Mother-Child Relationship Representations of Children Born of Sexual Violence in Post-WWII Germany

Abstract

It is estimated around 1.9 million German women were raped in the post-World War II period. Unwanted pregnancies were common and many women went on to raise these children born of sexual violence (CBSV). Now more than 70 years later, we sought to explore the perceptions of past and present relationships of CBSV with their mothers. Using a combination of qualitative methodologies, we analyzed autobiographical interviews of participants born between 1945–1955 across Germany. Narratives were first coded for mother-child content (allowing a comparison between participants), and later examined as a holistic unit (to address within-participant data). Three categories of mother-child relationships were identified: conflictual relationships, an emotionally absent parent, and positive upbringings. By employing a collective case study, we were then able to place these along three axes of relationality that positioned the participants’ perception of their relationships with their mothers and allowed interactions between the different perceived roles in those relationships to emerge: accountability and agency vs. exoneration and victimhood of the mother; accountability and agency vs. exoneration and victimhood of the child and longing vs. detachment. This study complements other research among those born during post-WWII occupation in Germany and Austria and highlights the diverse experiences CBSV have with their mothers. It serves as a reminder of the necessity for personal narratives to continue being documented, particularly given the frequency with which children are born of sexual violence in conflicts today. Appreciating the potential life-long impact for these individuals is key to initiating change.

Full text

Journal of Child and Family Studies
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02372-4
ORIGINAL PAPER
Mother-Child Relationship Representations of Children Born of
Sexual Violence in Post-WWII Germany
Sophie Roupetz 1●Jacob Y. Stein2,3 ●Kimberley Anderson1●Marie Kaiser1●Saskia Mitreuter1●Heide Glaesmer1
Accepted: 26 June 2022
© The Author(s) 2022
Abstract
It is estimated around 1.9 million German women were raped in the post-World War II period. Unwanted pregnancies were
common and many women went on to raise these children born of sexual violence (CBSV). Now more than 70 years later, we
sought to explore the perceptions of past and present relationships of CBSV with their mothers. Using a combination of
qualitative methodologies, we analyzed autobiographical interviews of participants born between 1945–1955 across Germany.
Narratives were first coded for mother-child content (allowing a comparison between participants), and later examined as a
holistic unit (to address within-participant data). Three categories of mother-child relationships were identified: conflictual
relationships, an emotionally absent parent, and positive upbringings. By employing a collective case study, we were then able
to place these along three axes of relationality that positioned the participants’perception of their relationships with their
mothers and allowed interactions between the different perceived roles in those relationships to emerge: accountability and
agency vs. exoneration and victimhood of the mother; accountability and agency vs. exoneration and victimhood of the child
and longing vs. detachment. This study complements other research among those born during post-WWII occupation in
Germany and Austria and highlights the diverse experiences CBSV have with their mothers. It serves as a reminder of the
necessity for personal narratives to continue being documented, particularly given the frequency with which children are born
of sexual violence in conflicts today. Appreciating the potential life-long impact for these individuals is key to initiating change.
Keywords Sexual violence ●Mother-child relationship ●WWII ●CBSV ●Categorical content analysis
Highlights
●The qualitative findings shed light on the complex and ambivalent feelings CBSV have retrospectively towards their
mother-child relationship.
●Three categories of mother-child relationships were identified: conflictual relationships, an emotionally absent parent and
positive upbringings.
●Narratives were described along three axes of relationality highlighting different perceived roles in the relationships:
accountability and agency vs. exoneration and victimhood of the mother; accountability and agency vs. exoneration and
victimhood of the child and longing vs. detachment.
●CBSV deal with some form of self-described victimhood and accountability of the mother and the child as well as both
longing and detachment, when considering their mother-child relationship.
●This study is one of very few studies that captures the whole life span of individuals born in the post-WWII period.
*Sophie Roupetz
sophie.roupetz@gmail.com
1Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology,
University of Leipzig, Philipp-Rosenthal Straße 55, 04103
Leipzig, Germany
2I-Core Research Center for Mass Trauma, Tel Aviv University,
Chaim Levanon 30, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
3Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Chaim
Levanon 30, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
Supplementary information The online version contains
supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-
022-02372-4.
1234567890();,:
1234567890();,:

Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against women
and girls has been used as a strategy of warfare and geno-
cide to conduct ethnic cleansing regimes (Beyrer &
Kamarulzaman, 2017; Hägerdal, 2019) and as a method of
systematically destroying communities (Gingerich &
Leaning, 2004). Sexual violence has been documented in
Bosnia & Herzegovina, Somalia, Uganda, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo and Myanmar (Beyrer & Kamar-
ulzaman, 2017; Clark, 2017; Peterman et al., 2011) and also
in the dying days of World War II in Germany (Grossmann,
1995). More than seventy years after WWII, official sta-
tistics on sexual violence committed by the Allied forces
against German women are still missing. According to case
reports, approximately 1.9 million German women are
believed to have been raped by Soviet soldiers with thou-
sands more committed by the American British and French
Allied soldiers (Gebhardt, 2016; Grossmann, 1995).
Another recent historical publication however estimates that
900,000 German women were raped between 1945 and
1955 on German territory, and reports this topic remained a
societal taboo in Germany for decades (Naimark, 1995;
Schissler, 2001). Nevertheless, during the Post-War-
Occupation (1945 to 1955), according to some approx-
imations, up to 400,000 children were born as a result of
sexual encounters between local women and occupation
soldiers (Lee, 2012; Stelzl-Marx & Satjukow, 2015) among
them around 8000 children born of sexual violence (CBSV)
(Gebhardt, 2016).
