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We have seen the celebrated enemy-turned-hero in Schindler's List
(Steven Spielberg), a deeply moving portrait of Oscar Schindler,
a German who saved hundreds of Jews from concentration camps.
Margarethe
Von Trotta, however, chose a different route. This celebrated
German director has taken a less sensational approach in her portrayal
of the persecution of the Jews. Refusing to make a "Hollywood
style" picture, she made "Rosenstrasse" (2003),
intending to honestly depict a historical event.
"Rosenstrasse"
is the story of an Aryan German woman, Lena Fisher (Katja Riemann),
whose husband (Martin Feifel) is Jewish, and is taken away by
the Nazis to a building on Rosenstrasse.
Lena
waits outside the building, day after day, with other women in
her position. Here she meets Ruth (Svea Lohde) a little girl whose
mother (Lena Stolze) was also taken by the Nazis. Lena tells the
story of Ruth and she in flashback, to Ruth's grown American daughter,
Hanmah, (Maria Schrader), a woman searching for answers about
her mother's past.
Historically,
the remaining Jewish spouses of native-born Germans were taken
on Feb. 27, 1943 as the last big action to remove the Jews from
Berlin.
Goebbels
called this act "Judenfrei" ("Jew-free").
His goal was for the capital city, Berlin, to be completely Aryan,
to celebrate Hitler's 54th birthday, later that year.
98
percent of German Jews that survived World War II were of mixed
marriages, like those presented in "Rosenstrasse." The
prisoners at Rosenstrasse were eventually released, and tried
to hide themselves until the end of the war.
No
one is really sure why this release occurred, but it possibly
was due to the fact as time wore on, more and more women and families
went to protest at the building.
Goebbels
feared a scandal. He was also concerned that people were starting
to mistrust the German government, as the Rosenstrasse imprisonments
occurred after the German defeat as Stalingrad.
Von Trotta used this fact to explain why she did not show the
guards acting violently towards the crowd.
"If
Stalingrad had not happened before," she remarked, "[the
guards] would have been much more cruel with the women."
Born
in Berlin, in 1942, Von Trotta lived in Germany until the 1960s,
when she moved to Paris. She began to work with films, first collaborating
on scripts, then co-directing, and eventually acting.
In
1978, she directed" Zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages, Das"
(The Second Awakening of Christa Klages); her first independent
film. She appeared last week at Brandeis University and the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston, giving talks and answering questions about
her work.
"Rosenstrasse"
is rich with symbolism, yet maintains historical integrity. Von
Trotta used mirrors to communicate how Ruth became "vulnerable."
Ruth "refuses to speak about [her past]" and symbolically
cannot look at her reflection. Lena returns a ring to Ruth's daughter,
one that Ruth defiantly threw back at Lena. This act was Ruth's
way of separating herself from Lena, before she moved to America
as a young woman.
Von
Trotta felt the ring showed how "the generations came together,"
particularly in a scene where Lena hands Hannah the ring. The
director felt it was unnecessary to place Ruth, Hannah and Lena
in the same scene for to do so would have formed the sentimental
"Hollywood" ending Von Trotta seemed to vehemently despise.
When
asked why she made "Rosenstrasse," Von Trotta replied
proudly, "I am a German."
She
said she wanted to dispel the misconception that all Germans were
villains and sympathizers with Hitler. Ironically, the Nazis preached
"faithfulness" but the women who waited at Rosenstrasse
were truly devoted to love, not the Nazi regime.
"They
showed how much they loved their husbands," she said, by
waiting faithfully for their release. The prisoner's liberation
is described as "a little ray of light in the darkness,"
but it is truly the strong, defiant women who shone, and proved
love transcends the boundaries of race, religion, government and
distance.
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