- há 6 semanas
German women may be perceived as passive witnesses to the horrific crimes committed by the Nazi regime, but many were active participants that were as brutal and merciless as their better-known, male counterparts. Over the past 15 years, a new generation of international historians has been digging into the truth of how deeply the Third Reich’s women were involved in the atrocities. Combining their fresh analyses with striking archival footage, this film reveals previously unknown stories about the women who refused to live in the shadow of Nazi men.
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00:00THE CITY IN BRAZIL
00:02THE CITY IN BRAZIL
00:04THE CITY IN BRAZIL
00:06THE CITY IN BRAZIL
00:08THE CITY IN BRAZIL
00:10THE CITY IN BRAZIL
00:12Under the Third Reich
00:14Hundreds of thousands of women
00:16took up active service within the regime
00:26Their names were Hildegard
00:28Liesel, Erna
00:32During the Second World War
00:34these secretaries, doctors
00:36wives of SS officers or
00:38concentration camp guards
00:40participated in the criminal policies
00:42carried out by the Nazis
00:50Accomplices
00:52and in some cases murderers
00:54they were essential cogs in the wheel of the regime
00:56at the very heart of the Holocaust
00:58The Netherlands 1942
01:02Gertrud Slotke
01:04A 40-year-old secretary
01:06and member of the Nazi party
01:08worked in the German occupation administration
01:12She was a lynchpin
01:14in the Jewish affairs department
01:16This administration
01:18set up in all the countries
01:20occupied by the Nazis
01:22in the Jewish affairs department
01:24This administration
01:26set up in all the countries
01:28occupied by the Third Reich
01:30was in charge of organizing
01:32the deportation of millions of European Jews
01:34to concentration and extermination camps
01:36to concentration and extermination camps
01:38as part of the final solution
01:40Gertrud Slotke
01:42quickly assumed responsibilities
01:44This came about because her superior left a sort of vacuum
01:56He was not often present
01:58So she took advantage of this opportunity in a very classic way
02:02and took over in order to fulfill her own ambitions
02:04and implement her own ideas
02:06Gertrud Slotke
02:08Gertrud Slotke regularly visited Westerbork
02:10the Netherlands main transit camp
02:12from where most of the Dutch deportation convoys
02:14from where most of the Dutch deportation convoys
02:16and the Dutch deportation convoys
02:18and the Dutch deportation convoys
02:20and the Dutch deportation convoys
02:22towards concentration and extermination camps departed
02:24Gertrud Slotke
02:30Gertrud Slotke regularly visited Westerbork
02:32the Netherlands main transit camp
02:34from where most of the Dutch deportation convoys
02:36towards concentration and extermination camps
02:38departed
02:42Gertrud Slotke
02:44Gertrud Slotke
02:46Gertrud Slotke
02:48Gertrud Slotke
02:50Gertrud Slotke
02:54Gertrud Slotke
02:56Certain survivors told how she came and went
02:58into the camp like a bat
03:00always with a briefcase
03:02in hand
03:06one described her as being a ghost
03:08in this hackershop
03:12Gertrud Slotke's job was to fill
03:14the trains in accordance with她
03:16the instructions she had
03:18Armed with forms drawn up upon their arrival, Gertrude Slotke called in the prisoners one by one.
03:30She decided which Jews were to be given a respect because they were still useful to the German war industry.
03:38The others were in danger of being deported within 48 hours.
03:42The decisions that she was making were being made simultaneously all over Europe, by Germans, but by men.
03:53The fact that she's a woman is very unusual and rare.
03:59She was known for her incredible social coldness towards the people she dealt with on a daily basis.
04:07During the organization of deportations, she generally proved to be ruthless and decided upon deportation.
04:20You could say that the role was a schreibtischtäter or a desktop murderer.
04:30She was giving orders from behind a desk that were ultimately costing people lives.
04:43Gertrude Slotke dedicated herself tirelessly to her morbid work.
04:48She had no qualms about making her radical views known in high places.
04:58On several occasions, she went to Berlin and advocated stricter regulations.
05:04She remained at her post until the last deportation convoy left Westerbork.
05:20The one carrying Anne Frank and her family.
