The Rosenstrasse today: the building in which the detainees were held no longer exists. A rose colored Litfaß column commemorates the event.
This book is a fascinating account of one of the most successful protests during the Nazi regime. When the Jewish partnerss in mixed-marriages were taken away by the Germans in February 1943 and temprarily held at Rosenstraße 2-4 (a welfare office for the Jewish community located in Central Berlin) the remaining spouses reacted immediately by protesting publicly in the Rosenstrasse.
Historian Nathan Stolzfus has produced a very detailed study of the Rosenstrasse Protest. He alternates its historical aspect with the personal testimonies he got from some of the survivors.
This episode shows that when they feared public unrest, Hitler and Goebbels preferred to give in rather than use force and terror. In the end, all the men who were detained at the Rosenstrasse were freed and the few who had already been sent to concentration camps were brought back.
On a more personal level, there were a few things I found quite interesting in this book:
- When pressurized by the German authorities, to file for a divorce, the Gentile spouses in the couples very rarely did so; only 7% actually left their spouses and more men than women ended their marriages.
- Most non-Jews became estranged from some of their friends or relatives, very often both. On the contrary they grew closer to their Jewish relatives.
- When your family has turned their backs on you, when you have endured a great amount of hostility from your neighbors, when you have transgressed petty laws for 10 years and have frequently been scared for your husband, protesting publicly outside the building where these people were detained seemed almost easy.
6 Comments
November 17, 2008 at 11:52 am
You are teaching us a lot about the Holocaust. I think the way you post in pieces about different topics is a good way to learn, because that whole period in history was so horrific, so painful.
November 17, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Thanks for the recommendation and perspective. I had heard about the Rosenstrasse when a movie of the same name came out some years ago (with Isabella Rossellini, I believe). Has anyone seen it? Does anyone recommend it?
November 17, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Shimshonit, the film was screened at the Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival 2005, so the film festival committee here at Rutgers liked it.
November 17, 2008 at 7:13 pm
To me, it’s mind-boggling that they “preferred to give in rather than use force and terror”. I mean, we can only imagine how different things would’ve been if the rest of the world had protested as well…
November 17, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Leora: Thank you; I’m learning too through my students’ projects and my own readings.
Shimshonit: You’re welcome!
Mrs.S.: Yes, it’s a question that crossed my mind and that some historians have raised.
November 18, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Fascinating- I never really knew about this. I, too, wonder what would have happened had more people taken a stand.