Compared to other children born and raised during the
post-WWII period, CBSV have lived through specific and
often burdensome early childhood experiences, character-
ized by familial and societal areas of conflicts between
integration and rejection (Carpenter, 2007; Mochmann &
Øland, 2009). Three main drivers have been identified as
psychosocial consequences of these conditions: identity
development, stigmatization/discrimination and child mal-
treatment (Glaesmer et al., 2012,2017; Kaiser et al., 2015;
Mitreuter et al., 2019). CBSV are at risk of being neglected,
stigmatized, ostracized or abandoned (Carpenter, 2007;
WHO, 2000) and likely to suffer from mental disorders,
including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression
or somatization (Kaiser et al., 2015). Emerging empirical
evidence suggests that raising a CBSV can provoke com-
plex emotional responses in their mothers. Termination of
pregnancies are not uncommon—some of which take place
in illegitimate settings (Human Rights Watch, 1996)—and
some children are known to be abandoned at birth (Car-
penter, 2007; Denov et al., 2020). For women raising a
CBSV, findings have described complex and varied mother-
child relationships, often with dyadic victimhood perpe-
tuated by the impact of trauma (Anderson et al., 2021;
Anderson & van Ee, 2020; Nowrojee, 2013; van Ee &
Kleber, 2013). Elsewhere, there are reports of ambiguous
emotions for their children (Clifford, 2008; Liebling et al.,
2012) during pregnancy and the early years of the child’s
life. Several reports describe poor mother-child relation-
ships, experiences of abuse and neglect of CBSV (Car-
penter, 2007; van Ee & Kleber, 2013) as well as child
maltreatment (Carpenter, 2010; Reid-Cunningham, 2009).
In some cultures, women with CBSV are marginalized from
their communities (Nowrojee, 2013) and giving birth to a
CBSV can negatively affect the capacity to care for the
child (Sezibera, 2008). Some mothers reported perceiving
the child as a ‘living reminder’of the rape, with features
resembling their rapist father (van Ee & Kleber, 2013;
Denov et al., 2020) and thus distribute their maternal love
unequally compared to other biological children born of a
consensual love relationship (Denov et al., 2020). For
instance, CBSV in Rwanda became living reminders to their
mothers and the larger community of the immeasurable
suffering they had endured at the hands of their children’s
fathers (Mukangendo, 2007; Nowrojee, 1996). A recent
study from Denov et al. (2020) discovered themes of
identity and belonging, ambivalence in the mother-child
relationship, and truth-telling emerged as important topics
within the lives of young Rwandans born of genocidal rape.
Mother-child relationship was most discussed, even in cases
of long-term separation, abandonment, maltreatment, or
death. When characterizing the mother-child bond, most
young Rwandans described a variety of emotions and gave
a detailed account of their experiences throughout their
lives. Only a few participants clarified to never have had
any “problem”with their mothers. For all participants,
knowing the truth about their origins was described as
extremely important and a critical aspect of their lives
(Denov et al., 2020). Furthermore, an interview study of
Heynen (2013) identified patterns of how mothers of CBSV
in non-conflict settings dealt with their challenges and
ability to establish a mother-child relationship, such as
rejecting the child (characterized by strong ambivalent
feelings towards the child), solidarity with the child (con-
scious decision for the child optimizes a positive mother-
child relationship), acceptance of the role as a mother
(Heynen, 2013). CBSV are more likely to grow up with
stepfathers who may treat them differently than their own
offspring (Sezibera, 2008). Research conducted in Uganda
highlights that CBSV may also feel responsible for their
fathers’actions and accordingly experience guilt and
embarrassment (Carpenter, 2007). A study on the long-term
effects of adult attachment in German children born of war
including CBSV born after WWII showed that insecure
attachments to parents are more frequently reported, com-
pared with a birth-cohort-matched representative sample of
the German general population. For instance, these children
now in late adulthood are still less open to closeness and
intimacy and showed a lowered ability to depend on others
Journal of Child and Family Studies

in close relationships (Kaiser et al., 2018). Attachment
insecurity is described on the two continuous dimensions
avoidance and anxiety (Brennan et al., 1998; Fraley &
Shaver, 2000). Anxiously attached individuals have a
negative perception of the self, which is seen as inadequate,
not worthy of love and another person’s help and constant
worry about the emotional availability of others (Bartho-
lomew & Horowitz, 1991). This inadequate sense of self in
people with anxious-ambivalent attachment is consistent
with the findings by Schimmenti and Bifulco (2013).
Despite these difficulties, there is also evidence of positive
mother-child relationships where mothers form a loving
bond to their child (Anderson & van Ee, 2020; Baldi &
MacKenzie, 2007; Powell, 2001). There is limited data
about CBSV in Germany and other occupied territories
(Glaesmer et al., 2012; Kaiser et al., 2018). Quantitative
studies on children born in post-WWII, including children
born of sexual violence, highlighted the long-term impact of
developmental conditions and child maltreatment on mental
health even decades later. However, to capture the complex
lived experiences of CBSV at an individual level, a quali-
tative approach is needed. Although interpersonal violence
such as rape and forced pregnancy have been codified under
international law as acts of genocide and crimes against
humanity, consideration for the CBSV remains largely
absent from the international human rights and scholarly
discourse (Carpenter, 2010).
Against this background, in the present study we aimed
to explore the perceptions of past and present relationships
of CBSV (now in older age) with their mothers. To do so,
we identified categories of mother-child relationships using
categorical content analysis in a first step. In a second step,
we considered how the individual relationship can be
framed along several interconnected “axes”of narrative
(Freeman, 2013). Specifically, we considered two main
research questions: (1) across what axes of narrative do
CBSV construct their relationship with their mothers; and
(2) what domains in CBSVs’perceptions of their relation-
ship with their mothers elicit changes in perspective and
what domains exhibit more stable perspectives?
Method
Participants
Participants were initially recruited as part of a larger
quantitative study of German Occupation Children (see
Kaiser et al., 2015). Of the 146 German occupation children
identified in that study born between 1945 and 1955, n=10
reported being a CBSV. All ten CBSV gave their consent to
be informed about further planned research and were con-
tacted via e-mail and telephone to request their participation
in the qualitative follow-up study presented in this paper. Of
these 10, n=2 refused to participate for personal reasons,
n=1 was a pilot interview and therefore excluded from the
final analysis and n=1 is based in the United States and
was not interviewed due to logistic and financial constraints,
giving a running total of n=6. In addition, n=3 CBSV
were newly recruited at the beginning of 2017 through the
German network “Thistleflowers”, a network of CBOW
fathered by Soviet soldiers, which was created along with
the initial project (www.russenkinder-distelblueten.de).
