Perpetrator-group victimhood recognition requires a two-generation time lag

Evidence

Recently in Germany a movement to reclaim the memory of victimization for the ethnic Germans expelled from Eastern Central Europe in 1945–48 has gained in strength. Perhaps this is a further stage in the evolution of guilt, where time is an essential component. The disappearance of the victims of Nazism from the scene is one factor that enables the passive perpetrators who became unacknowledged victims of the war to claim a share in the memory. In contrast, the Hutu and Serb victims are too close in time to the atrocities and genocide committed in the name of their groups to receive any meaningful recognition of their victimization. The duality of a perpetrator-victim may need a time lag of at least two generations to be redressed in Rwanda or Serbia. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 2070

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Whether couples reunite or divorce dictates whether past pain must be confronted. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1544; A victimhood narrative of expulsion outlasted perpetrator recognition by decades. — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 1483; Groups respond in real time to current rather than historical in-group wrongdoings — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt: Modes…, 100

Broader Connections

• A victimhood narrative of expulsion outlasted perpetrator recognition by decades. #exemplifies (0.85) — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 1483
• Groups respond in real time to current rather than historical in-group wrongdoings #complicates (0.78) — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt, 100