This was a less ugly alternative to being repeatedly raped by Red Army troops.It is this strategic act of compromise on which the film turns. What makes Anonyma/Hillers's position especially interesting is her attempt to take a degree of control over her circumstances: not only by choosing to write about her experiences, but, in a more practical sense, by seeking out a single Russian soldier, as many German women did, who would protect her in return for sexual intimacy and food. "You mustn't forget that the victory over the Germans is central to the Russians' self-consciousness." "I had the feeling that many were split on the issue," she says. It requires a lot of strength and honesty to be able to think five minutes after a rape that it is revenge for what the Germans did in Russia."ĭifficult too, said Hoss, was working alongside Russian actors for whom the Russian liberation of Nazi Germany is still a point of national pride. On the other hand she is impressive – amid all the horror she finds the strength to reflect on who the Russians are and why they are doing this to her. "I could not portray her simply as an innocent victim. "I had to ask myself, why did this young, educated, well-travelled German adopt the ideology of the National Socialists?" she says. Hoss is aware of the ambiguity of a character who was both a victim of the Russians and a convinced Nazi. She started her diary in a cellar on April 20 1945, just 10 days before Hitler's suicide, and is played in the film by Nina Hoss. She turned out to be the experienced journalist Marta Hillers. I found her completely infectious, even though I knew that there'd be a huge hue and cry when the film opened."Īfter its initial publication, the original book was quickly brushed under the carpet and forgotten about until 2003, when it was republished, two years after the identity of its author had been revealed following her death at the age of 90.
The recent release of a film adaptation, directed by Max Färberböck, has disturbed the hornet's nest again.Färberböck says the reason he wanted to make Anonyma was "the extraordinary courage of its author to speak about things that nobody wanted to know. Anonyma: A Woman in Berlin was seen in West Germany as a slight to the honour of the German nation – both the women who were raped and the men who were unable to protect them – while in East Germany it was viewed as being shockingly critical of the Soviet "heroes" who had defeated the Nazis. When a candid diary account of the horrors, written by a woman who had been in her mid-30s at the time, was first published in 1959, it caused an outcry.