These were contacted and invited to learn more about the
study via e-mail and phone, and provided with study
material distributed by mail, containing the same ques-
tionnaire that was administered in the 2013 sample. One
participant (n=1) had to be excluded from the final inter-
view because he lost his mother at the age of 4 and thus it
was difficult to investigate a mother-child relationship.
Therefore, in total, n=8 autobiographical narrative inter-
views were conducted. Interviews were conducted at par-
ticipant’s homes or in an academic environment, n=7of
whom agreed to be video recorded and n=1 was voice
recorded.
For the purpose of this qualitative research, we will
present a collective case study of three interviews, which
demonstrate the complexity of CBSV life stories. The
qualitative case study approach (Stake, 2000), explicitly
seeks the multiple perspectives of those involved in the
case, aiming to gather collectively agreed upon and diverse
notions of what occurred.
Procedure
Data collection took place from June 2016 to June 2017
across Germany. All autobiographical narrative interviews
were conducted by the first author (SR), who is trained in
qualitative interviewing. We chose this type of interviews as
we had the unique chance to approach the hidden popula-
tion of CBSV in their late stage of life and we wanted to
learn as much as possible about their complex life stories in
retrospect. To begin, all participants were asked an opening
question to create space for a comprehensive narration of
events and experiences from their own lives (Fischer-
Rosenthal & Rosenthal, 1997). In this first part of the
interview, participants were not interrupted by further
questions but were encouraged by means of non-verbal and
paralinguistic expressions of interest and attention. Once the
participant ended the narrative, which was recognized by a
final evaluative statement, the interviewer introduced
follow-up questions marking the second part of the inter-
view. Here, the interviewer sought to (1) gain more infor-
mation about topics already mentioned (immanent), and (2)
address questions left open and topics which have not been
mentioned in the first part but were important for the
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research purpose and overall understanding of the narrative
(exmanent) (Fischer-Rosenthal & Rosenthal, 1997; Jossel-
son, 2013). Following the interviews, all participants were
contacted by telephone within two weeks to ensure that the
interview did not trigger psychological stress and they were
offered psychological support in situations where this was
the case. An observation protocol was completed directly
after each interview to record observations during and after
the interview situation.
Data Analysis
Each participant narrative was assigned a pseudonym to
ensure confidentiality. Analysis of narratives consisted of
two phases. The first phase involved a categorical content
analysis (Lieblich et al., 1998) that focused on all segments
of narrative concerning mother-child relationships. Upon
identifying those segments of narrative, we coded the
content within each segment (Saldaña, 2015), to allow us to
aggregate and categorize similar content and compare
categories between narratives (i.e., between participants).
Phase 1
The process of analysis consisted of familiarization with the
data by reading through all narratives multiple times and
assigning initial codes to the various segments of text using
the software MAXQDA (Saillard, 2011). MAXQDA was
found appropriate given the aspect that it allows documents
to be imported and video material supporting multiple
methodological frameworks (MAXQDA, 2018). This
allowed us to only focus on categories of mother-child
relationship. Words, sentences and paragraphs mentioning
and/or describing mother-child relationship have been
included and coded in order to further analyze the narratives
surrounding this topic using the framework of “axes of
relationality”. Researcher SR screened all narratives to
identify main categories relating to mother-child relation-
ships. A second researcher (KA) and a third researcher
(MK) were recruited for screening all coded narrations from
researcher SR. A partial inter-coder agreement test was
carried out, where a fourth researcher (JYS) was reading
through 3 out of 8 interviews. Discrepancies between
researchers were discussed between SR, KA, MK and JYS
and, also, inclusion of the narrative was decided by con-
sensus agreement between SR, KA and MK (Hill et al.,
2005). All interviews were in German, and thus excerpts
representing identified categories included for this analysis
were translated into English by the first author SR, reviewed
by a native English speaker and verified as loyal to the
original by a research assistant being fluent in both lan-
guages. We used categories of relationships and axes which
were created based on responses from participants.
Phase 2
In the second analytical phase, a within-participant
approach was employed (Lieblich et al., 1998), wherein
we examined each narrative as a holistic unit (Josselson,
2013). In this phase of our analysis the codes were exam-
ined from a narrative perspective, assuming that narrative
identities may be constructed across the framework of “axes
of relationality”(e.g., change vs. stability of a relationship;
(Bamberg, 2011; Freeman, 2013). Seeking to identify
within the narratives the various positionings and interac-
tions at play, we aimed to sketch the axes that are most
relevant to the participants’perception of their relationships
with their mothers (e.g., agency vs. passivity; stability vs.
change (Bamberg, 2011)). That is, we sought to understand
how those relationships are perceived and whether and how
they change across the lifespan per participant and across
participants. For our collective case study, we chose three
interview narratives in line with the concept of maximum
variation (heterogeneity) sampling (Patton, 2002). This
research presents one or two cases from each category
aiming to identify both extreme values (conflictual vs.
peaceful relationship), as well as a median (emotionally
absent mother) (Seawright & Gerring, 2008).
Results
Three categories of mother-child relationships were identi-
fied in the data: conflictual relationships, an emotionally
absent parent and positive upbringings. Within these, the
mother-child relationship constructed by the participants
addressed parental qualities and incapacities, the attribution
of accountability for relational provisions or lack thereof,
and the various ruptures and bridges in the relational divide
between mother and child. The dominant positionings that
we noticed in the data regarded the mother as either
“mother,”which implies a parental role; or “person/woman”
which typically positioned the mother as a victim. Similarly,
the narrator was positioned either as “son/daughter,”
whereby the narrator was assigned the role of being under
the care of another; or “child”, whereby the narrator
assumed the role of the victim or survivor as a secondary
victim of the rape. Conversely, we found that the various
constructions may be organized across three axes:
Accountability and Agency vs. Exoneration and
Victimhood of the Mother
Accounts associated with this axis related to whether the
participant perceived the mother as responsible for her
actions as a parent or whether he or she portrayed her (i.e.,
positioned her) as a victim of the circumstances and thus
Journal of Child and Family Studies

constructed her parental actions as a derivative of those
circumstances rather than actions for which she must be
held accountable. Put otherwise, when the mother was
positioned as a “mother,”she was attributed greater degrees
of agency and hence held accountable for her parental
shortcomings. However, when she was positioned as a
“person/woman”, she was devoid of agency and con-
comitantly exonerated and condoned for any parental faults
she might have committed.
