The forgotten side effect of war

I am currently reading a book called Motherland by Fern Schumer Chapman. It is a true story written by a woman and it is about her quest to find information about her ancestry. She knows nothing about her maternal family despite the fact that her own mother is still living and a prominent part of her life. Her mother escaped Germany just before the Holocaust began during WWII but she left her entire family behind.

This book tells alot about the effect that war can have on a person. After many decades, the author's mother still never talks of her past. She has no family photos displayed and escapes any situations were questions of the subject may come up. She never told her daughter stories of her past, family,or childhood. The author describes moments throughout her own childhood that showed her the pain that her mother is living with. She recalls "sometimes, when I walked past the bathroom while she was taking a bath, I would hear her repeating, over and over, words that began with a 'w,'. She was trying to master its sound, to rub out the 'v,' the last vestige of her German accent. It was her stain" (XI). The author describes her mother as a "survivor" and I found this very interesting. Many of us mourn the death of soldiers and we hope and pray for the ones that are currently risking their lives but once they return home safely, they are forgotten about. Their heroic duties are not forgotten, but their pain and mental damage is never recognized. What a person sees and does in war, the experiences and losses that they go through stay with them forever. This is definetely one of the horrible downsides of war. It is an issue that is very overlooked and often forgotten about.