05:23Transit camps like Westerbork were anti-chambers of death.
05:38Active at all stages of the murderous policies of the Third Reich.
05:42Women were also at work at the very heart of the genocide, in the concentration and extermination camps.
05:48The Dutch resistance fighter, Selma van der Per, was deported to Ravensbruck, 80 kilometers from Berlin.
06:02At the age of 98, she remembers her arrival at the only women's camp in the concentration system.
06:09Outside were male guards, SS's, and female guards.
06:16They were shouting,
06:18schnell, schnell, schnell, quick, quick, quick, out, out.
06:22And they were having sticks.
06:26And so everybody was very much in a hurry and didn't dare to do anything.
06:31There were women.
06:33They were in gray uniform.
06:35That's why we called them mice.
06:36You tried to behave, you tried to do what you were told to do, but then everybody else did.
06:45Because if they didn't, we could be killed.
06:53Only drawings produced covertly, in particular those of Violette Rougier-Lecoq, who was also deported to Ravensbruck,
07:01show the role of the female guards at the camp.
07:03They all began their careers here, at Ravensbruck, the only guard training center for women.
07:18The official album of which shows a sanitized image, far from reality.
07:22New recruits were carefully chosen by the SS, according to one criterion.
07:30They were to have no specific competence and no experience of the prison environment, just so-called normal young women.
07:40At that time, a normal woman, referred to one who conformed to the regime,
07:49who thought that it was right to imprison his opponents, to persecute them.
07:57Meaning that the female guards weren't the only ones to think like that,
08:01but that it was the case with the whole of German society.
08:04They came from modest backgrounds, like Hildegard Lechert, who had previously been employed in a munitions factory.
08:15For these working-class women, who had worked from the age of 14, who had sometimes had difficult lives,
08:29working in the camps represented certain non-negligible advantages.
08:33Hildegard Lechert discovered that, in addition to a better salary, she would have health insurance
08:43and comfortable accommodation on a new housing estate, built by deportees.
08:50But that wasn't all.
08:54When she came to the camp, she was already looking after two children.
08:58It was handy for her, because Ravensbruck also had a nursery school.
09:03So, she easily fitted into the SS community.
09:11The rise in social status of Hildegard Lechert and her colleagues
09:15is even apparent in the uniform which they were given.
09:19Gray, like that of a soldier, with boots like those of the SS, the elite Nazi corps.
09:25These new wardens were quite proud.
09:35Some of them had photographs taken in their uniforms, which they sent to their families.
09:43In a certain way, this was an expression of their pride.
09:46For the first time, they held a position of authority.
09:57The violent apprenticeship could begin.
10:00The ethnologist, Germaine Tillion, deported to Ravensbruck in 1943, remembered precisely.
10:13A small warden, 20 years of age, was so little aware of correct behavior at the camp on the day of her arrival,
10:20that she said, excuse me, when she passed in front of a prisoner.
10:25It took her exactly four days to adapt.
10:31The new wardens followed experienced ones,
10:34their training being a process of learning by doing.
10:37They observed the workings of the entire system and reproduced the way in which things were done.
10:41They were told, you have the power here, and you can dominate the others, who are not necessarily human beings.
10:54So they thought, I kick a detainee once, I see that nothing happens, I am not held to account,
11:00there are no consequences for me, I am not sanctioned, and I feel all-powerful.
11:04Out of 3,500 camp guards trained at Ravensbruck, only a handful refused the job.
11:18There were three women who, after arriving, said to themselves,
11:22This is absolutely terrible.
11:25They said that they didn't want to remain.
11:29Obviously, they couldn't leave as easily as that,
11:31but in the end, there were no reprisals, and they simply went back home.
11:38This shows that it was possible to refuse for reasons of conscience.
11:47Hildegard Lechert did not have such scruples.
11:51In October 1942, having become a warden,
11:55she began her deadly career in the Majdanek camp in Poland.
12:01The epicenter of the Holocaust.
12:08Majdanek was one of the six extermination camps built by the Nazis.
12:11In terms of status, the guards were not directly implicated in the murder of deportees.
12:32They weren't present during the gassing.
