Dr. Miller answers: “The children systematically subjected to obedience drill around the turn of the century were not only exposed to corporal ‘correction’ but also to severe emotional deprivation. The upbringing manuals of the day described physical demonstrations of affection ... as indications of a doting, mollycoddling attitude. Parents were warned of the disastrous effects of spoiling their children, a form of indulgence entirely incompatible with the prevalent ideal of rigor and severity.”
An example is this excerpt from Wie erziehen wir unseren Sohn Benjamin? How Shall We Rear our Son Benjamin?], a 1902 manual by A. Mathias, quoted in For Your Own Good: “Is it not doting when the baby is coddled and pampered in every way from infancy? Instead of accustoming the baby from the very first day of his life on earth to discipline and regularity in his intake of nourishment ... doting lets itself be guided by the infant’s crying ... Doting ... allows itself to be dominated by a blind desire to be kind, as if this were a natural instinct; it permits when it should forbid, is lenient when it should punish.…
“It is the opposite of true love, which does not shrink from punishment. The Bible says, ‘he who loves his son chastises him often with the rod, that he may be his joy when he grows up’ ...and ‘Pamper your child and he will be a terror, indulge him and he will bring you grief ‘” Thus we have found the roots of “tough love,” an extreme attempt to control and suppress.
In her discussion of the Nazis Dr. Miller says, “The rigorous obedience training [of Eichmann, Himmler, Hoess, etc.] in earliest infancy stunted the development of such human capacities as compassion and pity for the sufferings of others. They were incapable of emotion in the face of misfortune... Their total emotional atrophy enabled the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes imaginable to function ‘normally’....
“Dr. Mengele could perform the most cruel experiments on Jewish children in Auschwitz and then live for 30 years like a ‘normal,’ well-adjusted man... only men and women who had experienced mental and physical cruelty in the first weeks and months of life ... could possibly have let themselves be made into Hitler’s willing executioners ... no amount of indoctrination alone, at school or wherever, will unleash hatred in a person who has no preconditions in that direction.”
V. ABUSIVE TREATMENT CONTINUED IN THE 1900s
It is not to be supposed that the severe treatment of children characteristic under the Nazis was markedly less so elsewhere. The public school philosophy and system was largely developed from German models, the Prussian discipline, Teutonic precision, and authoritarian ethic was much admired by the many millions of European immigrants during the 19th century. An estimated one million-plus German-speaking immigrants arrived during the decade of 1840-1850 alone. The German gymnasium, with its military-oriented, strict, and systematic suppression of school children suited a nation’s school system whose task it was to mold and coerce its second-generation immigrant pupils into one, loyal, obedient citizenry.
http://www.nopunish.net/pwp-ch11.htm
The above is not the article that I was referring to but this gives you an idea of what I am talking about......I do want to find that other article...it was the most detailed, atrocious document I have ever read....and believe me when I say, I have read tons of material.....about serial killers, pornographers, concentration camps, etc. The article I am referring to was one of the worst thing I had ever read....right up there with Dr. Mengele (but it was perpetrated by the parents.)
Where you born in Germany? Possibly but I'll bet, not. Are you a US citizen? I'll venture a guess, Yes! Then you are NOT 100% German. My answer to those questions is YES, NO! I AM 100% German! therefore I'll use my personal experience growing up with German parents, Opa/Oma, Unkle, Tante. The strict parenting style of my German family kept me from being a juvenile delinquent. I THANK my German family for their Prussian discipline, Teutonic precision, and authoritarian ethic. I have been a productive adult with good/kind productive children and grandchildren who will grow up to be good/kind and productive.
"I have read tons of material.....about serial killers, pornographers, concentration camps, etc."
IMO your choice of reading material has expanded the dark side of your mind to condem people you don't even know.
Oh, and just so you know, your BROAD statement "Many parents (especially German and Russian parents prior to 1930’s) were very cruel to young children."not only hit my German nerve. My Oma & Opa farmed in a German community in what was called Volhynia (USSR) before 1939. That's in the Ukraine. They were somehow able to somehow make a living, raise children, and keep their humanity. YOU have a soft life in the USA. They suffered thru government policies of starvation, the savagery of WWII but were the kindest people you'd ever meet.
Of course YOU, live in a lovely country where 1000 babies are aborted per day thanks to Planned Parenthood being government funded! That's almost 500,000 a year. Since 1999 that's 6,000,000 inocent children.
Remind me, what is it they say about living in a glass house?