Protest on Rosenstrasse
The prisoners themselves were not the only ones who were uncertain about their fate. The relatives of those interned at Rosenstrasse feared that their loved ones would be sent to concentration camps. Consequently, many people began to gather outside the building in an attempt to find out what would happen to the prisoners. The group was comprised of mainly non-Jewish female family members of those imprisoned.
Scene from the 2003 movie 'Rosenstrasse' recreates the group of protestors outside Rosenstrasse 2-4.
The exact numbers of the gathering vary depending on which source you consult, with estimates ranging from 150 to 1000 to 6000 people. However large the group actually was, the protestors did not engage in the type of activities defined as protest by today’s standards. Instead, they simply stood quietly in the street and made their presence known to the Nazi guards. The gathering itself was the protest; an early Third Reich law prohibited any large public gatherings that were not sanctioned by the Nazi party.
The protest lasted five days, until all the prisoners were eventually released. Propaganda Minister Goebbels wrote about the protest in his diary, calling it an “unfortunate scene…where the population had gathered in significant numbers and had even somehow sided with the Jews." Leopold Gutterer, Goebbels’ deputy, also recalled the event in his writings. He believed that the Rosenstrasse protest could only have taken place in Berlin because the number of couples in mixed marriages in the city was high enough to support the unrest.