12:39However, they were very involved in preparatory work.
12:45At Majdanek, most of the detonates did not die in the gas chambers,
12:50but from abuse or illness.
12:52So it is quite clear that the camp wardens had a lot of responsibility for what happened to them.
13:03Hildegard Lechert was nicknamed Bloody Brigida by the deportees
13:07because of her extreme violence.
13:09Every morning, during roll call, which could last for hours,
13:18she decided who was fit for forced labor and who would be gassed.
13:24One survivor recalled,
13:26Brigida would appear with several SS men who would point fingers at certain women.
13:33Brigida would fetch them from the row,
13:35yanking them by their shoulders or by their hair or ears.
13:39Brigida always had a smile on her face as she worked.
13:43She struck our heads and faces in a dreadful manner with her thick, long whip.
13:48This violence was also often an escalation game
13:57between an SS officer and a warden.
14:05Many female wardens tried to gain respect from their superiors
14:09by proving that they were just as capable of violence as them.
14:15Simply to legitimize their own position in this system of violence.
14:26The survivor, Hannah Narkievicz-Zhodko, recalled,
14:31A 25-year-old female prisoner was caught with turnips.
14:36An SS man began carrying out punishment.
14:39Lechert jumped forward, grabbed the whip out of his hand
14:42and began whipping with all the strength she could muster.
14:46Apparently, the SS man wasn't whipping hard enough to suit Frau Lechert.
14:54Hildegard Lechert interpreted the rules in a way
14:58that she could do whatever she wanted.
15:03We know that she trampled one detainee to death.
15:06The systematic daily violence of the female wardens
15:20ended up breaking the deportees,
15:23who were already exhausted from lack of hygiene
15:26and the strenuous forced labor.
15:28At Ravensbrook, Selma van der Peer tried at all costs
15:40to avoid going to the infirmary.
15:44She was taken there after having been beaten unconscious.
15:48Two girls holed me up for the counting
15:55and then took me to the river, to the hospital.
15:59And I was very scared.
16:02Because you knew it was very dangerous
16:04to be taken to the hospital.
16:12Selma knew that few deportees
16:14left the Ravensbrook Hospital alive.
16:18I was so badly treated
16:21that the officer in the guard
16:23who was talking there to a German nurse
16:26said,
16:27I thought that Dutch woman would be dead by now.
16:32And I saw terrible things happening there.
16:35People being thrown from the third floor down
16:38because they couldn't get themselves.
16:40They couldn't do it on their own.
16:42It was terrible.
16:43Hertha Oberhäuser,
16:49the ambitious medical student
16:50for whom the Hitler youth
16:52had been a first stepping stone,
16:54had worked in this hospital since 1940.
17:00It was an early opportunity in her career.
17:03Admitted into this closed, masculine domain,
17:06she was the only female doctor in the camp
17:08for nearly two and a half years.
17:13As of the summer of 1942,
17:16under the direction of the personal doctor of Himmler,
17:19the head of the SS,
17:21she participated in a special program,
17:23finding treatments for wounded soldiers.
17:32For Hertha,
17:34it was an unexpected promotion.
17:38It was practically impossible
17:40for a woman in Germany
17:41to enter a surgical unit.
17:43It was only upon arriving
17:45at Ravensbrück concentration camp
17:47that I had this possibility.
17:53Hertha and her colleagues
17:55carried out particularly sadistic experiments
17:58on 86 deportees.
18:01They inflicted wounds on them
18:03to provoke gangrene.
18:04To this effect,
18:10foreign bodies were implanted
18:12in these women,
18:13mainly in the legs.
18:16Various foreign bodies were used,
18:18such as wood, shrapnel,
18:20anything that soldiers
18:22might be injured with in the field.
18:26Then they observed
18:27the evolution of these wounds.
18:34Among these guinea pigs
18:36were Polish resistance fighters
18:38who nicknamed themselves
18:40the Kanyinchen,
18:41or laboratory rabbits.
18:48Risking their lives,
18:50they retrieved a camera
18:51found in the requested affairs
18:53of another sport
18:54and secretly photographed each other.
