that are so terrible we are shutting them out of our consciousness …. (just as now) We are shutting out the suffering of the refugees. There was some kind of deadly silence.”
On the Web: www.gcc.mass.edu/events/gertrud-kauderer-transcendence-trump-election
You can reach Richie Davis at rdavis@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 269