Harrowing Memoir: German woman writes ground-breaking account of WW2 rape

This article is about a German woman who is the first woman to write about being raped using her own name. Her name is Gabriele Köpp. In 1945, she and her sister were told by her parents to leave their home because the Russians were coming. She was 15 at the time, she still referred to herself as a child. She describes how the two of them fled to a train which eventually came under fire. They escaped from the train and she found refuge at a bakery. She was discovered by the Russians when a neighbor lady revealed her location.

It was at this time that she was raped repeatedly by the Russian soldiers for 14 days. The article is somewhat vague on how she got home, but she did. Her father was dead but her mother was not. She told her mother about the horrific events and received the cold shoulder. Her mother instructed her to never speak of the incidents again. Gabriele wrote notes to herself about what happened and how she felt. She used these note to write the book.

As a result of the rape, she has had trouble forming relationships with women. She is friends with several men, but has only had feelings of love for one person. That person is her former therapist. He broke off the therapy.

Despite the emotional trauma, Gabriele became very successful as a professor of physics. She does still have trouble sleeping, and eating. She decided to write her story using her own name because she figured that time was running out. Many women who were experienced WW2 are deceased.

This article was very sad. I can't imagine going through what she did. I am happy that she was able to become successful in her career. I am sad that she has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder since 1946. I think that it is very good that she wrote her story. It takes a lot of courage. I hope that it was therapeutic for her. I wonder if she was in America if she would have told the story sooner. It was difficult for her to even go to a therapist. I am curious if some of her hesitation is because she was in Germany, then Poland. Unfortunately, I do not think that I will read her memoir. I don't enjoy reading about those topics.

This article can be found at:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,680354,00.html

This article was written by Susanne Beyer