18:57They passed the film
19:05to Germaine Tillion
19:06in the hope that this visual proof
19:08might survive the war.
19:16Some of them
19:17succumbed to these experiments.
19:27The widespread violence
19:34of the camps
19:35spread beyond the watchtowers
19:37and the barbed wire.
19:39It contaminated
19:40the domestic environment,
19:42that of the SS wives.
19:49These families lived
19:51in the immediate vicinity
19:52of the concentration camps.
19:57These housewives
20:01lived an upper-middle-class
20:03family life,
20:04well-ordered
20:05and completely normal
20:07in appearance.
20:08Children were sometimes
20:16born in these places.
20:22And of course,
20:23People came to visit.
20:25Through conversations
20:26with other wives,
20:27they had quite a clear idea
20:29of what happened
20:30in the camps.
20:34It would be absurd
20:35to imagine
20:36that these wives
20:37could live just next
20:38to the concentration camps
20:40for years
20:40without noticing anything.
20:56Liesel Wilhaus,
20:58who had had so much trouble
20:59having her marriage
21:00confirmed by the SS,
21:02since 1942
21:03lived with her daughter
21:05opposite the Janowska camp,
21:07where her husband,
21:08Gustav,
21:09was commandant
21:10in occupied Poland.
21:15She lived alongside the camp,
21:18in the house
21:18which went with
21:19her husband's position.
21:21For comfort,
21:23She had a balcony built.
21:25The tango of death
21:34played by deportees
21:36was regularly to be heard
21:38coming from the camp.
21:44This was the sign
21:45that acts of torture
21:46were currently being
21:47perpetrated by the SS.
21:48One of the prisoners,
21:53Ziv Porat,
21:54secretly made drawings
21:56which show this barbarity.
22:01Janowska was one
22:02of the worst
22:02Nazi killing centers.
22:05The cruelty was extreme.
22:06The violence
22:13It was just a few meters away.
22:16Death and slaughter
22:17It was happening so close.
22:20Detainees were even
22:21employed in these houses,
22:22taking care of upkeep
22:23in those very gardens.
22:26Before the eyes
22:27of the family,
22:28before the eyes
22:29of the wife,
22:31before the eyes
22:31of the children.
22:32On several occasions,
22:38in 1942 and 1943,
22:42Liesel stepped out
22:43of her role
22:44as a housewife.
22:47A former detainee
22:48recalled,
22:51When guests came
22:52to pay a visit
22:53to the Willhaus family,
22:55she gave a display
22:56of her marksmanship
22:57by shooting detainees
22:59in the camp
22:59to the delight
23:00of the others.
23:02The little girl
23:06of the house
23:06applauded enthusiastically.
23:10They were socializing
23:12her in a way
23:13that made it seem
23:14like this was
23:15an acceptable
23:15form of recreation.
23:20The murders
23:21by Liesel Willhaus
23:22were not considered
23:23to be Nazi crimes.
23:26However,
23:27They were not unusual.
23:28She's not the only one
23:31who did this.
23:33Commandant's wives
23:34having the villa
23:35at the camp
23:36or within the camp
23:37with the balcony
23:38and the shooting
23:40from the balcony
23:41down into the camp.
23:42That scene,
23:43that was rather common,
23:45actually.
23:45In this atmosphere
23:54of total impunity,
23:58Erna Petri,
23:59who had grown up
24:00in a family
24:00of poor country folk,
24:02lived a life
24:02of the lady of the manor
24:04on an agricultural domain
24:05which her husband managed
24:07on behalf of the SS.
24:08At the age of 23,
24:11she was mother
24:12to two children.
24:21In September 1943,
24:24she brought back
24:24to the house
24:25six Jewish children
24:26who had managed
24:27to escape
24:28from a deportation convoy
24:29and who had hidden
24:30at the side of the road.
24:33They followed her
24:35back to the farm.
24:36They trusted her.
24:40They saw her
24:40in her apron
24:43as a maternal figure.
24:48Her husband
24:49wasn't around,
24:50but she knew
24:50what to do.
24:53She'd overheard
24:54her husband
24:55with her colleagues.
