The movie
Foute Erfenis
The Netherlands has tens of thousands of grandchildren of collaborators. The choices their grandparents made during the war have repercussions across generations and can lead to intergenerational trauma.
Description
In Foute Erfenis (Wrong Legacy), the grandchildren of people who were members of the NSB or SS during World War II share their stories. Some of them experience what is called intergenerational (or transgenerational) trauma: living with trauma influenced by the choices and events experienced by a previous generation.
Grandchildren Tanja, Xander, Bettina, Michael, and an anonymous source speak about the actions of their grandparents. They committed acts of betrayal, actively hunted Jews and communists, and caused death and destruction in the name of the occupiers. Feelings of shame—and, for some, a drive to serve society as a way to make amends for what their grandparents did—are common threads among the grandchildren.
Additional trauma was often passed down from the internment of NSB members immediately after the war. Because no one knew what to do with the children of NSB members, they were imprisoned alongside their parents and frequently mistreated or even abused. This generation then raised the protagonists of the film. A upbringing built on maintaining appearances, but above all, on silence. Silence—and the camouflage of a “tainted legacy.”
On Thursday, April 30 at 7:00 PM, there will be a Q&A with director Klaas van Eijkeren following the screening.