Accountability and Agency vs. Exoneration and
Victimhood of the Child
Accounts associated with this axis related to the self and
identity of the narrator as an actor and reactor to the
mother’s performance. That is, rather than relating to the
mother’s accountability and agency, as in the former axis,
this axis addresses the narrator’s own sense of account-
ability and agency. In this sense, the participant might
portray him or herself as responsible for whatever occurred
during the upbringing, and thus acquit the mother of any
given shortcoming or parental failure. In contrast, narrators
portrayed themselves as victims of unfortunate circum-
stances and the fate of being a CBSV and being exposed to
a traumatized mother.
Longing vs. Detachment
The third axis addressed the participants’retrospective view
of the mother-child relationship itself, rather than their view
of the mother or the child per se. This axis entailed an
evaluative perspective, wherein participants recounted
having experienced a positive mother-child relationship or
otherwise expressed ambivalent or negative relationships
with their mother. Concomitantly, some participants
expressed longing for a close relationship with their mothers
while others expressed a state of detachment that they
viewed as ego-syntonic and desirable. The tension between
a desired closeness and a desired or accepted detachment
characterized this axis.
Naturally, the expression of the axes differed between
narratives and throughout the weaving of the narrative
fabric of each participant. Hence, we demonstrate in a
collective case study below, of a series of three cases, the
mother-child relationship as it unfolded for the participants
and address the various axes depicting the constructions of
the mother-child relationship that were salient in each given
narrative. In this manner, we offer an appreciation of the
narrators’construction of the relationship across the various
relational domains. Figure 1gives a visual representation of
these axes.
Conflictual Relationships
Case 1: Franz
Franz (born in 1946) is the child of a German mother and an
Occupation soldier from the Soviet Union. His story
demonstrates the negotiation of axes 1 and 2. While he
describes a relationship with a strict punitive mother, his
stance towards his mother and his construction of his
mothers’abusive behavior towards him, albeit critical, is
mostly non-blaming and at times excusing and exonerating.
As he notes, “It must have been a really hard life. She tried
to commit suicide,”the mother is positioned as a victim of
an unfortunate life course. She is, therefore, portrayed as
Emoonally
Absent Parent
Posive
Upbringings
Axes 1, 2 & 3
Conflictual
Relaonships
Fig. 1 Axes framework for
mother-child representations of
German occupation children
born of sexual violence
Journal of Child and Family Studies

lacking agency, which raises doubts whether she can be held
accountable for her parenting. Complementing this notion,
when elaborating on his mother’s agency regarding her
suicide attempt, Franz does not only attribute to her
responsibility for the manner in which the event has con-
cluded, but also takes upon himself responsibility for some
of the hardship associated with the scene (thus exemplifying
axis 2): “I was playing out in the courtyard behind the
house, and she turned gas tap on inside. A colleague from
work happened to drop by […] and saved her life. It really
must have been a difficult life my mother led with me.”As
Franz recounts the incident, he repeatedly reveals his
exonerating approach towards his mother (axis 1), which he
associates with her life circumstance as a mother to a CBSV.
Thus, he also reveals his sense of responsibility for her
hardship (axis 2). This responsibility resurfaces in his story:
It must have been a hard life with me for my mum.
There was a lot I didn’t get as a kid. The whole thing
with me being a “Russenkind”[Russian child], that
made things a lot tougher for her. She never found a
husband. Her whole youth was consumed by war and
fascism. She didn’t have a youth. She also never had
the possibility of being with a man, especially once
she’d had a ‘Russenkind.’
Franz viewed his mother through the prism of a burdened
victim of the situation; and viewed himself as part of that
situation and hence part of the burden. As such, the question
of responsibility or accountability, both hers and his,
becomes salient. It is from this stance that Franz recounted
even the most malevolent and punitive of his mother’s
behaviors. For Franz, his mother’s actions are indications of
his inaptitude to play the role of the good child. Thus, as he
acknowledges that “Since my mother was very strict with
me”, he continues:
Since my mother was very strict with me, the idea was
always to behave in such a way that you could make
your way around her without any damage occurring
(laughing). Sometimes when she came home, she used
to get out the truncheon and (whistling)
HOOOOEEEE…what happened then?
For Franz, his bad behavior warranted a harsh response,
which is the bedrock of the strict and punitive mother-child
relationship that dominated his narrative. Nevertheless, such
a relationship also takes its toll in the sense that is expressed
along axis 3 (i.e. longing vs. distancing). As he confesses:
Yeah, well, yeah, if I had done something or other,
then I was either sent to bed, or I got hit, or I didn’t get
any supper, or something like that. And that was very
often the case. And, yeah, that also put some, um, a
little distance between us when I was a kid.
The distance to which Franz relates is yet another
representation of the conflictual tension embodied in all
three axes as it encapsulates both the notion of who is
accountable for the outcome of the relationship as well as
what the relational outcome was (i.e., distance). As the
narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that the distance that
Franz discloses represents a potential turning point and shift
of focus. It offers an opportunity to position himself at the
focal point of his story and establishes his own indepen-
dence, detached from his mother.
And slowly it began, um, I began to cut the cord…
from home. Although, I, I still have to say today, I
never saw, or, or even noticed how that was for my
mum, who was, well, all alone then. That’s not
something I thought about at all. At that point, I was
the only one who mattered anymore. So, yes, but
somehow that’s always the way it is when kids leave
home […].
