“Better Left Untold”. The Silence of World War II Rape Victims in Female Witnesses’ Accounts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31261/NoZ.2021.07.03Keywords:
war rape, World War II, silence, sexual violence, tabooAbstract
“Better left untold”, “There was no opportunity”, “I wanted to talk about it, but there was no one to talk to” – these are the most frequently occurring statements by female witnesses and victims of sexual violence during World War II. They also repeatedly crop up in accounts of rape victims during other military conflicts in the XX century. In the narratives, the most frequent statements are those which attempt to repress the experiences and which communicate a fear of stigmatization. Not only was there no one who would listen; the very act of talking about “it” entailed consequences. All of the female witnesses and victims whose testimonies are analyzed in this article have drawn attention to the fear of stigmatization, especially after the War, among relatives, neighbors and other people.
The witnesses’ micro-narratives are a point of departure for an analysis of rape in the last months of the War in view of the lack of victims’ accounts. Why didn’t the women speak out? How did they cope with the trauma of sexual violence? What eventually made them decide to speak?
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