No Innocent Victim ?: Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During the Holocaust as Trope in Zeugin aus der Hölle

This essay addresses how in the film Zeugin aus der Hölle, (1965, Witness out of hell) fictional sexualized violence against a female Jewish Holocaust survivor functions as a trope that exposes and rejects patriarchal and misogynist discourses of victimhood, perpetration, survivor shame, and guilt, which reviewers and scholars rightly have critiqued for such discourses’ re-victimizing and re-traumatizing effects upon victims. I argue that as a filmic trope sexualized violence served specific functions for its contemporaneous audience—Germans in the postwar 1960s. By means of the trope of sexualized violence, Zeugin aus der Hölle confronted contemporaneous West German audiences with gender-specific experiences of women during the Holocaust, the continuing trauma and re-victimization of Jewish Holocaust survivors in postwar Germany, and Nazi guilt. In fictional accounts of Jewish women’s experiences during the Holocaust on screen, sexualized violence figures large: to mind come early Holocaust films such as The Pawnbroker (Sidney Lumet, 1965, USA), The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974, Italy), Sophie’s Choice (Alan Pakula, 1982, USA), and the Holocaust blockbuster Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993, USA). This ubiquity gives rise to the question of the specific functions and implications of the depiction of sexualized violence as a narrative and visual trope. Prominent feminist Holocaust scholars, such as Sara R. Horowitz, Pascale Bos, and Nomi Levenkron have argued that depictions of sexualized violence in Holocaust representations serve particular religious and ideological functions for their audiences. These scholars have been critical of the fact that these representations often re-victimize, shame, and place blame on female Jewish Holocaust survivors for atrocities to which the Nazis subjected them. 1 By way of an analysis of the 1965 German-Yugoslavian co-produced film, Zeugin aus der Hölle (Serbo-Croatian: Gorke Trave; Witness out of hell, directed by Zika Mitrovic), I show that representations of sexualized violence against Jewish women during the Holocaust do not always have the same problematic effect that Horowitz, Bos, and Levenkron note.2 Using an approach based on one offered by Bos in her essay “‘Her flesh is branded: ‘For Officers Only’: Imagining and Imagined Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust,” I argue that fictional sexualized violence in Zeugin aus der Hölle is a filmic trope that served specific functions for its contemporaneous audience—Germans in the postwar 1960s, including Nazi perpetrators. In Zeugin aus der Hölle, the representations of sexualized violence confront contemporaneous West German audiences with gender-specific experiences of Jewish women during the Holocaust. In so doing, Germans, who considered themselves victims of Nazism,3 and their children were presented with the continuing trauma of Jewish Holocaust victims in postwar Germany. Zeugin aus der Hölle confronts West Germans with their guilt and the ongoing suffering of one Holocaust survivor. The effect of the narration of sexual violence in Zeugin aus der Hölle differs significantly from the critical assessment offered by Horowitz, Bos, and Levenkron. The film’s specific German context and its postwar German audience are crucial to analyzing its representation of sexual violence, as is the fact that both screenwriter Frida Filipović and producer Artur Brauner are themselves Jewish Holocaust survivors. Further, as a female survivor, Filipović’s intentions appear to be more feminist and progressive than some of the male interlocutors Bos examines. Lastly, the trope of sexualized violence differs in Zeugin aus der Hölle from how it is employed in other contexts because of certain characteristics of the narrative, for example in that the female protagonist Lea Weiss tells her own story, reclaims her agency, and explicitly rejects misogynist interpretations of her narrative. In this essay, I show how in the film, sexualized violence functions as a trope that exposes and rejects patriarchal and misogynist discourses of victimhood, perpetration, survivor shame, and guilt—aspects that critics rightly have found fault with for their re-victimizing and re-traumatizing effects upon victims—, discourses that were prevalent in the post-war period, both in orthodox Jewish communities and in postwar West Germany society more broadly (Horowitz)

Gender and self-representation in Maya Angelou\u27s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