Franz, however, is apologetic about this shift in focus
and resists it. It is evident throughout the narrative that the
roles have been reversed: Franz feels responsible for his
mother rather than the other way around. Indeed, Franz’s
view of the relationship is less concerned with his mother’s
or his own misdemeanor, and more concerned with how
that relation contributed to his becoming. His narrative
reveals a dialectical view of the relationship wherein he
recognizes his mothers’faults but at the same time is
inclined to counterbalance these faults not only by high-
lighting his own responsibility but also by underscoring his
mother’s significant positive contribution to his upbringing.
It is his appreciation of her efforts that places constraints on
his capacity to remain critical of her. Furthermore, this
appreciation might very well be the backdrop of his con-
doning approach towards her punitive behavior and the
ostensible underlying reason for his acknowledgment of her
own hardship, which leads to her circumstantial exonera-
tion. To this effect Franz notes:
So, she had a poor life, I mean, I…It’s true. I really
owe her a lot of gratitude that I’ve become something
today that was completely unimaginable at the time,
and that she did a lot for me, and, um, yes, because of
that I regret it even more that she had such a poor life.
Looking back in retrospect, Franz reveals what seems
like an inner need for a revised evaluation of the relation-
ship (axis 3). “I see it differently now. (loud exhale) Today
I’m better able to see what she did for me.”Ostensibly, this
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revision is indicative of and conducive to an internal battle
between two antonymic constructions of his mother. The
first construction entails the strict mother that he experi-
enced as a child. The second construction involves a woman
that endured life’s hardship. For that woman to exist it is
necessary, to some extent, to relieve her from her role as a
mother. Franz notes, “Not only today do I see my mother in
a different light, but also much earlier. I did not only per-
ceive her as a violent mother, she also wanted to make
something of me.”Leaning towards the exonerating con-
struction means not only the relinquishing of the “mother”
figure for the sake of the “woman”but also the abnegation
of anger towards that woman and its substitution with
gratitude and appreciation on the one hand and self-
recrimination on the other:
When my mum was diagnosed with colon cancer, I
visited her a lot in the last months. […] On Sunday I
was going to visit her, and that morning I got a call:
She passed away. […]I’d been told, ok, maybe three
quarters of a year; but it wasn’t even another half a
year she survived. Um, yes, I, I was really sorry about
that. Well. Because, at that point, because I was at
place by then, where I was able to see not just the
abusive mother, but instead also the woman who had
gone through so much.
Moreover, later in the narrative he concludes: “She was a
strict and tough woman, perhaps she would have preferred
herself to be much softer, more feminine.”
Drawing on the “woman”stereotype, Franz expresses a
yearning for the soft and tender feminine care that he never
got from his mother. He also positions himself as a man that
might have an implicit responsibility towards that woman,
who was, after all, a victim of her terrible circumstances. On
the one hand, Franz draws the contour of a mother-child
relationship that is relationally deficient. On the other hand,
he stresses that those deficiencies are not his mother’s fault.
This is but one type of ambivalence that became evident in
the narratives. The following story demonstrates additional
ambivalence and complexity associated with the narrator’s
identity formation.
Emotionally Absent Parent
Case 2: Lotte
Lotte (born in 1947) is the daughter of a German mother
and an Occupation soldier from the Soviet Union. An
absence of a different kind is found in Lotte’s story, wherein
the parent is physically present but the relationship is
characterized by a deficiency of loving care. The position-
ing of herself and her mother within that relationship is
realized within this context. While she longs for her
mothers’attention, Lotte describes her mothers’aloofness,
disclosing a lack of tender loving care along with axis 1,
“Love just wasn’t a part of our home life. Having a little
hug every so often or something like that, that just didn’t
happen.”To emphasize this lack of maternal availability,
Lotte draws on her half-brother’s experience, as if to add
validity to her experience:
My brother always said to me, ‘Lotte, can you
remember if mum ever hugged us?’‘No,’I said, ‘I’ve
never known that to happen.’Things like that just
didn’t exist in our home. But I think that’s also just
how that generation was. They didn’t do things like
that, hugging and such. Things were a little
different then.
Arguably, attributing the lack of closeness to “the gen-
eration that time,”may accomplish two things along axis 1.
First, it lessens the mother’s fault, situating her as a product
of an era. This lays the foundations for excusing her for her
lack of parental love. Second, it normalizes the kind of
relationship that Lotte discloses, and thus, much like
arguing that her brother felt the same way, it validates the
experience as faithful to reality. Furthermore, by portraying
her brother as the one who sought closeness, Lotte not only
attributes that unfulfilled desire to herself, but also sets the
stage for a comparison between herself and her brother in
this domain.
Lotte stated that her mother distributed the love
unequally towards her children, favouring her half-brother,
neglecting her –a CBSV (axis 2). “Yes, I always had the
feeling, and I always noticed that my mother preferred my
brother. For him, well, she was more there for him than she
was for me.”Nevertheless, she relates to the distant mother-
daughter relationship as one that remained mostly unspo-
ken, portraying emotional confrontations as interactions that
rarely happened. Not being raised by the mother from the
beginning and observing the loving mother-son relation-
ship, also prevented her from a trusting bond to her mother
and raised painful feelings of exclusion:
That’s what I also said to her once, after a glass of
wine or two, what I said in tears, ‘You only love him.
You don’t like me.’I remember it like it
happened today.
Disclosing this confrontation within her narrative is
Lotte’s way of expressing her longing for closeness, a
longing that she feels was never fulfilled (axis 3). In the
early years, Lotte did not grow up with her mother but with
her grandmother, which contributed to the feeling that there
was ostensibly no attachment formed between her mother
Journal of Child and Family Studies

and her as a baby (axis 1). However, it would seem that her
mother was indeed present, albeit mostly a symbolic pre-
sence characterized by her absence. Lotte also disclosed
experiences where her mother was very much present
physically, these, however, included instances that she
viewed as unjustified punishments. As a result, she con-
strued the relationship as tense and conflictual (axis 1 -
accountability of mother):
So, like I said, when I moved out, it was very difficult
with my mum. I still remember, once we, (…), once
when I, I was in Holland. I was 19 or 18, and I went to
Holland, [indiscernible] and I met a guy from Spain.