24:56She was serving them
24:56cake and coffee
24:57on the terrace
24:58of their manor
24:59and they were talking
25:01about doling bullets
25:02out in the back
25:03of the neck
25:04and so she
25:05and she kind of
25:06followed that.
25:06That's how she learned.
25:07She didn't go
25:08through any training.
25:09She was the wife
25:09of an SS officer
25:10and she did that
25:12and showed no remorse.
25:19These individual crimes
25:20committed in the
25:21domestic environment
25:22were part of the genocide.
25:26The murderous wives
25:27of the SS,
25:28such as Liesel
25:29and Erna,
25:30saw no contradiction
25:31with their status
25:32as mothers
25:32in these actions.
25:35They're not
25:36homicidal maniacs.
25:39They're not
25:40Real sociopaths.
25:43Violence is a necessity
25:45as a sign
25:46of the strength
25:47of the race,
25:47as a tool
25:50of terror
25:52for securing
25:52their power.
25:54That was part
25:55of the Nazi ideology.
26:01After the war,
26:03Erna stated,
26:03in those times,
26:06as I carried out
26:07the shootings,
26:08I was barely 25 years old,
26:10still young
26:10and inexperienced.
26:12I lived only among
26:13SS men
26:14who carried out
26:15shootings of Jewish
26:16people.
26:17I wanted to prove
26:18myself to the SS men.
26:20I wanted to show them
26:21that I, as a woman,
26:22I could conduct myself
26:23Like a man.
26:25So I shot
26:26six Jewish children.
26:27The war,
26:40which was intended
26:41to impose
26:41the domination
26:42of the Third Reich
26:43over Europe,
26:44turned to the advantage
26:45of the Allies.
26:47Like all Germans
26:48settled in the East,
26:50Lieselotter,
26:51Erna,
26:51and Liesel
26:51fled before the Red Army
26:53with one hope.
26:56That of returning
26:57home.
26:59As they advanced,
27:01the Soviets
27:02and the Anglo-Americans
27:03discovered the horror
27:04of the camps.
27:21At Ravensbruck,
27:23Selma van der Per,
27:24the Dutch resistance fighter,
27:26was liberated
27:26by the Red Cross
27:27in April 1945,
27:29a week before
27:30the arrival
27:30of the Red Army.
27:32A nice man
27:33gave me a cigarette
27:35and he gave me
27:38a light
27:38on the first cigarette
27:40in all this time
27:41and my guard,
27:45my female guard,
27:46was hanging out
27:47of the window
27:47of her barrack
27:50and she called out
27:51and said,
27:52Don't smoke,
27:53Don't smoke,
27:53Marga.
27:54And he said,
27:56the boy said,
27:57she has nothing
27:58to tell you about
27:59anymore,
27:59You can smoke.
28:00as much as you like,
28:01You are free.
28:03It was that moment
28:04that I knew
28:04I was free.
28:05The guards
28:13who were still
28:13inside the camps
28:14were arrested.
28:20For the stunned allies,
28:22judging the crimes
28:23of the Third Reich
28:24It was imperative.
28:25The female guards
28:36were amongst the first
28:37to be judged
28:38for their crimes
28:39as of the autumn
28:40of 1945
28:41occupied Germany
28:42as in communist Poland.
28:47For the first time,
28:50Hildegard Lechert,
28:51nicknamed Bloody Brigida,
28:53appeared in front
28:54of the cameras.
28:55She appeared
28:59before the Supreme
28:59National Tribunal
29:00in Krakow
29:01for crimes committed
29:03at Auschwitz,
29:04where she worked
29:05after Ravensbrück
29:06and Meideneck.
29:10Amongst the accused
29:11There were four other
29:12female guards
29:13and 35 SS men.
29:18For many of the journalists
29:20and judges of the time,
29:22the crimes of the female guards
29:23were incomprehensible.
29:25How could women
29:27be involved
29:28In such violence?
29:35The reasoning
29:36It was as follows.
29:37Women are peace-loving
29:39by nature.
29:41They have a maternal streak
29:43and therefore could not
29:47have committed acts
29:48of violence.
29:50Today,
29:51It's still difficult.
