The Disappearance of a Movement

Following the events of Rosenstrasse, the protest virtually vanished from the public eye. It was not heard of or documented for twenty years, and only resurfaced during the 1960’s. Why did a protest, one of the only known protests during Nazi Germany, nearly become lost and forgotten to time? Why did it re-enter history in the 1960’s?

 While there is no confirmed reason, it can be theorized that the protesters status as “Aryans” was the main reason it was not a heavily documented story.  To tell a story of oppressed German women in a time directly following the genocide of millions of Jews would be in bad taste, given their inherent privilege. The events and subsequent success of the protest itself at its core come from this privilege. Had the protesters been Jewish, there would have no qualms about arresting or shooting them, but since these women were upstanding Germans, to smother them would cause an uproar among Germans. This can be said as well for the consideration taken into account for their Jewish husbands as well. Up until the protest they were exempt from deportation, and according to former Nazi’s involved, were seperated from the 5,000 and placed in Rosenstrasse as the Nazi’s had no intent to deport them at all. While this does not take away from the bravery exhibited by these intermarried families before and during the Rosenstrasse protest, it is the best reasoning we have for why it disappeared.

As for it’s return in the 1960’s, there are two main factors. The mid 60’s brought along the Women’s Movement, the second wave of feminism in the United States. American women fought for equal pay, against domestic violence, among other things. Up until the 60’s there was a lack in any historical movements or protests involving women that were documented, so historians took up the task of seeking them out. One of the fruits of their research was the Rosenstrasse protest. However, this ultimately led to the protest’s collective memory being heavily romanticized, which will be discussed in the next section of this exhibit.

 The other main factor attributed to the return of the protest to media was the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a major Nazi contributor. The trial received international publicity and brought forth the knowledge of many of the Nazi’s atrocities before and during the World War. Along with this came another boom in Holocaust studies, leading to the protests resurfacing.

Trial of Adolf Eichmann – The Station Master at Treblinka www.HolocaustResearchProject.org. Accessed December 05, 2017. http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/trials/eichmanntrial.html.

"Eichmann Trial." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed December 05, 2017. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005179#.

EichmannTrialEN. "Eichmann trial - Session No. 1." YouTube. March 09, 2011. Accessed December 05, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv6xbeVozhU.

Walsh, Kenneth T. "The 1960s: A Decade of Change for Women." U.S. News & World Report. Accessed December 05, 2017.