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Germany in New York City. Org Germany in NYC.org"A Woman in Berlin" - Interview with Nina Hoss After the Second World War, German women were known as "Trümmerfrauen" - the ones who helped to rebuild the country. But they were also victims of rape and devastation. What happened to them when the Russian Army marched in is not widely known. The film "A Woman in Berlin" (German title: Eine Frau in Berlin) - starting in New York this Friday, July 17, at the Angelika Film Center - tells the true story of Anonyma (Nina Hoss), who was a journalist and photographer before the war. In her desperation, she decides to look for an officer who could protect her. She meets the Russian officer Andrej (Evgeny Sidikhin) - an encounter which develops into a complex, symbiotic relationship that forces them to remain enemies until the bitter end. GermanyinNYC.org talked to the famous German actress Nina Hoss about her difficult role, why the movie is important and how much she loves New York. "A woman in Berlin" is an emotionally shocking movie. How did you prepare for such an intense and bruised character? I read tons of books about the time when the war was coming to an end and the Russians were marching in. There are not so many diaries like the one from Marta Hillers, which the movie is based on. But there are others, like ones from Russian soldiers, for example. Before accepting that role, I was only interested in the stories of the victims, the cruelties of the Nazis. This time I wanted to understand what German women felt - their men were away; they were frightened and hungry. There are documentaries such as the movie by Helke Sanders "Befreier und Befreite", where women talk about their experiences. That helped me a lot to reconstruct those times, what Anonyma felt and how she tried to overcome it. What drew you to the character of Anonyma? What fascinated me was her strength and sharp mind. Anonyma was an educated woman, very intelligent. At one point she realized that she had to make a decision, whether to live or die. She decided to get back at least a part of her dignity by not being the victim anymore. She made a deal with herself, and got engaged in a strange relationship to the high-ranking officer so he would protect her from the horde of other men. She wanted to survive and she did. Where did her strength come from? It was a time when every day, every hour, you had to fear for your life. You never knew if you would be shot when turning the next corner. Getting food and staying alive were the only tasks. These are such exceptional circumstances. You can find powers in yourself that you were never aware of. The more I got involved in the story the more I understood that she had this immense strength and power. She went her way. There are many different movies about the war and the Holocaust - only a few talk about what happened to women when the war was over. Why has it been a taboo for such a long time? After the war, Germans were loaded with guilt. They tried to understand what had happened in their country and how such an insanity could have taken place. There was no space to tell stories about German victims. Raping women is often used as a weapon in times of war. Through that cruel act against women, you can destroy their husbands, their whole families, their future - nothing will ever be the same again. Those women rarely found the right time to talk about their pain. They were busy rebuilding the house and getting food. Especially in Berlin. The "Trümmerfrauen" went through a lot. I guess, today, there is enough distance to tell their stories. How was the reaction from women in Germany? Most of the women who went through all that can't watch the movie, which is completely understandable. Too much pain would break them. But I heard from younger generations, like granddaughters, who went to see the movie to understand everything better. Many said they always felt there were some events in their grandmothers' life stories that remained untold. In some cases, that lead to first talks about the past, and some women started to open up. How do you think will the movie be perceived in the United States? I really don't know. But I could imagine that the perception will be more open-minded in the U.S. I think Americans can see it in the bigger picture, as one aspect of history. But I also think that it will tell them something new, something they did not know. Will you be here for the screening at Tribeca movie theater? I wish I could. But I am engaged in theater work in Germany right now. I am always very happy, though, when I get the chance to be in New York. It is such a great city, so lively. I had the best time, two or three years ago, when we ran Emilia Galotti in Brooklyn. That was an amazing and wonderful week. I love the atmosphere of New York. Any thoughts on moving to New York? I could see myself doing that. If I would have something to do there, definitely. Right now I have many theater engagements in Germany, so it is kind of hard to imagine. But yes, I would love to live in New York for a while. _______________________________________ If you are a German service provider in New York or know of somebody who offers services in