And that time, that was really something. And yet, it
was a really nice…really nice, clean, decent, nice
guy. So. And he came to visit me in Germany. And I
still remember, we lived on that street, and then at the
playground, that’s where we met up. My mum almost
killed me. She said, ‘Oh, Ausländerflittchen’[foreign-
er’s slut]. Back then that was considered something
really bad, to go out with a foreigner.
Within this context, she also discloses being beaten by her
mother, which made Lotte run away from her. This act of
violence was another indicator for Lotte that her mother nei-
ther felt empathy nor unconditional love for her. Furthermore,
Lotte associated her mother’s behavior with feelings of shame
towards her. Along axis 2 (victimhood of child), Lotte felt that
her mother sought what was socially accepted and, therefore,
cared more about how Lotte was perceived by the environ-
ment than about her daughters’well-being. For instance, Lotte
reported certain constraints by her mother regarding her
appearance, such as being forced to be dressed appropriately.
Lotte interpreted this as “My mother always wanted me to be
“perfect”,”which further substantiates her conviction that her
mother’s love was conditional. Punishments and demands on
behalf of her mother were interpreted as general restrictions
without specific educational rationale, intended merely to
change Lotte as a person, to improve both her appearance and
attitude. “Actually, I don’t know why, but we had disputes, a
whole lot.”, Lotte adds here and later in her interview that she
was often unable to conclude the causes for the conflicts with
her mother, which then became a source of spite (axis 3 -
detachment). Lotte positions her mother as lacking in accep-
tance, thus positioning herself, a CBSV, as a daughter, who
constantly failed in meeting her mother’s expectations. She
said that she still is wandering around in the uncertain
regarding her mothers’feelings towards her; and never truly
able to attain emotional proximity or sense of security with her
mother, neither in the past nor the present. But she never
stopped seeking for that proximity, that longing for closeness
along axis 3: “Despite all this, you are always looking for
closeness. Although I don’t know how she really felt about me.
In the end, definitely better than at the beginning.”To this,
Lotte adds, “Other than that, my life was ‘actually normal.’
Lotte portrays herself as a person who is continuously
searching for identity and belonging. Conversely, she shares a
deep desire to return to East Prussia to learn more about her
origins and her biological father, as if gaining that knowledge
may grant her what she never got from her mother. Battling an
internal dissonance between her quest for maternal closeness
and ongoing mother-child discord, Lotte concludes:
Yes, it was pretty, was pretty strange with my mother,
I must be honest, it was…I say, it was yin and yang
with us. […] On one side, she was really great, and on
the other, she was really horrible.
Positive Upbringings
Case 3: Elise
Elise was born in 1946 and is the daughter of a German
mother and an Occupation soldier from the United States.
Her interview is unique in this sample in that it depicts a
story of a pleasant childhood. From the beginning of her
narration, she explicitly states that the relationship with her
mother was one that she perceived as good:
Actually, I grew up alone with my mum […]. You
know, you can’t really remember anything before
you’re three or four years old, but I think I had…I
actually had, I always say I had a nice childhood.
One aspect of Elise’s narrative that indicates a healthier
view of herself compared to other interviews is that of
agency along axis 2. In opposition to the fatalistic view that
was evident in other accounts, Elise positions herself as a
more dominant character in her story, at times more than her
mother. Indeed, she emerges as poignant enough within the
relationship to manipulate her mothers’actions to her own
advantage.“[…] As a little girl, one isn’t exactly low-
maintenance. And, to be completely honest, with my mum,
well, I kind of knew how to get my way. Yeah, she went
along with that. I was a handful, but we didn’t have any
problems with each other.”
With some ostensible guilt, Elise gives the impression
that she was the decision maker and not her mother and that
she was, therefore, able to promote her own interests.
“When I think about it, I have to admit I was a headstrong
child. I did what I wanted; you know, the way kids do.”
Elise weakens and undermines her mothers’authority
and capability to educate her as a child and in this manner
feels empowered and responsible for a carefree mother-
child relationship.
Journal of Child and Family Studies

Elise refers often to have grown up alone with her mother
and portrays a significant difference between the relation-
ship between her and her mother compared to her half-
siblings’relationship with the mother. She gives an
impression to have felt comfortable of being treated in an
obliging manner by her mother. “My half-sister told our
mother that she needs to be stricter with me.”In striking
opposition to former stories, Elise explicitly states that her
mother was happy to have her, in part because she was an
antidote to her mothers’loneliness (axis 2):
But, things were, everything was good. I mean, she
never, um, the way it sometimes was with beatings or
the like. I never experienced anything like that. It was,
yes, as I said, always just the two of us, and basically,
I sometimes pretty much thought my mum was
actually happy to have me around. At least that’s what
I kind of imagined.
Elise explicitly negates experiences of rejection or exclu-
sion as part of her story. Nonetheless, the CBSV identity was
an issue to some extent. At one point she reminds herself of
one thing that kept that identity alive, her surname: “Well, I
always had a different name, surname, because my mum and
my siblings were all [name] Well, so my mum, of course,
wanted that I have that name too, and tried to have it
changed, but they wouldn’t accept that at the registrar’s
office, because, you now, ‘father unknown.’Yeah, ‘father
unknown,’so I had to keep my mum’s maiden name. I mean
basically, well, I just would have liked to have been a [letter].
too.”Nevertheless, she does not let that identity become a
stain (axis 2). In retrospect, and in contrast to other partici-
pants, Elise does not differentiate herself as a daughter and
CBSV compared to her siblings being born of a love-based
relationship: “Idon’tfind it, find it to be anything all that
particularly dramatic. I mean, there are so many [CBSV].
I’m just happy, I’m just happy now [indiscernible] that, that I
am not Black or something (laughs),thatatleastI’m white,”,
she says concluding that she has not been excluded from
family or friends. She concludes:
That [being born of rape] didn’t matter to me at all.
