Lene und Rahel im deutschen Mörderhaus—Fragmente der jüdischen Leidensgeschichte in Helma Sanders-Brahms' Deutschland, bleiche Mutter (1980)

The predominant scholarship's understanding of the main protagonist Lene in Helma Sanders-Brahms's autobiographical film Germany, Pale Mother (1980) is that she is an iconic representation of German women's victimhood during the rise and fall of National Socialism. Further, it is the current accepted reading of the film that, as with other New German Cinema features, this film seems to lack a nuanced discussion of the Holocaust. I disagree with this assertion. In the following article, I will present arguments that beneath the surface of the main narrative describing Lene's hardships lies the underground story of Jewish suffering.