German, please let us know , so that we can add this information to our new "service" category. Epilogue Johannes Rammund De Balliel-Lawrora, Executive Director of the German-American World Historical Society, in an Email to info@germanyinnyc.org wrote "I don't know whether I fit into the realm of being a service provider. I do know about what happened to German women and children after so-called hostilities ended and the Partisans and the Russian advance guard came into Germany from the east. I was raised in a completely German household by my maternal grandparents, but because of my Americanized name (John Raymond Lawrora), I was never bothered to much by Americans that were propergandized by the Allied nations and the lies that were transmitted by the media against the Germans. Most young women that had survived the bombings and firestorms perpetrated by the American and British up to the last days of the hostilities. I have not given my thoughts to many people, because they never figured the Germans as being victims. But they were, and it was not just the German women in Germany, but also the volkdeutsch in the Sudetenland, which is now the Czech Republic. The German women and children in the eastern provinces were not only raped and mutilated by the communist hordes, but many of them were murdered and raped to death. In my website (www.gawhs.org) (German-American World Historical Society), I have been given permission by survivors of the Sudetenland Holocaust as to what actually happened, and this, among other atrocities were kept a secret for sixty years by the United States and other countries, as to what actually happened for five years after hostilities had ended. The family that raised me came from Posen, Kingdom of Prussia, and I know a lot more about what actually happened then many people more learned than I. But, even though I was born in the United States, I did orchestrate a clothing drive for destitute Germans after the war, and I was dubbed a Nazi by many, because of my humanitarian acts. I, however, am extremely proud of my German and Prussian heritage, and will remain so until I die. What bothers me so much is that the the bolsheviks (who were Jewish communists) murdered 26 million christians in Russia in World War I. and many volkdeutsch (Black Sea Germans, Volga Germans, etc.) were also victims at that time. Then, when Stalin (who was not Jewish but Communists nevertheless) arrived on the scene, he had murdered more than 100 million christians in eastern Europe and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. But nothing is said about the atrocities committed by them. Actually, the genocide committed by these very cruel men, were put under the bed and forgotten. The German high ranking officers who attempted to assassinate Hitler (but didn't) were executed along with 5,000 friends, neighbors, relatives, housekeepers, lawyers, doctors, etc. I was threatened by certain people in various German-American organizations, when they discovered that I wanted the truth regarding the Germans known. For shame. They said why do you keep on bringing up old history. Old History! Then why do these people far and wide insist on referring to us as Nazis, when that is a far cry from the truth, and it is an insult and demeaning to us. I am listed with your organization, but I doubt that you or anyone else is awhere that I've been on a crusade to have the truth known. Very few people are aware that after World War I the so-called allies starved many Germans to death by having a blockade in the North and Baltic Seas. This blockade lasted for 12 years and after it was all over, the German nation ended up with Adolf Hitler, which was fostered on the German people by vengeful Allied Countries. It was also Eisenhower who starved one million POW's to death after the war; and enforced the Morgenthau Plan on a helpless country for three years, and after that time, changed course, and started to rearm the Germans again. You may not agree with my stance, but I cannot help the way I think or feel. The German-American statesmen have been taken out of the American and other country 'History Books' at the direction of one society in New York City. I was at their meetings several times and refused to sign their affadavits giving them permission to exercise a revisionist policy against the German people and nation. (I, and my organization, were virtual nobodys; but they wanted someone to blame for their revisionist objectives. I refuse to condemn all of the Germans for the atrocities of others which were then blamed on the Germans. I am not referring to the Holocaust. After World War I, which should never have happened, the Allies destroyed three democratic empires - the German Empire; the Austrian-Hungarian Empire; and the Ottoman Empire. All this to make the world safer. Safer from whom!!! What resulted was Nazism, and a good part of the blame goes back to the allies in World War I. These, ladies and gentlemen, are my thoughts; and until all of the truth is revealed, the Germans everywhere will continue to be ostracized for many crimes that they didn't even commit. The Germans were victims too!!!" -0- _____________________________________________ |
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