The important thing to me was that I am here, and that
I live my life, I mean…(shrugs shoulders). Maybe I
am too selfish or something. I don’t know; it just
never interested me at all.
Discussion
This study sought to explore the narratives of individuals
born during the post-WWII Occupation period
(1945–1955), who understand their origin as being a result
of sexual violence against their mother (a local German
woman) by the procreator (an Allied forces soldier). We
were particularly interested in the perceptions of past and
present relationships with their mothers, which factors
changed over time and which stayed stable. The collective
case study enabled the interpretation of a full range of
diverse mother-child relationship representations and was
likely to enhance the comprehensiveness of the sample of
cases chosen by the researcher. Three categories of content
regarding mother-child relationships emerged from the data
that the interviews span across: (1) conflictual, abusive and
punitive relationships, i.e. parental punishment and child
exoneration, ambivalent feelings; (2) emotionally parental
absence, i.e. parental absence, searching for identity and
child lack of agency, lack of love and the yearning for
closeness, forgotten sons who do not care (and resilient and
reluctance to see one’s own part in the mother’s biography),
the stranger-parent and the accomplished son; and (3)
positive upbringing, i.e. a nice childhood, pleasant mem-
ories. We were able to place these narratives along three
axes of relationality, that positioned the participants’per-
ception of their relationships with their mothers and allowed
interactions between the different perceived roles in those
relationships to emerge: accountability and agency vs.
exoneration and victimhood of the mother; accountability
and agency vs. exoneration and victimhood of the child and
longing vs. detachment.
This paper aimed to respond to two main research
questions. With regard to the first ‘across what axes of
narrative do CBSV construct their relationship with their
mothers?’, our findings show that all participants deal with
some form of self-described victimhood and accountability
of the mother and the child as well as both longing and
detachment, when considering their mother-child relation-
ship. Not all participants addressed all axes and each one
addressed by participants seemingly fluctuated at times
between positions. What the axes do, however, is shed light
on the complex and ambivalent feelings CBSV have
towards their mother-child relationship. These findings
inform about the complex life experiences of CBSV on an
individual level—in retrospect—and add a more nuanced
understanding to previous quantitative data (Kaiser et al.,
2018) about the long-term impact of developmental cir-
cumstances and child maltreatment on mental health many
decades later. Such a finding is observed elsewhere, among
participants who report poor mother-childhood relationships
with experiences of abuse, neglect and childhood mal-
treatment (Carpenter, 2007; Glaesmer et al., 2012,2017;
Kaiser et al., 2015; Mitreuter et al., 2019; Mochmann &
Øland, 2009; van Ee & Kleber, 2013; Denov et al., 2020).
In this study, one narrative about mother-child relation-
ship were identified as conflict-laden, another reported
Journal of Child and Family Studies

about an emotionally absent mother in regard to their
relationship, with one narrative dominated by a neutral-
positive mother-child relationship. In the following, we
address these narratives with respect to existing research.
With regard to our second research question ‘what
domains in CBSV’s perceptions of their relationship with
their mothers elicit changes in perspective and what domains
exhibit more stable perspectives?’three categories emerged:
Conflictual Relationships
The narrative addressing a conflictual mother-child rela-
tionship (Case 1) has been identified with the most
ambivalent feelings along axes 1, 2 and 3. The mother was
described as both a perpetrator; being violent towards their
child; and a victim surviving sexual violence and raising a
CBSV (axis 1) (Clifford, 2008). At some point, the parti-
cipant hold himself accountable for a poor mother-child
relationship when condoning the mother who had to live the
hardship of raising a CBSV, while also acknowledging
himself as a victim (axis 2). Moreover, he consequently felt
detached from his mother, but also mentioned a longing for
more closeness in retrospect (axis 3). Case 1 remains critical
about the relationship, while at the same time expressing
feelings of regret and longing for a soft and tender care, he
did not receive from his mother due to her difficult cir-
cumstances (axis 3).
Emotionally Absent Parent
Some participants described their mother-child relationship
through the absence of their mother due to emotional
neglect, with axis 3 being more related to detachment than
to longing. However, Case 2 exonerated their mothers for
similar reasons—they were one of “the generation that
time”and because of what they were gone through with
CBSV. Case 2 tended to position the emotionally absent
mother in the context of being accountable for her actions
(e.g. verbal and physical assault) along axis 1 and conse-
quently, realized herself as a victim of a traumatized mother
(axis 2) when noting that her mother felt ashamed for her—
a CBSV—compared to her brother and her mother’s love
was but conditional. This goes in line with previous
research where CBSV are perceived as a living reminder of
the rape (van Ee & Kleber, 2013) and are treated differently
than their siblings being born of love (Denov et al., 2020).
Case 2 positions herself as a victim of the situation along
axis 2. As a result of an emotionally absent mother, the
narrator shares a lack of information about her identity
which she seeks in retrospect. This finding supports current
research which has found that for a majority of children
born of war, locating and getting to know their biological
father seems to be a core aspect, specifically to find out
about similarities in personality and physical appearance
(Mitreuter et al., 2019; Denov et al., 2020).
Positive Upbringings
One case in the series (Case 3) reported a positive
upbringing, with a reportedly pleasant mother-child bond,
which demonstrates that, despite their difficulties, a loving
bond between the mother and the child can be formed
(Baldi & MacKenzie, 2007; Powell, 2001). In this study
though, this participant’s positive appraisal of her
upbringing appeared to be bound by feelings of being in
control of the relationship; self-agency contributed to this
participant’s sense of well-being and empowerment. This
participant confidently speaks about the relationship with
her mother and concludes with the acknowledgment of
having equally contributed to her mothers’well-being by
saving her from loneliness. Her coping with being a CBSV
is that of generalization and accepting the reality while not
feeling excluded or neglected within her family and friends
but being happy to be alive. Given the lack of research with
CBSV, particularly those in adulthood with an ability to
reflect on their relationships with their parents, this finding
is hard to position. However, it is important given the
overwhelming evidence that relationships between CBSV
and their mothers are poor. Nonetheless, being mindful that
this type of interpretation does not, in fact, reflect an
overconnected mother–child relationship is crucial, parti-
cularly when mothers themselves have conflicting existing
attachment patterns, and may not have the capacity to
recognize their child’s needs as separate from their own
(Anderson & van Ee, 2020).
