Frauen Rise

Earlier this month I wrote about having seen Downfall a film which hronicles the last few days of Adolph Hitler's life. I also wrote about its message. That message was about the all-too human face of evil. Pastor Niemöller's famous quotation serves as a potent reminder of what ordinary people do:

First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist - so I said nothing.
Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat - so I did nothing.
Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist.
And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew - so I did little.
Then when they came for me, there was no one left who could stand up for me.

Pondering how the Holocaust could happen, psychologist Stanley Miligram performed experiments in the 1960s which showed that we humans are obedient to authority. Well, I recently found out a little known fact about World War II: beginning on 27 February 1943 and continuing for a week, hundreds of women in Berlin protested the abduction of their Jewish husbands. This protest "was the only public German protest against deportation of Jews. It shows what happened when German women confronted the regime and refused to abandon their Jewish spouses." Their husbands were set free and spared the horrors of Auschwitz.