Debating the Zeitgeist and Being Second Generation (Research Centre for German & Austrian Exile Studies Seminar)

The increase in racism during the Covid-19 pandemic has rekindled a residual fear among second-generation exiles of impending death and disaster, absorbed as a result of their parents having to flee their homeland for their lives. Miriam David discusses the cases of ten second-generation exiles, their diverse class, familial and social backgrounds. What united them was how they were affected by being the children of migrants, their personal and political lives – all see themselves as socialists and mainly feminists. Their awareness of their past has led to an urgent desire to contest the current racist and sexist Zeitgeist. Merilyn Moos focuses on how many of these exiles, influenced by their parents’ varying experiences of Nazism, became critical of present political praxis and became committed, in many different ways, to confronting and changing existing patterns of inequality. Aware in part as a result of their parents’ experiences of the ravages of racism, many have taken a stand against today’s growing racist threat. 

Author: Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies

Speaker(s): Miriam David and Merilyn Moos (London); Chair: Jana Buresova (Research Centre for German & Austrian Exile Studies, IMLR)

Organisations: Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies

Event date: Wednesday, 29 September 2021 - 6:00pm