Romanticized History and the Subjectivity of Success

While the events of the protest were very much real, the idea of its inherent success will always be subjective to some degree. To the women who fought for their husbands, the fact that they were released, no matter the circumstances, garnered it a success. Goebbels diary and many former Nazis deny its success, arguing they had never intended to deport these intermarried Jews at all. There is a definite divide among historians as to the success of the protest as a movement, beyond the emotionally rewarding story we know today, and we may never have a completely accurate telling of what happened.

 The Rosenstrasse protest suffers, as many historical movements do, from misinformation and sensationalization in mass media. Research and documentation began so late for the protest that it was swept up by the Women’s Movement to tell an emotionally rewarding tale of bravery to boost morale. From there, it became subject to a romantic version of itself that ignored any complex implications or other contexts regarding history or the war. The public idea of Rosenstrasse has much more weight than any historical input, and heavily favors the narrative of historian Nathan Stoltzfus despite evidence pointing to flaws in his version.

 This distancing furthers with the 2003 movie on the events of Rosenstrasse, also favoring the Stoltzfus narrative, and in 2017 with a new board game in which you play as one of the women protesters in a battle for romance.

 While the spirit of the protest rings true in these adaptations of history, it is at its core, fundamentally inaccurate. This is not to say the Rosenstrasse demonstration was entirely unsuccessful, or to demean the actions of the women of Rosenstrasse, simply that the idealized history has overtaken whichever history is the most accurate.

 Chapman, Frances. Eulogising History: The Rosenstrasse Protest in Myth and Memory. University of Sydney, 2009.