A voice that has been silenced for so long has much to say. Whether still confined or set free, the statement applies equally to both. The silenced voice wants not only to tell his or her story, but to share the life experiences which in turn reveal the identities of these individuals. These silenced voices then are not those of the oppressors, but the oppressed; and when an oppressor wants to share his or her story, the oppressed wants to tell their side of it as well. How can those labeled the marginalized outcasts of society express their feelings and share their perspectives if they are forced into silence? How would they ever be able to break this silence? Nevertheless, for so long the dominant race—those of European ancestry—has pervaded in North America since the colonization of the land during the 1ate 15th and early 16th centuries. But even before they arrived, the European man long before dominated in the Western world. It was the white man who was adventurous and therefore it was he who would have stories to tell; it was he who has accomplished many “feats” and in turn who knows himself and his rightful place in society. It would be these “courageous” men of pale skin, fair eyes, and light-colored hair who would be allowed to not only share their stories but capture it permanently on paper. These stories chronologically told and written on paper by the scribe himself which consisted of his life and life experiences formed a genre of writing—the autobiography

Assessment of the potential of solar thermal small power systems in small utilities

The potential economic benefit of small solar thermal electric power systems to small municipal and rural electric utilities is assessed. Five different solar thermal small power system configurations were considered in three different solar thermal technologies. The configurations included: (1) 1 MW, 2 MW, and 10 MW parabolic dish concentrators with a 15 kW heat engine mounted at the focal point of each dish, these systems utilized advanced battery energy storage; (2) a 10 MW system with variable slat concentrators and central steam Rankine energy conversion, this system utilized sensible thermal energy storage; and (3) a 50 MW central receiver system consisting of a field of heliostats concentrating energy on a tower-mounted receiver and a central steam Rankine conversion system, this system also utilized sensible thermal storage. The results are summarized in terms of break-even capital costs. The break-even capital cost was defined as the solar thermal plant capital cost which would have to be achieved in order for the solar thermal plants to penetrate 10 percent of the reference small utility generation mix by the year 2000. The calculated break-even capital costs are presented

TRAIL-dependent apoptosis of human peritoneal mesothelial cells by activated NK cells promotes ovarian cancer cell invasion in vitro

Transcoelomic dissemination of tumor cells via the malignant peritoneal fluid (ascites) occurs at an early stage of high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma, enabling extensive tumor spreading within the peritoneum. A high quantity of malignant ascites arises during ovarian cancer progression, which is an important characteristic of the unique tumor microenvironment. The ascites is rich in soluble factors and different cell types, including immune cells, promoting the metastatic spread, in particular to the omentum as a first site of tumor implantation. To date, the exact mechanism of peritoneal invasion is still largely unknown. The omentum and further peritoneal organs are covered by a mesothelial layer, physiologically functioning as a protective shield, which is believed to prevent tumor invasion. Different mechanisms leading to a disruption of the protective mesothelium, favoring metastatic outspread, have been discussed. Interestingly, increased mesothelial cell apoptosis introduced during pathological processes, including inflammation and malignancy, have been reported. Strikingly, we are the first to pinpoint the induction of mesothelial cell apoptosis to tumor-associated lymphocytes present within the ovarian cancer tumor microenvironment. Thus, we determined NK cells as the main effectors promoting mesothelial clearance in vitro. Soluble factors secreted by activated T cells stimulate the NK cells’ cytotoxic potential. Here we discovered TRAIL-dependent killing of omentum-derived mesothelial cells as central mode of NK cell cytotoxicity, as demonstrated by applying a neutralizing anti-TRAIL antibody. Further evidence evolved from enhanced TRAIL expression on NK cells upon stimulation with T cell-secreted mediators, while the corresponding activating death cell receptors, DR4 and DR5, are expressed on mesothelial cells. By contrast, a significant contribution of Fas/FasL signaling or cytotoxic cytokines, including TNFα and IFNɣ, could be ruled out. Even though mesothelial apoptosis could generally be induced by granzyme B/perforin, immunosuppressive ascites completely blocked this pathway, which is therefore not important in our system. Affinity proteomic-based analysis (Olink) of T cell-soluble factors comparing the secretomes of untreated and activated T cells revealed mediators inducing NK cell activation and TRAIL up-regulation. Intriguingly, we detected a previously unknown secretome-based crosstalk between ascites-derived T and NK cells mediating TRAIL upregulation on NK cells mainly by T cell-secreted TNFα, demonstrated by gain and loss of function experiments. A more subordinate role was assigned to further T cell-secreted cytokines linked to NK cell activation and TRAIL signaling, including IL-2, IL-21 and IFNɣ, possibly cooperating with TNFα to activate the NK cell cytotoxic potential. In the following, we addressed whether TRAIL-dependent killing mediated by NK cells in the tumor milieu was selectively directed against mesothelial cells. By analyzing the potential of NK cells in killing high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma cells, we found that the primary tumor cells were resistant towards TRAIL-mediated killing, which was associated with decreased expression levels of the death receptors. To further investigate why especially mesothelial cells derived from the malignant tumor microenvironment were prone to TRAIL-dependent killing, mesothelial cells obtained from a benign background were compared and found to be less sensitive to apoptosis induction by NK cells, which was further TRAIL-independent. This could be reasoned by the lower expression of DR4 and indicates that the mesothelial cells might be educated by ascites-derived soluble factors to TRAIL sensitivity, thereby supporting tumor implantation. A causal link between TRAIL-mediated disruption of the mesothelial barrier by NK cells and enhanced ovarian cancer cell invasion could be proven in vitro by a trans-mesothelial invasion assay. Finally, these findings could be clinically accredited by immunohistological analysis of patient samples showing a loss of the mesothelium in the close proximity of early metastatic lesions, while free-floating apoptotic mesothelial cells were present in the ascites. In conclusion, these novel findings indicate that NK cells, activated primarily by T cell-derived TNFα, play an essential role in promoting transcoelomic dissemination by selectively destroying the protective mesothelial barrier in a TRAIL-dependent manner

