Karma Rauhut
Karma Rauhut was born in the village of Glienicke-Nordbahn in 1925. Her father was a director of a bank but lost his job and his money as a result of the Wall Street Crash. As a child she observed great poverty: "I can remember as a child, that while travelling on the streetcar, people on the platform fell over from hunger... I saw people everywhere on the streets offering themselves for any work." (1)
Her father found work in a German bank in 1932 and was not a supporter of Adolf Hitler. Karma, who attended a private school in Berlin, also developed a hostility to the Nazi Party and refused to join the German Girls' League (BDM) that was part of the Hitler Youth movement. "One really had to be in the BDM. The trick was that I went to school (a private girls' school her mother had attended) in the city of Berlin, but lived so to speak in another district, so they never figured it out, because they had no communication with each other. In my village I always said more or less, I'm in it in Berlin. And at school I always said, I'm in the BDM at home. One could always create certain freedoms, right? But naturally the thing was, I did not have a uniform. And when there were big marches or school festivals, the teacher always said, Put on a black skirt and a white blouse, so it's not so noticeable. This odd jacket and the scarf and this leather scarf holder and the shoes, I would have died rather than put it on." (2)
Karma Rauhut got away with this because her headteacher was a former member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and was unsympathetic to Hitler's government. However, her next school was "quite Nazi-infested" and one day the headmaster of her school called her to his office and said: "Well, my dear child, I cannot give you your diploma. And I must tell you, you will never amount to anything. You are not in the BDM, you don't join the Party... You might become a worker, but you'll never be anything." Karma replied: "Well, the world is round. It revolves." The headmaster was furious with this comment and reported her to the authorities. (3)
Karma found living in Nazi Germany very difficult: "I must tell you completely honestly, I went through this time as in a dream. The way of living did not suit me, and I knew my parents were also completely opposed to it and friends, too, our whole circle of friends. And during the whole time I fled into a dream world. For me, America was simply the land of freedom. Up until America entered the war, we still could see American films, yes, Hollywood drivel. We went to every American film there was anywhere. We did not go to school and went to any matinee to watch every American film, no matter how bad. And collected pictures of the American actors there were then and they hung in our rooms... There were stores here where, if they knew you, you could get jazz records in the back room. And those of course were the things to have. That was just what you did." (4)
Karma felt guilty about not joining the resistance. "The government organizations were everywhere and the human beings reported each other and one watched the other... It was like you were in a spiderweb and the spider always noticed if something vibrated somewhere and did not ring true.... Where should one flee to? You could only do resistance if you took death into consideration. Or horrible torture and also torture for your whole family, and death and concentration camps. And we were not all heroes. We shat in our pants from fear. Not everyone is born to heroism... Where should we go? Switzerland... no one could get through. The worst things happened when people tried it. And France was occupied, Denmark was occupied, Italy was fascist, the whole Balkan lands were occupied. Poland. One had no more free room to flee to." (5)
In 1942 Karma Rauhut was forced to do Labour Service. (6) She was sent to a camp south of Berlin. "Around the camp were barbed wire and guard teams with dogs, and we had three or four female leaders in uniform. And each room was a guard... Every morning we had to get up at six o'clock... the flag was raised up high, a Nazi song had to be sung, and then we had to work within the camp." (7)
Karma Rauhut admitted that during the last couple of years of the Second World War she heard stories about extermination camps. "The reports about these insane cruelties did seep through. But you know, with all things that are so completely horrible, one does not comprehend it right. One does hear that Jews are being gassed... During the war we got really terrible soap. It swam on the water... And it was said it was made out of Jews." (8)
After the war Karma believes that the German people felt a lot of guilt about the atrocities committed by the Nazis. "I believe the Third Reich deformed people psychologically... our entire youths... were stolen from us... we only lived in shock, in fear... I grew up watching individuals repress everything. In a certain sense, we all are neurotic from it. We are fearful, in part dishonest, yes, and never have a good conscience. One always tried to repress it. I do it, too. I certainly repress a lot of things, because one always has fear and feelings of guilt. And my parents, too, for all practical purposes, did not get on with their lives after the war. My father committed suicide.... My mother... fled into alcohol, basically died from it." (9)