29:53to imagine that women
29:54could have been criminals,
29:56Nazi criminals.
29:58and they have been killed.
29:59During the post-war trials,
30:06judges adhered to this
30:07gender-based vision
30:09and condemned
30:10only 77 female guards
30:12out of 3,500.
30:15Amongst them,
30:16most were given
30:17prison terms
30:17like Hildegard Lechert,
30:19who was sentenced
30:20to 15 years
30:21for the ill treatment
30:22that she inflicted
30:23upon deportees.
30:24In total,
30:26only 25 of these women
30:28were condemned to death
30:29for being chief warden
30:32or because
30:34in the eyes
30:34of the judges
30:35their particularly
30:36sadistic crimes
30:37had stripped them
30:38of their femininity.
30:39They deserved
30:42to be sentenced
30:43as men.
30:51Another woman,
30:53directly implicated
30:54in Nazi crimes,
30:55faced the death penalty.
30:59Before the International Tribunal
31:01in Nuremberg,
31:02a year after the trials
31:03of the principal heads
31:04of the Reich,
31:0523 doctors showed up.
31:07Amongst them,
31:10Hertha Oberhäuser.
31:15Accused of crimes
31:16against humanity,
31:17she faced questions
31:18on the experiments
31:19on human guinea pigs
31:20in which she had participated.
31:22of the right leg,
31:24including thigh,
31:26leg and foot.
31:29Most remarkable finding
31:31in Miss Ditto's case...
31:35Four Polish victims
31:36who had survived deportation
31:38bore witness
31:39to the torture
31:40which Hertha Oberhäuser
31:42had inflicted upon them.
31:43Would you please stand up?
31:45with only
31:46You don't understand.
31:47the English
31:49and will you gradually
31:50turn around,
31:51Turn around very slowly.
31:53You can compare here
31:54the two legs
31:55and you notice
31:57the amount
31:58accurately
31:59the legs
32:00compared to the other.
32:04With her lawyers,
32:06Hertha Oberhäuser
32:06struck on a line
32:08of defense
32:08which was to be
32:09systematically taken up
32:10by women
32:11accused of crimes,
32:12perpetrated
32:13under the Nazis.
32:16In her defense,
32:18Hertha Oberhäuser
32:19used the image
32:20of the woman
32:20such as a tribunal
32:22and the prosecution
32:23undoubtedly saw her.
32:28She described herself
32:29as merely an assistant
32:31who was obliged
32:32to obey orders
32:33from her male superiors.
32:38On the 20th of September,
32:401947,
32:41The verdict was given.
32:43Military tribunal 1
32:45has found
32:45and judged you guilty
32:47of war crimes
32:48and crimes
32:48against humanity
32:49and sentences you,
32:51Bertha Oberhäuser,
32:53to imprisonment
32:54for a term
32:55of 20 years.
32:57It's clear
32:58that in a certain way
32:59her strategy worked
33:01because many
33:02of her male colleagues
33:03were condemned
33:03to death.
33:11Out of the 20 years
33:12of prison
33:12to which she was
33:13sentenced,
33:14Hertha Oberhäuser
33:15only four served,
33:17being granted
33:18a reduction
33:18for good conduct.
33:23She opened
33:24a doctor's surgery
33:25in a small town
33:26in northern West Germany.
33:36Hertha Oberhäuser
33:37was not an exception.
33:38The denazification,
33:44which sought
33:44to purge
33:45German society,
33:46spared the women
33:47implicated in Nazi crimes
33:49even more
33:50than it did the men.
33:51Nobody asked them
33:53any embarrassing questions
33:55and they slipped
33:56easily through
33:57the judicial network.
34:02Annette Schuking
34:03weighed up the reasons
34:04for this indulgence
34:05each day.
34:08Having achieved
34:09her dream
34:09of becoming a magistrate,
34:11one of the first
34:11in West Germany,
34:13she couldn't submit
34:14the proof
34:15of mass shootings
34:16which she'd gathered
34:17during the war
34:17to the authorities.
34:18As she explains,
34:22It was impossible
34:23to speak openly
34:24to my colleagues
34:25who had been
34:26in the East.
