Oct 21, 2008
A Woman in Berlin
This week a new German movie opens in Berlin. It is based on the diary of the journalist Marta Hillers, who began writing on Friday, April 20, 1945, as the Red Army advanced on Berlin. The movie reminds us of events that Germans have chosen to forget for more than sixty years. Whatever else they may have experienced at that time, American and British women were spared that fate.
"The German soldiers came back from the war and did not want to know about the humiliation of their wives, daughters, even mothers. There was a double silence: the men about what they did on the front; the women about their suffering," explains Nina Hoss, who plays the lead role in the film.
"The German soldiers came back from the war and did not want to know about the humiliation of their wives, daughters, even mothers. There was a double silence: the men about what they did on the front; the women about their suffering," explains Nina Hoss, who plays the lead role in the film.