I never considered (or knew to consider) that for years the research and work I was doing with World War I and World War II records was impacting me in negative ways. I was unconsciously being harmed on emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual levels. Did you even know it was possible for our research and family stories to impact us this way? To affect all areas of our lives? I had no idea until a series of life events made all the puzzle pieces click together.

James Privoznik (standing front right) at Camp Butner, NC during 1943 - Jan 1944 for Ordnance training.

While I have been a genealogist since 1996, it wasn’t until 2010 that I began researching my family's World War I and World War II stories. Unfortunately and sadly, several family members died while serving in the military during wartime. Also in 2010, I learned about two military death files - the WWI Burial File and the WWII IDPF (Individual Deceased Personnel File). I began requesting all these files for not only my family members but also for clients and others I learned about as I dove deeper into the military research.

Also during this time I connected with several European grave adopters and several people who did MIA (Missing In Action) research for WWII service members around the world. This opened up the channels to access to numerous IDPFs for WWII service members, most of which were emotionally difficult to read.

As I dove into the depth of war dead for my military research books and new programs, I realized the research and work was changing me. Changing me on an emotional, mental, and spiritual level. In some ways, my physical body was also changing in that it required more movement, more exercise to stay healthy and move the energy of war through me rather than staying stuck. As an empath, it is really important to move the energy rather than letting it get stuck in the body and energy fields. This can contribute to getting sick or the roots of dis-sease. I learned to be more conscious of my energy on all levels and learned tools to clear and shield my energy fields.

The Dutch In-Laws WWII Trauma

In 2015 I met a Dutch man named Johan and we began a two continent relationship. We did get married and he has since passed away. While in this relationship, being the empath and medium I am, I picked up on his family’s war trauma.

Did you know that when the family members of the deceased will not engage to help them heal, they will seek out others - primarily those who partnered up or married into the family?

Johan’s mother Johanna suffered greatly and while she lived, never healed from her war trauma. She was only 15 years old when Rotterdam, where they lived, was bombed by the Germans during WWII. After the bombing, the Germans occupied the Netherlands and life changed for everyone. I was also told a family story about Johanna…he sister allegedly started a relationship with a German and Joahnna, her father’s favorite, spoke out about this. The alleged response from her father was, ‘If you don’t approve, leave.’

Rotterdam Centrum. You can see the Witte Huis in the distance.

Leave she did. At 15-16 years old, Johanna moved in with a man named Johan and his family. A man just a year older than she, who would become her future husband. As the war raged on for several more years, Johan was taken in a Rotterdam Razzia in November 1944 to German Forced Labor. Johanna and his family remained in Rotterdam and survived the Hunger Winter.

The winter of 1944-early 1945 (many know this as the Battle of the Bulge time), was one of the coldest, most snowy, horrible winters in decades. The south of the Netherlands was liberated by Allied forced in the fall of 1944, but the north of the country was not liberated until May 1945. Many starved that frozen winter until supply lines were re-opened and food drops were made by Allied forces.

Can you imagine living through all that?

Johan was released from forced labor in March 1945 and it took several months for him to make his way back to Rotterdam from western Germany where he was held. With the Netherlands in shambles and much rebuilding required, the two would not marry until 1951. I have often wondered if they would have married if the war had not happened…….

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The Effects on Researchers

You will find as you do this work, not only your bloodline ancestors show up for healing, but ancestors of those whom you are in relationship with (lover, friend, etc.). It has also been my experience that the ancestors of my clients and colleagues also show up. The ancestors seek out those they know can help them. You are allowed to say no and send them away. Or send them away for now. Boundaries are important!

Over time I began to see patterns in my family, this man's family, and as I was living back and forth between Chicago and the Netherlands and traveling a lot to battlefields, cemeteries, museums, and speaking with many people in Europe about their family's war experiences, I learned a lot about European collective war trauma and patterns.

Patterns of beliefs, behaviors, and trauma. Patterns of silence and secrets. I heard stories about some of my family members that were completely false, as proven by the military records, yet were told to protect the dead. Stories that were told to protect the living. Stories that in the end, harmed everyone including the descendants like me. Stories that led to a lot of unanswered questions - especially, 'Would you have married him or her, if the war had not happened?'

The World Wars affected everyone whether they served in combat, behind the lines, on the home front, or were civilians living through the hell or waiting at home. Veterans were told to stay silent on so many things that happened. Many veterans and civilians could not reconcile what they were forced to do or chose to do to stay alive and therefore could not share their experiences.

The common emotions surrounding them were shame, anger, hatred, guilt and survivor's guilt, grief, a sense of loss of so many things. Many people, especially in Europe and the Pacific, made choices to survive and keep their children alive, that they likely had some regrets about later. Many women were publicly shamed or harmed because of choices they made to stay alive. Their descendants and all of humanity carry these things.

All of humanity carries the sins & patterns of the fathers along with the unresolved & unintegrated traumas. Now is the time to heal.

~ Jennifer Holik

Everyone was changed by war. Even as we talk about WWII in this article, if you spend time looking at your family’s beliefs, behaviors, patterns, and traumas from any war, you will discover similarities. All the unprocessed grief, trauma, and experiences, are passed down the generations. YOU are likely suffering on some level or carrying your ancestors’ pain, unfulfilled wishes and dreams, and trauma.

The big difference between what our ancestors experienced and what is being triggered in us to heal…..we have the tools and resources and time, to explore whatever is showing up and heal.

When we heal one, we heal all.

If you would like to learn more, hear my story, and learn how to identify these patterns and heal, explore my webinars, including Family's War Secrets webinar. Through two webinars, you will learn how to use several tools to help you journey into your family's past. To discover beliefs, behaviors, and patterns that have held you back, created blocks, or issues in your life. We can heal all of this.

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Do you Carry your Ancestors' WWII Trauma?