Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich

Owings, Alison

What were the women of Germany doing during the Third Reich? What were they thinking? And what do they have to say a half century later?In Frauen we hear their voices––most for the first time. Alison Owings interviewed and here records the words of twenty-nine German women who were there: Working for the Resistance. Joining the Nazi Party. Outsmarting the Gestapo. Disliking a Jewish neighbor. Hiding a Jewish friend. Witnessing "Kristallnacht." Witnessing the firebombing of Dresden. Shooting at Allied planes. Welcoming Allied troops. Being a prisoner. And being a guard. The women recall their own and others' enthusiasm, doubt, fear, fury, cowardice, guilt, and anguish.Alison Owings, in her pursuit of such memories, was invited into the homes of these women. Because she is neither Jewish nor German, and because she speaks fluent colloquial German, many of the women she interviewed felt comfortable enough with her to unlock the past. What they have to say will surprise Americans, just as they surprised the women themselves.

Idealism and Chasm: Frau Margarete Fischer Motherhood Times Ten, and Food to Spare: Frau Wilhelmne Haferkamp A Matter of Fate: Frau Marianne Karlsruhen National Socialism and Christianity: Frau Ursula Meyer-Semiles Retrospective Guilt: Frau Liselotte Otting The History Lesson: Frau Mathilde Mundt An “Exotic” Past: Frau Verona Groth A Cosmopolitan View of the World: Frau Maria von Lingen Learning How Communism Works: Frau Irene Burchert Solidarity and Survival: Frau Charlotte Müller “We Did Love our Führer, Really!”: Frau Ellen Frey Before, During, and After the Firebombing: Frau Ursula Kretzschmar The Ambivalence of Avoidance: Frau Martha Brixus From the Emperor to a Mud Hole: Frau Margarete Sasowski Rural Perspectives: Frau Barbara Amschel, Frau Anna Lieb, Frau Anna Maier A Modest Woman of the Resistance: Mrs. Freya von Moltke The Schisms of a “Flakwaffenhelferin”: Frau Erna Tietz On Megalomaniacs and Little People: Frau Anna Rigl Dissident Clergy and Dissident Actions: Frau Emmi Heinrich A Job in Its Own Category: Frau Anna Fest A Child Not of the Times: Frau Karma Rauhut “A Very Unpolitical Woman”: Frau Anne Hepp “I Was Alone. And I Had the Whole City Against Me.”: Frau Doktor Margret Blersch “I Am Never Dishonest.”: Frau Regina Frankenfeld Life as a Cabaret: Frau Christine Weihs A Natural Matter of Friendship: Frau Erna Dubnack Talking about Silence: Ms. Rita Kuhn Conclusion Glossary Acknowledgements Index