Karma Rauhut was interviewed by Alison Owings, for her book, Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich (1995). "I must be ashamed about it. We are the Germans and I cannot imagine that others are not ashamed. Maybe they do not admit it or maybe don't say it to you as a foreigner. Because the older people do have a kind of feeling of nationality and say, we cannot tell an American that we're ashamed, better we bite our tongues than admit it... The only kind of older German without it is a crazy Nazi, who's still a Nazi and thinks it's all good. But all the others, who did not do anything, let's say it completely straightforwardly. We all were cowardly and all were afraid and arranged ourselves, maneuvered ourselves through this life. We all have feelings of guilt and we all bad feelings of guilt."(10)
Primary Sources
(1) Karma Rauhut, interviewed by Alison Owings, for her book, Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich (1995)
I must tell you completely honestly, I went through this time as in a dream. The way of living did not suit me, and I knew my parents were also completely opposed to it and friends, too, our whole circle of friends. And during the whole time I fled into a dream world. For me, America was simply the land of freedom. Up until America entered the war, we still could see American films, yes, Hollywood drivel. We went to every American film there was anywhere. We did not go to school and went to any matinee to watch every American film, no matter how bad. And collected pictures of the American actors there were then and they hung in our rooms." Robert Taylor and Clark Gable thus decorated at least one bedroom wall in Glienicke-Nordbahn... There were stores here where, if they knew you, you could get jazz records in the back room. And those of course were the things to have. That was just what you did... Women under Hitler, that was something completely dreadful. A German woman does not wear makeup,
she may not smoke, she should have a thousand children.... That still brings a chill to my spine.
(2) Karma Rauhut, interviewed by Alison Owings, for her book, Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich (1995)
One really had to be in the BDM. The trick was that I went to school (a private girls' school her mother had attended) in the city of Berlin, but lived so to speak in another district, so they never figured it out, because they had no communication with each other. In my village I always said more or less, I'm in it in Berlin. And at school I always said, I'm in the BDM at home. One could always create certain freedoms, right? But naturally the thing was, I did not have a uniform. And when there were big marches or school festivals, the teacher always said, Put on a black skirt and a white blouse, so it's not so noticeable. This odd jacket and the scarf and this leather scarf holder and the
shoes, I would have died rather than put it on.
(3) Karma Rauhut, interviewed by Alison Owings, for her book, Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich (1995)
The government organizations were everywhere and the human beings reported each other and one watched the other... It was like you were in a spiderweb and the spider always noticed if something vibrated somewhere and did not ring true.... Where should one flee to? You could only do resistance if you took death into consideration. Or horrible torture and also torture for your whole family, and death and concentration camps. And we were not all heroes. We shat in our pants from fear. Not everyone is born to heroism... Where should we go? Switzerland... no one could get through. The worst things happened when people tried it. And France was occupied, Denmark was occupied, Italy was fascist, the whole Balkan lands were occupied. Poland. One had no more free room to flee to.
(4) Karma Rauhut, interviewed by Alison Owings, for her book, Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich (1995)
"I believe the Third Reich deformed people psychologically... our entire youths... were stolen from us... we only lived in shock, in fear... I grew up watching individuals repress everything. In a certain sense, we all are neurotic from it. We are fearful, in part dishonest, yes, and never have a good conscience. One always tried to repress it. I do it, too. I certainly repress a lot of things, because one always has fear and feelings of guilt. And my parents, too, for all practical purposes, did not get on with their lives after the war. My father committed suicide.... My mother... fled into alcohol, basically died from it....
I must be ashamed about it. We are the Germans and I cannot imagine that others are not ashamed. Maybe they do not admit it or maybe don't say it to you as a foreigner. Because the older people do have a kind of feeling of nationality and say, we cannot tell an American that we're ashamed, better we bite our tongues than admit it... The only kind of older German without it is a crazy Nazi, who's still a Nazi and thinks it's all good. But all the others, who did not do anything, let's say it completely straightforwardly. We all were cowardly and all were afraid and arranged ourselves, maneuvered ourselves through this life. We all have feelings of guilt and we all bad feelings of guilt.
Student Activities
Adolf Hitler's Early Life (Answer Commentary)
Heinrich Himmler and the SS (Answer Commentary)
Trade Unions in Nazi Germany (Answer Commentary)
Adolf Hitler v John Heartfield (Answer Commentary)
Hitler's Volkswagen (The People's Car) (Answer Commentary)
Women in Nazi Germany (Answer Commentary)