European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 17, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse In the Shadow of the Catholic Church and Passau a a Ledger of horror. In 1982, she entered the local University but was forced to leave ostensibly on grounds that she had one child and was expecting a second married a teacher. Now after another Long Legal Battle she has been allowed to re enter the University and in february will take her first exams As a freshman again taking the required freshman history course despite at least one honorary degree she Lias been awarded for her work As a historian. She somewhat ironically was reared As a Catholic because the local Church did not come off Well in her researches. Her father she he said was Quot the prototype of a Quot her Mother still teaches in a parochial school. The feelings of resentment toward the Nasty girl soon turned really Nasty. There have been threats on her life and on her children daughters now 6 and 8. She has been honoured but also ostracized. Her children still. Cannot Lead Normal unprotected lives. Her Mother has also earned the Wrath of neighbors. Quot i Wai struck Down in a pizzeria by a Man in an is uniform. I Don t know if he was a Neo nazi of had been paid for it. There were 100 persons or More around me but nobody gave help to me. I lost consciousness for a moment then i had to inform the police the station was just around the Corner but it was two hours before an officer showed up. No one was arrested. A restaurant where she had spoken was trashed by Neo nazis. She asked the German equivalent of the Fri for Protection but was told it was reserved for politicians. However the Passau police began patrolling her Bouse after she another children were threatened and the watch continued for several years. In Hamburg after a speech of hers had been reported in the paper a Man rushed at her brandishing a knife three Volunteer bodyguards subdued him. But no arrest was made Quot i could t prove if it was Only Ari ugly joke Quot she says. Verhoeven and his wife went to hear her speak As she was being honoured for her work and decided then to do a film. He has also made a documentary the girl and the City or what really happened. Rosmus had nothing to do with the feature but admired it. Halfway through her first viewing she had to leave the Cinema feeling she could t experience the bad things again. Quot it was an enormous Surprise that somebody who had t been with me having no knowledge of this time shows me exactly As it the new mayor of Passau is a socialist. Rosmus. Wrote an open letter protesting that he should resign the Job because she found he had been in the Hitler youth and had denounced a woman who then went to a concentration Camp. The mayor was forced to meet the press and she says refused to resign. Quot that s not a reason to give Back the Job Quot she says paraphrasing him Quot because if that would be a reason not to be a mayor we could t elect any mayor. A the estimates Are that there Are 30,000 Neo nazis in what was West Germany and another 30,000 in the former East Germany. Quot but these 60,000 persons Are not the real problem Quot Rosmus says Quot everybody knows their faces their names. They Are officially Neo nazis. You could observe their activities their . The real problem she thinks is the silent. Conservative majority. Quot you Don t know their faces Don t know their names. They refuse very strongly any. Responsibility for survivors and victims any responsibility toward our refugees and other a minorities. They refuse it and they deny the past. Quot these 30,000 or 60,000 crazy persons these Neo nazis Don t know really what they a re doing with these swastikas. For a lot of them it s a joke. But this silent majority this majority that May not do civil disobedience i think we have to be careful with the Nasty girl is among a number of entries from various countries to the Academy of motion pictures arts and sciences. The Academy plans an announcement feb. 13 on what films have been officially nominated in different categories for 1990, including film category. Anna Elizabeth Quot Anja Rosmus received Munich s Scholl prize in 1984 for her research our fascist roots run very deep by de Reavis staff writer the Quot Nasty girl Quot is pleasant in fact charming to interview on the phone. Her voice is full of Sunshine. Fresh from a trip to the United states she was bubbling with excitement Quot i got to meet the people i be been writing to for the last eight years a former Passau jews Quot she said. Quot without them there would t have been a Story or a Anna Elizabeth Rosmus called Quot Anja Quot is now even More of an irritation for the people of Passau than she was when she first began turning Over rocks and exposing the town s nazi Page a Quot since the film i m not Only Nasty but famous and the town finds that Rosmus is a social outcast in Passau even in the University where she studies sociology literature and Art. Quot the other students avoid me because they Don t want to spoil their chances of a career. And since the local paper fired the Only editor a jew who was interested in writing about the lot of the jews and other , we have no a. A a Rosmus said Passau s nazi past has deep roots that the City would like to keep covered Quot we had a final solution plan worked out by a certain Hans known who also pleaded for concentration Camps 1 l a v. And confiscation of jewish property in 1920, Hitler s final solution plan came in january 1942. I could go on with other example sour fascist roots run very Rosmus said though that her marriage did not break up because of the pressure of her notoriety Quot it broke up because of my own emancipation process. I became a woman with my own that was the unbearable Factor for my former a husband. He was raised on the principle Tiit one must be obedient or suffer consequences i was raised that one should follow the truth despite the during her research Rosmus said she found that her own family including her grandmother were involved in the anti Hitler resilience. Quot my husband s family was firmly on the other Side. That might account for our different Rosmus said she keeps her children Salome 6, and Delores 8, informed about her work. She said they should know Why some people go out of their Way to insult them. Quot i be introduced them to the few jews in town and they know the Story of the holocaust. The teacher in the Catholic kindergarten a there Are. Only Catholic kindergartens in Passau a were upset when my Delores asked where was god when the jews went into the concentration Camps. The school called to Tell me my daughters were As Nasty As i a a. A t _ a. A. A. A january 17, 1991 stripes Magazine 9
