"Wer die Zeit nicht miterlebt hat...": Frauenerfahrungen im Zweiten Weltkrieg und in den Jahren danach

This three-volume work is an oral history of women's experiences in Germany during World War II and the near postwar period. Margarete Dörr interviewed 316 women between the years 1988-1994; combined with interviews performed by the German Women's Council and some women's autobiographies, her study analyzes the experiences of close to 500 German women. This group of women was selected as subjects to represent the population defined as "German" by the Nazi regime, and the individuals were neither victims of the state, nor convinced perpetrators.

• The first volume, Lebensgeschichten (Life Stories), traces the complete life story of several women selected to represent various classes and regions.
• The second volume,  Kriegsalltag (Everyday War Life), examines everyday life during the war.
• The third volume, Das Verhältnis zum Nationalsozialismus und zum Krieg (The relationship to National Socialism and the war), focuses on the postwar era, as well as the women's relationship to the Nazi regime.

A work of profound importance for our understanding of the National Socialist regime in Germany, this investigation could only be performed nearly half a century after the events in question because of the male bias in historical scholarship, and because the memories uncovered are traumatic, confusing, and often a source of shame to the subjects.