'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

apes were collectively perceived as a taboo not fit for public discussion. In an interview
in her film BeFreier und Befreite, German feminist filmmaker Helke Sander states that
she is aware of only one single case where a woman, after being raped, filed an
application to be acknowledged as a victim of war (Sander and Johr168). In response to
Sander‟s statement, Schmidt-Harzbach, who has written extensively on the issue of
German women‟s rapes at the end of the Second World War, replies that it is remarkable
that the suffering of female German rape victims was considered socially taboo whereas
the suffering of male war victims was recognized by the state and openly discussed. She
states:
Ich finde sehr bezeichnend, daß Du bisher nur diesen einzigen Fall
rausgefunden hast. Denn ganz zu den Männern, deren
Gefangenschaft und Kreigsverletzungen gesellschaftlich anerkannt werden, die
auch Entschädigung bekommen, ist es bei Frauen nicht der Fall. Außerdem ist es
so, daß die Männer ihre traumatischen Erlebnisse bearbeiten können, das wird
ihnen gesellschaftlich eingeräumt. Sie können es in Vertriebenenverbänden, im
Veteranenverein, sie können das auch in der Literatur und in Filmen, d.h., sie
haben die Möglichkeit, mit dem, was kollektiv erfahren wurde, umzugehen und es
zu verarbeiten. Das haben die Frauen nicht. (Quoted in Sander and Johr 168) 62
Schmidt-Harzbach goes on to explain that during the post-war period German women did
not take the opportunity to form support groups in which to process their collective
trauma. She claims that the vast majority of German women did not speak publicly about
their suffering “[weil] es dadurch mit der Familie und den Männern besser auszuhalten
war” (Sander and Johr 168). 63 Thus, while Lene could have informed the authorities that
62 “I find it significant that so far you have discovered only this single instance. Because this was in
contrast to the men, whose imprisonment and war injuries were recognized and who also received
compensation, not the case with women. Moreover, men could work through their traumatic experiences,
society permitted them to do so. They could do this in displaced persons organizations, in veterans‟
associations, in literature and in film, that is to say, they had the opportunity to cope with and to work
through that which was experienced collectively. Women didn‟t have that [opportunity]” (quoted in Sander
and Johr 168).
63 “[T]hrough doing this they could get along better with their families and their men” (quoted in Sander
and Johr 168).
86