34:27Former Nazis
34:28were everywhere.
34:33In West Germany,
34:34tracking down
34:35Nazi criminals
34:36It was not a priority.
34:38The new state
34:39needed to concentrate
34:39its strength
34:40Under construction.
34:41The family
34:49was all that remained
34:50for many people
34:51immediately after the war.
34:56Families were not
34:57to be destroyed
34:58by sending both
34:59the husband
34:59and the wife
35:00to prison.
35:01The women
35:07of the Reich
35:08began a new life.
35:10Married,
35:11I had children.
35:13As if the war
35:14had been
35:15a simple parenthesis.
35:17This is how it was
35:18for Lisa Lothar Meyer,
35:20the administrator
35:20of the Lieder district,
35:22who had the power
35:23of life or death
35:24over the workers
35:25in the ghetto.
35:27And for Liesel
35:27Willhaus,
35:28who had killed
35:29Janowska-Kamp-Deportees
35:31from her balcony.
35:33They're a chameleon effect.
35:35They just kind of,
35:38I don't know,
35:38reinvent themselves,
35:39Change their behavior.
35:46Among these women,
35:48very few were caught up
35:49by their past lives
35:50in the following decades.
35:51Liesel Willhaus
36:01was questioned
36:02simply as a witness
36:03during inquiries
36:04into crimes
36:05carried out
36:06at Janowska.
36:10Even though investigators
36:12had gathered
36:13Damning statements.
36:14One Sunday
36:17in April 1943,
36:19from the balcony
36:19of her house,
36:21in the presence
36:21of her four-year-old daughter,
36:23she fired on a group
36:24of about 20
36:25Jewish forced laborers
36:26who were working
36:27in the garden
36:27adjoining the house.
36:30At least two
36:31to four deportees died,
36:33including Jacob Helfel
36:34from Bobka.
36:39But the magistrates
36:41didn't consider
36:41these witness statements
36:43sufficient
36:43to charge Liesel Willhaus.
36:46Accusations needed
36:47mainly to be based
36:48upon written proof,
36:50orders.
36:53Liesel Willhaus
36:54definitively escaped
36:55the justice system.
37:01Even when investigators
37:05did manage
37:06to amass
37:07indisputable
37:08Material proof,
37:09the response
37:10from the judicial authorities
37:11was not in a line
37:13with the crimes committed.
37:18The trial of Gertrude Slotke
37:20in 1967
37:21was one of the most
37:22blatant examples.
37:26Along with her superiors,
37:28she was questioned
37:29concerning the deportation
37:30of Dutch Jews
37:31including Anne Frank
37:33who,
37:34with the publication
37:35of her diary,
37:36became the symbol
37:37of Holocaust victims.
37:45At the end
37:46of an 11-day hearing,
37:48Gertrude Slotke
37:49was sentenced
37:50to five years
37:51in prison
37:51for being an accomplice
37:52to crimes
37:53against humanity
37:54to the booking
37:55of the public.
38:01to this day
38:02she remains
38:03the only secretary
38:04to be sentenced.
38:15These trials,
38:16with similar verdicts,
38:18were a symbol
38:19for West German youth,
38:21that of a country
38:22which refused to look
38:23its Nazi past
38:24in the face.
38:30Protests were organized
38:31to the point
38:32of bursting into
38:33the courtroom
38:33at the third
38:34Maidenek trial
38:35when three of the seven
38:41female guards
38:41on trial
38:42were discharged
38:43through lack
38:43of incontrovertible proof.
38:51Hildegard Lechert,
38:53who had already
38:53been found guilty
38:54for crimes carried out
38:55at Auschwitz,
38:56was only to serve
38:57five out of the
38:58twelve years in prison
38:59to which she was sentenced
39:00on this occasion.
39:03But this trial
39:04It was a turning point.
39:08In German public opinion,
39:10it was the one
39:11which made the voices
39:12of victims
39:12of the Holocaust
39:13resonate.
39:16The documentary filmmaker
39:18Eberhard Fechner
39:19captured survivors
39:21statements
39:21for posterity.