Three Essays on Political Economy

The first chapter studies the impact of conventions and multi-day events onhotel demand in the Indianapolis metro area. Using hand-collected data onsporting events and conventions, we study the impact on hotel metrics: ADR,Occupancy, Daily Rate, and Revenue. We show that traditional sportingevents generate little impact when compared to multi-day conventions. Weshow that mega-events such as major championship games generate significantincreases in hotel demand. We find large and statistically significant effects formulti-day conventions on hotel demand with very little evidence of crowdingout. A single day of a multi-day convention brings in approximately $928,000in additional hotel revenue. Our findings contribute to the literature on theeconomic impact of large events such as conventions and sporting events thatattract out-of-town visitors.Chapter two examines the median voter model as applied to the right-to-work vote for Missouri. Right-to-work laws constitute a major constitutionaldecision that impacts the abilities of unions to operate within a state withadditional impacts on the general labor market. The attempted passage ofright-to-work in Missouri coincided with a rare public vote on the matter,that allows us to examine the role of demographics and occupational specialinterest in the attempted passage of right-to-work.The third chapter examines the history of rights arguments in the constitutional political economy of James Buchanan. Beginning with Limits ofLiberty and progressing through his collected works, I document his usage ofrights arguments and definitions to give clarity to an oft-overlooked part ofBuchanan’s constitutional political econom

Design of a horizontal neutron reflectometer for the European Spallation Source

A design study of a horizontal neutron reflectometer adapted to the general baseline of the long pulse European Spallation Source (ESS) is presented. The instrument layout comprises solutions for the neutron guide, high-resolution pulse shaping and beam bending onto a sample surface being so far unique in the field of reflectometry. The length of this instrument is roughly 55 m, enabling $\delta \lambda / \lambda$ resolutions from 0.5% to 10%. The incident beam is focussed in horizontal plane to boost measurements of sample sizes of 1*1 cm{^2} and smaller with potential beam deflection in both downward and upward direction. The range of neutron wavelengths untilized by the instrument is 2 to 7.1 (12.2, ...) {\AA}, if every (second, ...) neutron source ulse is used. Angles of incidence can be set between 0{\deg} and 9{\deg} with a total accessible q-range from 4*10^{-3} {\AA}^{-1} up to 1 {\AA}^{-1}. The instrument operates both in {\theta}/{\theta} (free liquid surfaces) and {\theta}/2{\theta} (solid/liquid, air/solid interfaces) geometry. The experimental setup will in particular enable direct studies on ultrathin films (d ~ 10 {\AA}) and buried monolayers to multilayered structures of up to 3000 {\AA} total thickness. The horizontal reflectometer will further foster investigations of hierarchical systems from nanometer to micrometer length scale, as well as their kinetics and dynamical properties, in particular under load (shear, pressure, external fields). Polarization and polarization analysis as well as the GISANS option are designed as potential modules to be implemented separately in the generic instrument layout. The instrument is highly flexible and offers a variety of different measurement modes. With respect to its mechanical components the instrument is exclusively based on current technology. Risks of failure for the chosen setup are minimum.Comment: Matched to the version submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods