In the organizer's words:

There were hundreds, probably thousands - exact numbers are not known. Women who disappeared behind the walls of prisons or concentration camps during the National Socialist era because they had fallen in love with a forced laborer or prisoner of war. Their crime: "Forbidden contact". If the enemy became a friend, even a lover, they were also held accountable. Imprisonment or, in the worst case, murder: hanging in the presence of hundreds of other forced laborers for the purpose of "deterrence".

After the war, the women were punished again: they were shunned and humiliated by the authorities by being denied recognition as political prisoners and any compensation for their imprisonment.

For over 50 years, they tried to forget, to repress, they remained silent. Erika Fehse has succeeded in encouraging three of these women and two daughters to tell their stories for the first time.

Film screening "For a love so punished", WDR, 2000, 45 min.

Followed by a discussion with the director Erika Fehse and Katharina Sämann, daughter of one of the women portrayed.

Moderation: Lucy Debus, historian and curator of the exhibition trotzdem da!