Frauen. German Women Recall the Third Reich
by Alison Owings
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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. show more 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 it surprised the women themselves. Not since Marcel Ophuls's controversial film The Sorrow and the Pity have we been on such intimate terms with "the enemy." In this case, the story is that of the women, those who did not make policy but who lived with its effects and witnessed its results. What they did and did not do is not just a reflection on them and their country - it also leads us to question what actions we might have taken in their place. The interviews do not allow for easy, smug answers. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
3514. Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich, by Alison Owings (read 25 Dec 2001) This is a 1993 book which reports the interviews with 29 women who lived thru the Nazi period in Germany. I found the interviews consistently interesting, and the interviewees covered the gamut: women who resisted the Nazis to women who still felt Hitler was right! I felt it instructive and that it reminds us that we must be alert against those who would erode the system of law when seeking a goal, even if the goal seems eminently desirable. I know there are those today who would say we should use shortcuts in order to insure the conviction of the ones we feel are guilty.
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All Things Germany
321 works; 4 members
Author Information
7+ Works 312 Members
Alison Owings is a freelance writer and the author
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Frauen. German Women Recall the Third Reich
- Original title
- Frauen. German Women Recall the Third Reich
- Original publication date
- 1993; 1999 (German) (German)
- Important places
- Germany
- Important events
- World War II (1939 | 1945); World War II, German Home Front
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, Sexuality and Gender Studies
- DDC/MDS
- 943.086 — History & geography History of Europe Central Europe: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech, Poland, Hungary Historical periods of Germany Germany 1866- Third Reich 1933-1945
- LCC
- D811.5 .O885 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania History (General) World War II (1939-1945)
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 212
- Popularity
- 152,991
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.26)
- Languages
- English, German, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 2
