Film screening and discussion
There were hundreds, probably thousands – exact figures are unknown. Women who disappeared behind the walls of prisons or concentration camps during the Nazi era because they had fallen in love with a forced laborer or prisoner of war.
Image gallery
Zwei Informationskarten in Haltern an einer dunkelroten Wand, eine dunkelrot mit weißem Text 'Worüber wird in Familien gesprochen? Und worüber nicht?', die andere rot mit weißem Text 'Muss man wissen, woher man kommt, um zu wissen, wer man ist?'.
Their crime: "Forbidden relations." If the enemy became a friend, even a lover, he too was held accountable. Imprisonment or, in the worst cases, 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, who denied them 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 succeeded in encouraging three of these women and two daughters to tell their stories for the first time.
Film screening "So Punished for a Love," WDR, 2000, 45 min.
Followed by a discussion with director Erika Fehse and Katharina Sämann, daughter of one of the women portrayed in the film.
Moderated by:
- Lucy Debus, historian and curator of the exhibition "Still Here!"
Additional information
Dates
January 2026
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