Our findings support existing research that these rela-
tionships involve both accountability and exoneration on
the part of both mother and child, ambivalence, conflict and
a yearning for closeness, as well as experiences of pleasant
childhoods. This study complements other research among
those born during post-war occupation in Germany and
Austria—now in older age—and serves as a reminder for
the necessity of personal narratives to continue being
documented, particularly given the frequency with which
CBSV in conflicts today. Appreciating the potential life-
long impact for these individuals is key to initiating change.
Limitations and Future Directions
This study has a number of strengths, including being one of
very few studies that captures the whole life span of indi-
viduals born in the post-WWII period, with a unique focus
on those known to have been born as a result of sexual
violence. These retrospective findings are a useful com-
parator to data collected on more recent conflict-affected
Journal of Child and Family Studies

populations and add to the scant literature on psychological
and socio-emotional outcomes of these CBSV.
The findings in the current study should, however, be
discussed within the context of several limitations. First, in
accordance with qualitative research standards (Tracy,
2010) and in order to adequately answer our research
objectives, the data analyzed in the study was extremely
rich but nevertheless small and culturally homogeneous.
Second, given that the stories analyzed in the study were
retrospectively recounted many years after the participants’
childhood, the findings reported above cannot, and do not
inspire to, provide an “objective”account of the partici-
pants’experiences of the mother-child relationship as it
might have been experienced decades earlier. Furthermore,
our interpretation was oriented by an attachment-related
conceptual framework, and was done from a hermeneutic
perspective (Josselson, 2004). Endorsing a different con-
ceptual framework or hermeneutic approach may yield a
different reading of the findings. While these limitations
preclude any generalization, they are to be expected in
qualitative studies, which aim to offer a rich exploration of
the constituents of experience and enable the transferability
of the findings to other instances rather than to generalize to
an entire population (Tracy, 2010).
This research contributes to a small, albeit growing, body of
research that documents the experiences of CBSV, but
importantly sheds a unique light onto the later stages of life for
such a population and adopts a lifespan developmental per-
spective. Our findings demonstrate that CBSV will likely spend
a lifetime maneuvering the struggles of ambivalent and
sometimes difficult mother-child relationships, that may affect
their identity (Mitreuter et al., 2019), social connectedness and
family status (Kelley, 2017; Woolner et al., 2019). These
findings are crucial across clinical practice, policy and research
as well as informing preventative measures, particularly as both
new and ongoing conflicts proliferate worldwide, and more
children are conceived through non-consensual relationships.
Though not all women affected by CRSV require treat-
ment for psychological distress associated with CRSV,
many experience symptomatology that affects their daily
functioning (e.g., anxiety, depression and PTSD (Campbell
et al., 2009; Sharma et al., 2020), as well as interpersonal
struggles that can determine their relationships with their
children (Anderson & van Ee, 2020; Heynen, 2013; van Ee
& Kleber, 2013). The findings about the complex life
experiences of CBSV on an individual level add important
information to previous research about the mothers’per-
spective, which is in many parts comparable to a position
between rejection and integration (Heynen, 2013). The
ability for mental health care professionals to be able to
anticipate these difficulties can play a crucial role in
improving outcomes on the long term. Concomitantly, at a
policy level these findings add weight to the recognition of
UN Security Council Resolution 2467 in 2019 that seeks to
address the silence and shame surrounding CBSV on a
global scale, by providing a more holistic understanding of
justice and accountability, including the provision of
reparations for survivors as well as livelihood support to
enable them to rebuild their lives and support their families.
Parental reactions impact mother-child distress expression
(Qouta et al., 2005), hence family empowerment and support
groups for parents need to be enhanced in order to help those
affected with parenting difficulties for better understanding
their relationships (Slade, 2006; Qouta et al., 2005). Pro-
grams need to address the trauma of CRSV survivors, par-
ticularly if the mother has experienced a trauma, such as a
rape that ends in pregnancy (Anderson et al., 2021).
Future research would do well to replicate this study in
bigger and more culturally diverse samples, as well as with
CBSV of more contemporary conflicts worldwide. Fur-
thermore, this study may inspire new comparative studies
that may address similarities and differences between
CBSV and other populations (e.g., children born of non-war
rape or consensually conceived with “enemy soldiers”) both
qualitatively and quantitatively. Future qualitative investi-
gation may also do well to examine this population across
more diverse psychosocial phenomena (e.g., identity for-
mation, social relationships, coping strategies with life
adversity, etc.) and strive to generate a more comprehensive
picture of what it is like to grow up as a CBSV. For this
purpose, it would be advisable to employ more diverse
qualitative methodologies (e.g., grounded theory, phenom-
enological research and narrative analyses).
Acknowledgements This project has received funding from the Eur-
opean Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under
the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 642571.
Author Contributions All authors contributed to the study conception
and design. Material preparation and data collection was performed by
S.R. Qualitative data were analyzed by S.R. with contribution of
J.Y.S., K.A. and M.K. The first draft of the manuscript was written by
S.R. and all authors commented on previous versions of the manu-
script. The manuscript was supervised by H.G. and J.Y.S. All authors
read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by
Projekt DEAL.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest The authors declare no competing interests.
Consent for Publication Consent for publication of anonymized data
was obtained in advance in writing from all participants.
Ethical Approval The study was reviewed and approved by the ethics
committee of the Medical faculty of the University of Leipzig. To
ensure confidentiality, all narratives have been anonymized and
Journal of Child and Family Studies

participants assigned a code. Collected research data including inter-
view transcriptions and video material were kept locked in a secure
location, accessible only to the research team. Each participant gave
their written informed consent permitting the use of data for this study
prior to participation.
Informed Consent Informed consent was obtained from all individual
participants included in the study.
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the
source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if
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use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted
use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright
holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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