39:22Before the camera,
39:32they spoke of
39:32the painful face-to-face
39:33with their torturers,
39:35particularly
39:36Hildegard Lechert.
39:37Fechner captured
39:54the provocative severity
39:55of Hildegard Lechert
39:57when she spoke
39:58of the sports.
39:59and they spoke of
40:00the police.
40:01If you have a heavy
40:01small finger,
40:02they have the whole
40:03hand.
40:08A staggering blow
40:09to the silence
40:10of German society.
40:11The documentary
40:13was seen by nearly
40:14two million viewers
40:15in 1984.
40:17It called for
40:18increased vigilance
40:19in a society
40:20beginning its work
40:21of remembrance.
40:25Like many others,
40:27Annette Schuking
40:27participated in
40:28in this movement.
40:31Some years earlier,
40:33she gave the evidence
40:34of mass shootings
40:35which she had collected
40:36to the Central Office
40:37for the Investigation
40:38of Nazi Crimes.
40:41But it was too late.
40:44The addresses
40:44had changed.
40:45The criminals
40:46could not be found.
40:48It seemed necessary
40:50for her to bear witness
40:51in order to break
40:52the powerful taboos
40:53which persisted
40:54in German society.
40:55She was horrified
40:59that people could say
41:00that none of it
41:01had happened.
41:03She was horrified
41:04that they could pretend
41:05that few people
41:06were aware.
41:08And she knew
41:09she wouldn't always
41:10be around.
41:13She wanted to furnish
41:14the proof
41:15as a witness
41:15to the events.
41:18A book.
41:19Something which
41:20couldn't be erased
41:21so that people
41:22couldn't say
41:22We didn't know.
41:28Annette Schuking
41:29died at the age
41:30of 97,
41:32two years after
41:33the publication
41:33of her secret diary
41:35written during the war.
41:36Within families,
41:42the work of remembrance
41:43painfully broke
41:44through the silence.
41:48Eighty years
41:48after the war,
41:50certain children
41:50dared to confront
41:51the past
41:52of their mothers.
41:54Like Anna Gret Jordan,
41:56who after death
41:57of Lise Lotter
41:58discovered the letters
41:59she had addressed
42:00to her lover
42:00during the war.
42:01There was a note
42:07on the suitcase
42:07which said
42:08to be burnt
42:10without reading
42:11after my death.
42:16I rediscovered
42:17my mother
42:17because it revealed
42:20facets of her
42:20which I didn't
42:21know beforehand.
42:25I also discovered
42:26how convinced
42:27she was
42:27by this ideology.
42:31At the end
42:33of 44,
42:34she still believed
42:35In a miracle.
42:38She still believed
42:40that when Hanweg
42:41returned from the war,
42:43they would leave
42:44together with his son
42:45and settle
42:46in the east,
42:49that they would run
42:49a large farming property
42:51and that the Führer
42:52would come to visit.
42:54For me,
42:55This was totally delirious.
42:59Yes,
42:59I was ashamed
43:00of my mother.
43:01and after that,
43:03I was angry.
43:06But I ended up
43:07saying to myself,
43:08you were born
43:09in 1951.
43:13I woke up myself
43:14no further responsibility
43:15in the matter.
43:17I finally handed
43:19over the letters.
43:21I didn't throw them away.
43:23I gave them
43:24And now that chapter
43:25of my life
43:26It is closed.
43:26And now I can start.
43:29reading other books
43:31and novels
43:31and not only
43:33this type of material.
43:43Anna Gret
43:44gave the letters
43:45and photos
43:46of her mother
43:46to the Institute
43:48of Contemporary History
43:49in Munich.
43:51The memory of the women
43:52of the Reich
43:53has become
43:54a historical object.
43:56While the judicial
43:57authorities fail
43:58to uncover their crimes
44:00and sanction them,
44:01the work of historians
44:02is to reveal
44:03this little-known area
44:04of the Holocaust,
44:06which questions
44:07this unspoken
44:08and unimagined
44:10women's side
44:10and the violence
44:12of which they are capable,
44:14underlining
44:15that genocide
44:16is the crime
44:17of an entire society.
44:19of an entire society.
44:30Amen.
45:00Amen.
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